Debbie has performed, taught and recorded internationally. Critics have noted that her playing is ““crystal clear, with the swinging elegance of Tommy Flanagan combined with the depth of Bill Evans.”

A natural born musician, Debbie Poryes took to the piano at five years old, playing show tunes and studying classical music. Hearing Monk and Miles as a teenager, she fell in love with jazz and decided to become a jazz pianist.

Debbie has played all over the San Francisco Bay Area, including at Yoshi’s Jazzclub, the Berkeley Jazzschool, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival and Piedmont Piano Company. The 1980s saw Debbie in The Netherlands, in tenured positions teaching jazz at conservatories in Hilversum and Arnhem. She also toured Europe, performing at clubs and in festivals in The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, England and France. While abroad, she recorded a trio LP for Timeless Records and worked as an accompanist and arranger for numerous singers. She returned to the U.S. in 1990 to get married and to raise her daughter.

Since 2007 she has recorded and released three CDs: A Song in Jazz, Catch Your Breath, and Two and Fro. All three recordings have received outstanding reviews and sold copies across the country as well as in Japan, Australia, and England. Jazz Chicago wrote, “Poryes’s playing is confident, yet playful, thoughtful, but full of life,” and All About Jazz said, “Poryes colors outside the lines and plays to challenge and compel, but never forgets to entertain.” Herb Wong, renowned jazz critic said, “Impressive, too, is how her swinging joyousness articulates every note she plays.” And All Music Guide calls Debbie’s playing, “infectious, dramatic, spirited and shimmering.” Pandora plays all three of these CDs and you can make a Debbie Poryes station.

Currently, Debbie plays Wednesdays and Saturdays at Pican Restaurant in Oakland, has a full-time private teaching practice and runs jazz trio classes at the Jazzschool in Berkeley. Debbie has also been a member of the faculty at The Stanford Jazz Workshop for the last 5 years. She felt the call to teach early in her career and continues to adore helping students understand jazz and further their own playing. Her students enjoy her sense of humor and her organized and fun approach, as well as her deep knowledge of piano technique.

Both bassist Peter Barshay and drummer David Rokeach have decades of experience playing with well and lesser known musicians around the world. David has played with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, and has covered the Jersey Boys chair, and is a constantly called drummer here in the Bay Area. Peter lived for many years in New York, establishing a strong reputation on the jazz scene. He played with, amongst others, Kenny Barron, Shirley Horn and Freddie Hubbard. Plus, says Debbie, they are both wonderful guys with big ears and a surplus of creative energies.