Alex Minasian

Alex Minasian is a pianist, composer, and educator based in New York whose grounding in the jazz tradition is matched by an easy command of soul, doo-wop, and the Great American Songbook. Born in 1984 and raised in Hudson, New Hampshire, he began playing at four, took his first professional gigs at fourteen backing doo-wop groups, and went on to study at New York University with mentors including Hank Jones, Don Friedman, and Jean-Michel Pilc. He became a trusted accompanist to a remarkable lineage of singers, serving as the last pianist for Little Jimmy Scott and as pianist and musical director for Mark Murphy. With bassist Brandi Disterheft and drummer Steve Williams he formed the Hanky Panky Trio in tribute to Hank Jones, a group that turned up on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. He leads his own quartet at New York rooms like Smalls and the Django, drawing on the deep well of swing and song he has spent his life inside.