Brian Charette

{{BLP unreferenced section|date=February 2024}}

Charette began learning about piano from his mother Catherine. He then studied piano for most of his childhood with George McKinstry. Charette attended Orville H. Platt High School where he began seriously studying music, piano, guitar, and trumpet. After high school, he attended Berklee College of Music for a three-week summer course where he studied with John LaPorta and Rick Peckham. While attending College at The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Charette studied piano with Ellen Rowe, Kenny Werner, Mark DeCozio, Mark Templeton, Charlie Banacos and Neal Larrabee. He graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts from UConn in 1994.

While still in high school, Charette started to perform at local clubs around Meriden and New Haven, Connecticut. At age 17, he started working regularly as a pianist with other area musicians such as Jimmy Greene, Paul Brown, and Jeff Pitchell. Charette was often employed as a pianist for established jazz artists like Lou Donaldson,{{cite news |last1=McNally |first1=Owen |title=Funkmeister Lou Donaldson will perform at the Blue Star |url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1995-05-11-9505110076-story.html |publisher=Hartford Courant |date=May 11, 1995}} Houston Person, Charles McPherson, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, and Gregg Bissonette. His first professional engagements were in Hartford, Connecticut where he became a member of Street Temperature, a jazz fusion group that played regularly at the 880 Club. After finishing high school, Charette toured Europe with Czech trumpeter, Laco Deczi{{cite web |last1=Velinger |title=Laco Deczi Jazz and Real Life in Prague and New York |url=https://english.radio.cz/laco-deczi-jazz-and-real-life-prague-and-new-york-8563829 |website=Radio Prague International |date=May 6, 2011 |access-date=6 May 2011}} and upon returning to the United States moved to New York City in 1994.

Upon graduating from college Charette began working with brothers Jimmy Vivino and Jerry Vivino, backing up artists such as Cyndi Lauper, Michael McDonald, and Michael Bublé. Charette also appeared on television, performing on the Martha Stewart Show, Tony Danza Show, Conan O'Brien Show, Last Call with Carson Daly, and in a recurring role as a pianist on The Guiding Light. In 1999, he performed as a Hammond B3 organist in "Joni's Jazz", a concert in New York's Central Park featuring Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan and Joe Jackson.{{cite news |last1=Ratliff |first1=Ben |title=Jazz Review |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/arts/music/18play.html?ref=music |work=The New York Times |date=3 July 1999}}

Throughout the 2000s, Charette continued to record and play with many artists from all genres including David Hidalgo and Cougar Estrada of Los Lobos and singer Laura Branigan. Charette was signed to SteepleChase Records in 2008 and began touring often in Europe and Asia with his own groups and as a sideman.

In 2011, Charette began recording with the Los Angeles-based label, Posi-Tone Records, first as a sideman and in 2014 as a leader. In 2012, Charette became endorsed by Hammond USA. He continued to work with many groups including The Allman Brothers Band drummer Jaimoe in Jaimoe's Jasssz Band{{cite web |last1=Berndtson |first1=Chad |title=Allman Brothers' Jaimoe on his Jasssz Band |url=https://marshfield.wickedlocal.com/entertainment/20170628/allman-brothers-jaimoe-on-his-jasssz-band |website=The Patriot Ledger |access-date=29 June 2017}} and with NEA Jazz Masters George Coleman.

Charette continued to perform and tour as both band leader and sideman. In a New York Times jazz review of his sextette Nate Chinen wrote, "The Hammond B-3 organist Brian Charette weighs the ageless objective of soul-jazz with a trace of restless modernity".{{cite web |last1=Chinen |first1=Nate |title=Jazz listings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/arts/music/jazz-listings-for-aug-16-22.html |work=New York Times |date=August 2013}} Jazz critic Ken Micallef wrote in his Downbeat Magazine review of Once and Future, "Both B-3 stylist and student, serious jazz scholar and glitzy entertainer, Charette is a burning soloist who understands the tradition of the Hammond B-3 as well its future—just as certainty as he understands his place in that lineage". Charette also recorded and toured with guitarist Oz Noy{{cite web |last1=Sieff |first1=Adam |title=CD Review: Oz Noy: Snap Dragon |url=https://londonjazznews.com/2020/11/16/oz-noy-snapdragon/ |website=London Jazz News |date=November 16, 2020 |access-date=16 November 2020}} and singer Morgan James.

In 2017, Charette began mixing Hammond organ with electronic music and released Kürrent on his own label, Dim Mak.{{cite web |last1=Mirello |first1=Ralph A. |title=Welcome to the future of organ trios |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brian-charettes-k%C3%BCrrent-futuristic-circuit-bent_b_597f372be4b06b305561d26c |website=Huffpost |date=July 31, 2017 }} In 2019, Charette became endorsed by IK Multimedia.{{cite web |website=IK Multimedia |url=https://www.ikmultimedia.com/namm2020/ |title=NAMM 2020 Events Schedule |access-date=January 18, 2012}} His album of Hammond electronica, Like the Sun was released in December 2020 and a new SteepleChase recording, Power from the Air was issued in 2021.

Since 2011, Charette has been an active educator, lecturer and writer. He has written articles for Keyboard Magazine,{{cite journal |last1=Charette |first1=Brian |title=Messiaen's Modes for Jazz Improvisation |journal=Keyboard Magazine |date=April 2011}} Jazz Times,{{cite journal |last1=Charette |first1=Brian |title=B3 101 |journal=Jazz Times |date=March 2016}} Downbeat,{{cite journal |last1=Charette |first1=Brian |title=Drawbar Settings for Modern Jazz Organ |journal=Downbeat Magazine |date=January 2014}} Electronic Musician,{{cite journal |last1=Charette |first1=Brian |title=Review: Casio Privia PX-S 3000 |journal=Electronic Musician |date=January 2020}} and The New York City Jazz Record. He has a book about Hammond organ published by Hal Leonard Corporation, "101 Hammond B3 Tips: Stuff all the Pros Know and Use" as well as a series of four instructional videos out with My Music Masterclass. Charette regularly gives music masterclasses all over the world including at the Czech Jazz Workshop in Prague, Czech Republic where he regularly teaches in the Summer.

• 2014 Downbeat Magazine "Rising Star: Organ"
• 2015 Hot House Magazine "Fan's Decision Jazz Award for Best Organist 2015"
• 2015–2020 in Top 10 of Downbeat Critic's Poll, Organ Category{{cite journal |title=68th Annual Critic's Poll |journal=Downbeat Magazine |date=August 2020}}
• 2021 3rd place in Downbeat Critic's Poll, Organ Category{{cite journal |title=Critic's Poll/Organ |journal=Downbeat Magazine |date=1 August 2021 |volume=88 |issue=8 |pages=40}}
• 2023 Second place in Downbeat Critic's Poll, Organ category
• 2023 Downbeat Rising Star: Keyboards

Charette had partial hearing loss in his youth and needed ear tubes inserted in 1979 and 1981 which restored his hearing. From 1983 to 1985, Charette was a member of the gifted and talented program at Talcott Mountain Science Center in Avon, Connecticut, where he studied computer music and aeronautics. In 1990, he won the Hicks Essay Contest from Orville H. Platt High School. He has been a student of Chinese martial arts since 2004 and received a black sash in Fujian White Crane from Sifu Glenn Green in 2008. He has a bent pinky finger on his right hand from an accident that restricts his ability to use the finger in performance.{{cite web |last1=O'Connell |first1=Sean J. |title=Brian Charette is One Weird Organist |url=https://www.laweekly.com/brian-charette-is-one-weird-organist/ |website=LA Weekly |date=January 23, 2012 |access-date=January 23, 2012}}

• Brian Charette (self release/Charette Music, 2000)
• Live at Deanna's (Soul Search, 2003)
• Digital Honesty (self release/Charette Music, 2004)
• Missing Floor (Dim Mak, 2008)
• Upside (SteepleChase, 2009)
• Learning to Count (SteepleChase, 2011)
• Music for Organ Sextette (SteepleChase, 2012)
• Borderline (SteepleChase, 2013)
• Soulmates (Newport-Line, 2013)
• The Question That Drives Us (SteepleChase, 2014)
• Square One (Posi-Tone, 2014)
• Good Tipper (Posi-Tone, 2014)
• Alphabet City (Posi-Tone, 2015)
• Once and Future (Posi-Tone, 2016)
• Kürrent (Dim Mak, 2017)
• Backup (SteepleChase, 2017)
• Groovin' with Big G (SteepleChase, 2018)
• Beyond Borderline (SteepleChase, 2019)
• New York Moments (SteepleChase, 2019)
• Like the Sun (Dim Mak, 2020)
• Power from the Air (SteepleChase, 2021)
• Jackpot (Cellar Music Group, 2023)
• You Don't Know Jack! (Cellar Music Group, 2024)

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000432744 Brian Charette] by AllMusic
• [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1242758-Brian-Charette Brian Charette] by Discogs

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charette, Brian}}

Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:American jazz musicians

Category:American jazz organists

Category:American jazz pianists

Category:American male jazz pianists