Dick Hyman
Dick Hyman
Piano
1989 to present

Honorary ’8th member’ of The Jim Cullum Jazz Band Dick Hyman was a featured guest on the very first national radio broadcast of Riverwalk Jazz in May 1989. And, he appeared on the final broadcast recording, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Jim Cullum Jazz Band in May 2011. Between 1989 and 2011, Dick has appeared on more radio shows than any other guest performer. He helped present the work of Jelly Roll Morton, Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller among others; and Dick contributed to some of the favorite radio programs— Harlem Rhapsody, Harlem Big Three and Honky Tonk Train —and that’s just the ‘Hs’! Dick Hyman is a virtuoso pianist with an unusual depth of feeling in his playing. He is the kind of person you want on set when there is a lot to be done and not enough time to do it in. He is unflappable, focused, and takes such pleasure in making music that he lightens the load for all. With his assistance, Riverwalk Jazz recorded a series of shows at the 92nd Street Y during his tenure as Artistic Director of the highly respected Jazz in July series there. An ongoing highlight of his radio show performances has been his spectacular two-piano collaboration with long-time band member John Sheridan, which began on the first national broadcast in 1989. In a busy musical career that began in the early 1950s, Dick Hyman has excelled as a pianist, organist, arranger, conductor and composer. His versatility in all these areas has resulted in well over one hundred albums recorded under his own name, and many more in support of other artists. Dick has investigated the earliest periods of jazz and ragtime and has recorded the music of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller and others. Early in his career, Dick Hyman worked on live radio shows, and provided the production music on Beat the Clock and was Music Director for Arthur Godfrey. He served as composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist for many Woody Allen films including Bullets Over Broadway and Mighty Aphrodite. Other film scores have included Moonstruck and Billy Bathgate. Dick Hyman has received seven Most Valuable Player Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as well as two Emmy Awards. He was also inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies.