Alan Pasqua

Alan Pasqua
Born (1952-06-28) June 28, 1952 (age 72)
New Jersey, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • composer
Instruments
  • Keyboards
  • piano
Years active1970s–present
Labels
Formerly ofGiant

Alan Pasqua (born June 28, 1952) is an American rock and jazz pianist. He studied at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music. His album Standards with drummer Peter Erskine was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2008. As a session musician, he has toured and recorded with Bob Dylan, Santana, Cher, Michael Bublé, Eddie Money, Allan Holdsworth, Joe Walsh, Pat Benatar, Rick Springfield, and John Fogerty. He co-composed the original CBS Evening News theme. He has also had an extensive career in pop and rock music, most notably as a founding member, keyboardist, and songwriter of the 1980s hard rock band Giant.

Biography

Pasqua grew up in Roselle Park, New Jersey.[1]

Pasqua joined The New Tony Williams Lifetime and appeared on the albums Believe It and Million Dollar Legs. He then went on to perform with Eddie Money's band, after which he then joined Bob Dylan's band. Pasqua recorded two albums with Dylan (Bob Dylan at Budokan and Street-Legal). In the 1980s he performed with John Fogerty on the album Eye of the Zombie, with Starship on the album No Protection, with Allan Holdsworth on the album Sand, and joined Carlos Santana as keyboardist on Marathon, Zebop! and Havana Moon.

He was married to actress Heather Langenkamp from 1984 until 1987.

He was a founding member of the late-1980s rock band Giant, and he co-wrote the band's biggest hit, "I'll See You in My Dreams."

In 2017 Pasqua provided the uncredited "background-y" piano accompaniment for Dylan's Nobel Prize for Literature recorded speech.[2] He and Fiona Apple also played piano on Dylan's song "Murder Most Foul", on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways.

Discography

  • Milagro (Postcards, 1994)
  • Dedications (Postcards, 1995)
  • Lee Ritenour – Alive in L.A. (GRP, 1997)
  • Russian Peasant (Ro Writes Music, 1999)
  • Live at Rocco (Fuzzy Music, 2000)
  • The Music of Eric Von Essen, Vol. 1 (Cryptogramophone, 2000)
  • The Music of Eric von Essen, Vol. 2 (Cryptogramophone, 2001)
  • Badlands (Fuzzy Music, 2001)
  • Body & Soul (Video Arts, 2004)
  • My New Old Friend (Cryptogramophone, 2005)
  • Solo (Alan Pasqua, 2007)
  • Standards (Fuzzy, 2007)
  • The Anti-Social Club (Cryptogramophone, 2007)
  • Twin Bill: Two Piano Music of Bill Evans (BFM Jazz, 2011)
  • The Interlochen Concert (Fuzzy, 2016)[3]
  • Northern Lights (Gretabelle, 2018)
  • Soliloquy (Gretabelle, 2019)
  • Day Dream (2020)
  • Believe It (New Tony Williams Lifetime 1975)

As co-leader

References

  1. ^ Stewart, Zan. "VALLEY WEEKEND; He's Taking His Grand Piano and Going Out on a Limb; In a break from soundtracks, synthesizers and written music, Alan Pasqua will play a spontaneous, acoustic solo show Sunday in Glendale.", Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1996. Accessed February 25, 2008. "Pasqua's been fond of acoustic pianos since he started playing at age 7 in Roselle Park, N.J."
  2. ^ Sisario, Ben, "A Really Cool Gig': Playing Piano for Bob Dylan's Nobel Lecture", New York Times, June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  3. ^ "Alan Pasqua | Album Discography | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2016.