With over 30 recordings, Joel Futterman has long been considered one of the most innovative yet enigmatic new music pianists in the world. However, Futterman’s penchant for solitude has kept him from the concert stage most of his life. In 1960, while only 14, he was performing in the after hours jazz clubs in Chicago behind almost every jazz musician that came through town. Performing seven nights a week for over a decade with folks like Gene Shaw, Jimmy Garrison, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Ira Sullivan, Joel completely burned himself out. In 1973 Joel Futterman packed up and moved to Virginia to begin a personal musical odyssey of exploration that continues to this day.
Determined to push the limits of the piano to techniques never heard in jazz, he began a regimen of practicing 8-10 hours a day that has continued to the present. During this period, he developed a three-hand technique based on completely autonomous playing between the hands. The power and intensity of his piano performances have been likened to Liszt interpreter, Ervin Nyireghazi, or a young Rachmaninov.
Over the past 10 years, Joel Futterman has added the curved soprano saxophone and Indian flutes to his repertory. Since Futterman will only record on the first take with no multi-tracking, in true Futterman fashion, he has developed techniques that allow him to perform all three instruments at the same time....fascinating to hear, and even more fascinating to watch during his rare public appearances. But never confuse a rarified technique as a substitute for musical ideas. or Joel, technique is invisible; it is only the means of a total expression unencumbered by physical limitations.