Joyce Collins
b. 5 May 1930, Battle Mountain, Nevada, USA. Collins began playing piano professionally at the age of 15 while still attending Reno High School in Nevada. Later, while studying music and teaching at San Francisco State College, she played in groups and solo at various jazz clubs, eventually going on tour with the Frankie Carle band. In the late '50s Collins settled in Los Angeles, working there and also in Reno and Las Vegas, where she became the first women to conduct one of the resort's show bands. During this time Collins worked in film and television studios, spending 10 years in the band on the MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW and also on comedian Bob Newhart's shows. In 1975 she recorded with Bill Henderson and their subsequent STREET OF DREAMS and TRIBUTE TO JOHNNY MERCER were Grammy nominees. Collins continued to work in films, coaching actors Jeff and Beau Bridges for their roles in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS. Since 1975 Collins has been associated with the Dick Grove Music School where she teaches jazz piano. Collins has also written and arranged extensively, including a programme, performed live and on radio, tracing the involvement of women in jazz as composers and lyricists. Although she performs mostly in solo, duo and trio work, Collins occasionally sits in with big bands, such as that led by Bill Berry. She has also recorded with Paul Horn and under her own name. Her first album appeared in 1961, her next, SWEET MADNESS, after an inappropriately long gap. Centred mainly upon Los Angeles, Collins has worked farther afield in places such as Mexico City, Paris and, in recent years, New York and Brazil. A gifted, fluent pianist with a strong sense of time and the historical role of the piano in jazz, Collins makes a considerable impression as a performer. Her composing and arranging talents are also worthy of mention and she also sings pleasantly and with a delicate understanding of the lyricists intentions.