Conal Fowkes: Multi-faceted Maestro of Jazz

Grammy winning pianist, double-bassist, vocalist, arranger, and teacher Conal Fowkes is a master of multiple styles of jazz and Latin music. Having excelled in his classical studies at the Royal College of Music in London, he shifted his focus to jazz, performing at most of the premier concert halls and jazz venues throughout Europe. Fowkes moved to New York in 1996 and has performed throughout the US, with appearances on network television and in numerous motion pictures. He has been with the Woody Allen New Orleans Jazz Band since 2001. He is also a member of John Gill’s Yerba Buena Stompers, award winning Cuban group Los Soneros de Oriente, YeraSon Orquesta Charanga, Orquesta Tipica Novel, and Grammy nominated Latin group The New Swing Sextet. Schaen Fox recently interviewed Fowkes for TST: What started you into music? Quite simply my dad, a diehard jazz fan. We had jazz in the house every day. He played our beat-up old piano and got me started. The first thing that I really wanted to play, because he was playing it, was the “Swinging Shepherd Blues” Boogie Woogie style. Every time he played it, my brother and I got all excited and danced around. One day, he just showed me the left-hand Boogie Woogie part. My hands were too small to play it at the time, so I did it with a finger on each hand. I remember distinctly that it was one of the first major thrills of the piano fo