Bozeman Jazz Hero
Montana’s Ann Tappan was originally from Montclair, New Jersey, where she started playing piano at age four. A little later she went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, did the loft jazz scene in New York City in the 1970s and relocated to San Francisco to study with pianist Art Lande. When she moved to southern Montana from the Bay Area in 1993, she immediately sought out players and opportunities for continuing her exploration of contemporary jazz.
In her early years here Ann began teaching the Bozeman High School Jazz Combo, which under her 10 years of direction won local renown and state awards. Retired from that, and from Bozeman Music Lessons, she continues to teach private piano lessons (classical method and theory as well as jazz) to select students, regardless of age, in her studio in the agricultural town of Manhattan (population approx. 2000, elevation 4246’). Tappan has always been well regarded among musicians, audiences and her fellow teachers for her colorful and rigorous sense of harmony and arranging. She’s written original music for her bands, including ThreeForm and Springhill, the latter of which has performed three times in the Czech Republic, including at the Prague International Jazz Festival.
As well as writing and administering a 2001 MAC/NEA/Jazz Montana grant for a creative music program linking professional musicians to state-wide audiences and K-12 students, serving as a faculty member of the Montana Jazz Piano Workshop, and being artist-in-residence at Yellowstone National Park in 2015 and ‘16, Ann has performed frequently throughout the Northwest and recorded eight CD’s with Montana artists including Craig Hall, Kelly Roberti, Rob Kohler and myself. Her original songs, challenging and beautiful, appear on all these recordings. Portland, Oregon’s Jazzscene magazine described to some of her style this way: “Ann Tappan is not just another endangered jazz species from Montana. She displays superb phrasing and a Shearing-like minimalist style.”.
Seeking innovative ways of bringing new life to the standard jazz repertoire as well as developing new music written by herself and her fellow musicians, Tappan has been a beacon for many Montana players. She is a tireless student of music in general and in particular the art of improvisation, which she has encouraged in her many workshops for instrumentalists and vocalist alike. A truly devoted student and practitioner of the art of jazz and improvisational music, Ann Tappan has never stopped exploring repertoire, performance and outreach to the rural community where she’s lived for the past three decades or the country all around it as an admirable and influential Jazz Hero.
—MJ Williams
Vocalist, trombonist, composer
Jazz Hero 2021
