Joanne Brackeen born 26 July

Joanne Brackeen (born July 26, 1938) is an American jazz pianist and Berklee Piano Professor and music educator. She has been called the "Picasso of jazz piano," a nickname that encompasses her adventurous style and visionary approach. 

Joanne Grogan was born Joanne Grogan in Ventura, California and started playing the piano in her youth and was mostly self-taught. She attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and was a fan of pop pianist Frankie Carle before she became enamoured with the music of Charlie Parker. 

During the late 1950s, she began playing around Los Angeles with such jazzmen as Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Charles Lloyd, Teddy Edwards, Bobby Hutcherson, Charles Brackeen and others. She and Brackeen married and moved to New York City in 1965. She had four children before they divorced. 

She performed with Chick Corea, Freddie McCoy, and Ornette Coleman and in 1969 she became the first female member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. She played with Joe Henderson (1972–75) and Stan Getz (1975–77) before leading her own trio and quartet. To date, she has recorded more than two dozen albums with some 100 of her original compositions. She is a prolific writer with a library of more than 300 original works known for their creative stylistic range, emotional depth, and whimsical spirit. 

             Here's "Charlotte's Dream" from above album. 

                             

Brackeen established herself as a cutting edge pianist and composer through her appearances and has performed at nearly every major concert hall and jazz festival in the world. Her solo performances also cemented her reputation as one of the most innovative and dynamic of pianists. Her trios featured such noted players as Clint Houston, Eddie Gómez, John Patitucci, Jack DeJohnette, Cecil McBee, and Billy Hart. 

During the '90s her fascination with Brazilian music resulted in Breath of Brazil (released in 1991), Brasil from the Inside, an album released in 1992 with guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Nilson Matta, and drummer Duduka da Fonseca (a team that became internationally known as the Trio da Paz), and Take a Chance, a quartet offering that appeared in 1993. In 1994 she joined saxophonist Ivo Perelman on his imaginatively stoked tribute to composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, Man of the Forest. 

She served on the grant panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, toured the Middle East with the US State Department as sponsor, and had solo performances at Carnegie Hall. Brackeen joined the Berklee faculty in 1994 and has been recognized as an educator with Berklee’s Distinguished Faculty Award and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute award as well as the outstanding educator award from the International Association for Jazz Education. 

In 2001 Brackeen recorded Eyes of the Elders with saxophonist Talib Qadir Kibwe, an Abdullah Ibrahim alumnus now operating under the name T.K. Blue, and with veteran multi-instrumentalist Makanda Ken McIntyre on what was unfortunately to be his very last album, New Beginning. 

Sharing her musical knowledge and passing on the tradition have been important parts of Brackeen's career. In addition to teaching at Berklee College of Music and the New School, she has led clinics, master classes, and artistic residencies worldwide. 

As a performer and composer, Brackeen has received a living legend award from the International Women in Jazz and the BNY Mellon Jazz 2014 Living Legacy Award.  In 2018 she received the nation’s highest honour in jazz—the 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award. Brackeen is the first professor to receive the award while teaching at the college. 

She continues to tour and to date has performed across the globe in 46 countries. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)