Greg

Burgess

Greg Burgess has been singing and playing the piano ever since, as he says, he “first felt the pangs of unrequited love.”  He is the pianist, vocalist, songwriter, and musical leader of Burgess, Mitchell & Seal, a piano, bass, and drums trio which performs a wide variety of jazz, blues, swing, Latin, bop, and R & B.  In the ‘80’s he was a sideman with nationally known bluesman Joe Beard, and during his tenure, backed up blues legends Big Joe Turner, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and Taj Mahal, soul artist Roy C, and opened for Millie Jackson.   Greg has performed often at the Billtown Blues Festival and has been recorded numerous times by George Graham of WVIA through the Homegrown Music Series, including a solo TV broadcast and one with singer/guitarist Debbie Davies.  For 12 and 1/2 years, Greg was the house pianist, performing with his wife, Fiddler Woman Beverley Conrad, at the historical Penn’s Tavern in Fisher’s Ferry, Pennsylvania.     Greg has contributed music to the film documentaries Gettysburg: The Boys in Blue and Gray and to The People’s Bridge, a WHP-21 TV production which included his original composition “Sans Souci.”  His solo album, “I Am Not Alone!” was selected by Joe Miklos of Billtown Blue Notes as his top pick for best blues CD of 1999.

     Other bands and musicians that Greg has performed with include Artie Renkel (and friends going back to ’72), Nate Myers, the Beale Street Blues Band with Augie, Jr. (who opened up once for Dr. John), Eric Ross, Billy Joe and his Foot, the Impromptu Blues Band (who helped to inspire the formation of the Billtown Blues Association), Mumbo Jumbo, the Uncles of Funk, Outland, Joe DeCristopher and Jamie Ernest, blues singer James Peterson (for one long weekend), the Cruel-4-Days blues band, John Johnson, Terry Rogers, Dicky Adams, Gene Minnaugh’s All That Jazz, Terry Wild, and the Selinsgrove High School Symphonic Band directed by Ed Smith.

     In addition to playing music, Greg has written a novel, several novellas, short stories, and poetry.  His work has been published in the journals neotrope, gestalten, and The Seed.  He is also an actor and has a starring role, playing a sleazy realtor, in the suspense movie All Is Normal, directed by Todd Bieber and Juliana Brafa, and co-starring Linda Blair.

“Influenced by a myriad of blues and jazz performers, Mr. Burgess combines a unique blend of styles and techniques into his intricate melodies, drawing from...Chicago and Delta blues, boogie woogie, swing, bop, funk and Latin jazz — all form a backdrop from which he draws inspiration.  His musical style is a combination of ‘the greats,’ such as Memphis Slim, James Booker, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole — all echo in the form his playing takes on. “          

                                                       — Jeffrey Federowicz, The Daily Item

 

“His piano playing style brings to life his feel for the music.  Tapping feet and a steady scat line support a masterful sense of phrasing that drops through his fingers and lands on those keys right on time.  Heavily influenced by jazz artists, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett and Thelonious Monk and blues men Otis Spann and Roosevelt Sykes (to name a few), Burgess proves he paid attention.  He’ll get your fingers tapping to Peterson’s “Night Train,” your feet tapping to Ray Charles’ “Messing Around,” and he’ll have you out on the dance floor on the first few bars of “Mustang Sally.”  Then he’ll sit you back down and with a voice reminiscent of backwater bars and old recordings, slide into Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” or make you laugh with a Louis Jordan tune….Burgess is also an accomplished song writer, ask him to play “Big Brown Panther” or “Route 61”…”

                                                      — Annie Clark, The One

Greg lives in the old farmhouse that was the site of the first jam of the Local Music Collective, a group of musicians and listeners in the area of the forks of the Susquehanna River, which holds monthly house jams and, together with the local Unitarian Church, sponsors the King Street Coffeehouse at the Savoy in Northumberland, PA.

Photo by Ralph Wilson