The Johnny O’Neal Trio

After forty-plus years as a professional pianist, vocalist and entertainer, Johnny  O’Neal has earned the title of “master” with fellow musicians and audiences  around the world. Highlights of his awe-inspiring career include stints with Ray Brown, Milt Jackson and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, as well as a Carnegie  Hall debut in 1985 on solo piano opening for Oscar Peterson and induction into  the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998. There is little wonder he was tapped to  play virtuoso pianist Art Tatum in the Academy Award-winning Ray Charles  biopic Ray. 

While playing with Blakey, he accompanied some of the great jazz divas,  including Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae. Johnny has also been tapped for  appearances by Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Nancy Wilson, Anita O’Day, Lionel  Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Stitt, Benny Golson, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and  Clark Terry, among others. Performances on the festival circuits in Canada,  Europe, Australia, Japan, Israel and South Africa have gained him an  international following. 

The Detroit native considers himself a piano player first, but was encouraged to  sing in his sets more by Joe Williams. Johnny recalls Williams advising him, “If  you’ve got it, flaunt it!” Astonishingly, he is largely self-taught. His playing evokes  the influences imbued in him by his idols Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum, and he  has reshaped these elements into his own very swinging and melodic  approach. In live performances, he is apt to catch his audience off-guard with his  blues shouting or soulfully rendered yet unpretentious vocalizations.