Renee Rosnes on jazz, family

Renee Rosnes

Pianist Renee Rosnes has developed quite a musical family since arriving on the New York jazz scene from Canada 25 years ago. My profile of Renee is published in the June issue of Hot House. As usually happens with these conversations, not everything fits in the magazine article.


Rosnes also told me how thrilled she was that drummer Lewis Nash was honored in April by having a building named in his honor in his native Phoenix AZ. She and Nash have been working together for almost 20 years and are sidemen in each other’s bands. 

The Nash is a new jazz education and performance venue owned by Jazz in Arizona. The nonprofit center opened April 11 in the heart of downtown Phoenix’s Roosevelt Arts District. It will be a resource for music education, preservation of music history and live jazz performance.  

Rosnes brought her son, Dylan, to the April opening event, where Nash’s quintet performed at a Musical Instrument Museum fundraiser with special guest Wynton Marsalis. 

“It was a wonderful event and it was so great to see Lewis’s name on a building. This is a wonderful performance space,” Rosnes said. “Quite often, naming a building happens after someone is gone. It is heartwarming to see that kind of recognition while Lewis is in the prime of his life.”

(Photo by John Abbott)