Biography!
Gordon Lee was born in
1953 in New York City. He started playing drums in a "garage"
rock and roll band at 12. He started studying piano and played his first
gig, a high school dance, at the age of 14. Lee attended Indiana University
where he studied with David Baker and received a Bachelor of Music degree
in 1976. In 1999 he received his Master's of Music degree from Portland
State University where he studied with Tomas Svoboda. After college Lee
moved to Portland, Oregon and began playing with one of the originators
of jazz-rock fusion, Native American saxophonist and song writer Jim Pepper.
This association lasted until the Pepper's death in 1992. In 1980 Lee moved
to New York City and worked as a jazz pianist. He performed with such jazz
and pop stars as Don Cherry, Bill Frisell, Bobby Hutcherson, Dewey Redman,
Houston Person, Frank Foster, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Tommy Dorsey
Orchestra, Bobby Vinton and the Temptations. In 1985 Lee decided to escape
the rat-race of New York and returned to Portland, Oregon. He then became
involved in music education at the college level in and around Portland.
Lee began playing with drummer Mel Brown in 1986, a musical relationship
that continues still. In 1989 the Mel Brown Sextet, playing Lee's compositions
and arrangements, won the international Hennessy Jazz Search beating out
over 700 bands from around the world. The next year Lee's CD Gordon Bleu
won Best Jazz Recording of 1990 from the Northwest Music Association. Lee
has recorded 3 other CD's since then. Lee has 3 other Cd's in his name Land
Whales in New York, featuring Jim Pepper, On the Shoulders of Giants, featuring
Leroy Vinnegar and Rough Jazz featuring John Gross. Lee has performed all
over the world: in 1986, 1989, 1991, and 1995 at the Mt. Hood Festival of
Jazz; the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in 1989; the JFK Center
fro the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in 1982; Paris, France, Vienna,
Austria and southern Germany in 1991, Tokyo, Japan and Lima Peru in 1993;
and Istanbul, Turkey in 1994. He has performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Orchestra under the direction of David Amram in 1993 and the Oregon Festival
Symphony under Laos Balogh in 1996. Lee continues his intent of presenting
the highest quality original music while educating the public about the
many potentials that music can be.