Inspired keyboardist Jamie Saft started appearing on an increasing number of N.Y.C.-oriented jazz recordings during the '90s and well into the new millennium. Born in Queens, NY, Saft studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University. At these schools, he studied with Paul Bley, Geri Allen, Cecil McBee, and Joe Maneri, in addition to having composer and "piano technical guru" (as Saft described him) Burton Hatheway as a mentor. In 1993, Saft returned to New York and has since been performing a wide variety of music styles, from opera to folk to heavy metal to jazz in a self-described bar band. In 1995, he was the piano soloist in the New York and Paris premieres (at Lincoln Center and MC93 Bobigny, respectively) of John Adams' opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. Through the mid- to late '90s he played Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, miniMoog, and bass in Bobby Previte's Latin for Travelers, whose recordings were released on Enja.
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