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Pianist
Mintel Takes
on Brubeck’s
Model, Life
Lessons
Pianist Eric Mintel devoted
his new album, the selfreleased
50 Years After ... A
Tribute To Dave Brubeck, to
his mentor’s repertoire. But
the Philadelphia-area pianist
looks to Brubeck for more
than just musical inspiration.
Brubeck worked tirelessly
to raise the profile of jazz. He
performed at college campuses
during an era when such
bookings were uncommon,
and so he relied on himself to
make the tours happen.
“This is another thing I
learned from Dave Brubeck
early on: You’ve got to create
the environment that
you’re going to thrive in,”
Mintel said. “So if they’re
not going to come to you,
you’ve got to go to them. So
I wound up trying to find creative ways to get
my music out there.”
Those creative ways have led Mintel’s quartet
to play at a wide range of venues away from
the regular club circuit. He’s performed at the
Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing
Rock, N.C., the University of Vermont at
Burlington, the Second Congregational Church
in Greenwich, Conn., and Hunterdon County
Library in Flemington, N.J.
“By going into churches, libraries, colleges
and universities, this is how my career all came
to be,” Mintel said. “The final result is the
music, and we’re getting an incredible
response.”
Mintel’s new disc strikes a balance
between Brubeck’s classic tunes like “Take
Five” and obscurities such as “Nomad,”
“Unisphere” and “Elana Joy.” “We’ve forged
a great friendship over the years,” Mintel said.
“But even more so, Dave has been a positive
role model in my life.”
Brubeck not only expressed admiration for
Mintel’s commitment to his career, but also his
ability to perform technically challenging compositions
like “Blue Rondo À La Turk.”
“He’s the most determined person I’ve ever
known about making it,” Brubeck said of
Mintel. “He has a marriage of talent and hard
work. I first heard Mintel as a teenager, and I
saw promise there. He’s tackled a lot of my
hardest pieces and these are tunes that I had
written and had almost forgotten. I was
impressed that he’d been doing things that I
INDIE
Life
was no longer doing, and that’s a good feeling.”
Mintel, 41, has carved out a niche without
the benefits of management or formal training.
He learned to play the piano by ear during high
school while focusing on Brubeck’s recordings,
notably Time Out (1959), Jazz Impressions Of
Japan (1964) and Jazz Impressions Of New
York (1964). Mintel worked as a house painter
and an advertising salesman before he began
pursuing music on a full-time basis in 1999.
The pianist has appeared at jazz festivals in
Philadelphia, Hartford, Conn., and Savannah,
Ga. He performed during a White House holiday
dinner reception for President Bill Clinton
in 1998. In addition, Mintel has earned an
endorsement deal from Yamaha.
Mintel’s daily commitment for booking and
publicity exceeds 40 hours each week. “I’m on
the phone 24/7,” he said at his home in Bucks
County, Pa. “I have a list of venues to call
every day. I’m working on bookings weeks,
months, sometimes a year or so in advance. I’m
wearing so many hats.
“It starts with making that phone call,” he
continued. “You’ve got to talk to that person
who’s in charge of booking the entertainment.
Then you’ve got to send them your information:
either send them a press kit in the mail,
or send an e-mail message with a link to your
web site. Then follow up with that person; it
could be over two weeks, it could be over two
months or it could be over six months. And
finally, you hope to get a gig and then you go
on to pitching the next venue.” —Eric Fine