Lisa Hilton | “Chalkboard Destiny” on Ruby Slipper Productions

Hilton is Joined by J.D. Allen,
Rudy Royston and Luques Curtis

 

Hilton conveys that the concept behind Chalkboard Destiny is the idea that our future, our destiny, can be continually reshaped, implying that we are not beholden by history or traditional myths, allowing us a freedom in creation. The title track, “Chalkboard Destiny,” easily exhibits this concept with Royston’s rim shots crackling for attention.

There’s also a hard-to-pin-down energy flowing between Allen’s explosive virtuoso displays, the dynamic details of Royston’s accents and the booming lines of Curtis’s bass alongside Hilton’s fluid piano. Allen’s solo in the middle of “Sympathy for Blues” is astounding, and along with Curtis’s agile bass, Royston’s touch and the laid back retro charm of Hilton’s piano.

Read a Q&A with Lisa Hilton to learn more about the album.

Hilton’s style influences extend beyond jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington, to include bluesman Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, to classical giants like Chopin. Hilton’s releases consistently sustain her profile as a consistent composer, pianist, producer and bandleader. She also performs at venues across the US from the Weill Recital Hall within the legendary Carnegie Hall to Chicago’s historic Green Mill and is known her expressive technique at the piano as well as for her warmth and storytelling on stage.

Originally from a small town on California’s central coast, Hilton studied classical and twentieth century piano formally from the age of eight, where she was inspired by her great uncle, Willem Bloemendall, (1910-1937), a young Dutch piano virtuoso. In college though, due to the lack of creativity in the music program, she switched majors and received a degree in art instead. Ever since becoming a professional musician, this background in the fine arts has well informed Hilton’s composition process.

Committed to helping students who are often overlooked, for years Hilton has regularly spent time to help blind students at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who are Blind, Jr. Blind of America, Camp Bloomfield for the Blind, and The Berklee College in Boston and their adaptive music lab for visually impaired. “I enjoy extending help to those with physical disabilities – music should be for everyone,” Hilton says.