Artist: Cyrus Chestnut

Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, composer, and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, a music critic for Time, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." 

From Baltimore, Maryland, Chestnut began learning the piano at age seven. By age nine, he was studying classical music at the Peabody Institute. In 1985, Chestnut earned a degree in jazz composition and arranging from Boston's Berklee College of Music. 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chestnut worked with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, and other bandleaders. He joined the band of jazz vocalist Betty Carter in the early1990s,and appeared on her 1992 album It's Not About the Melody. That same year, he recorded his first albums as a bandleader, The Nutman Speaks and Nut. Chestnut has continued to work and record as a bandleader into the 21st century. 

In 2006, Telarc released Genuine Chestnut, his first album for the label. On it he is accompanied by his regular trio of Michael Hawkins, bass, and Neal Smith, drums. Additional artists in this session include Russell Malone, guitar, and Steven Kroon, percussion. It includes jazz interpretations of some well-known pop numbers of the past half-century, including "If", the early 1970s soft-rock ballad by Bread. Chestnut's own "Mason–Dixon Line" is one of the album's high points, a joyful bebop number.