Terence Elliott is an accomplished pianist, composer and producer as well as an Educator of Humanities. He holds a Masters degree in Creative Arts and a Bachelors degree in Music and Black Studies that he earned at San Francisco State University. Currently, he is dean of Natural, Applied and Social Sciences and former president of the Academic Senate and chair of the African American Studies Department at Contra Costa College. He is completing a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from Argosy University.
His CD The Professor: The New Jazz Swing is a welcome blend of straight-ahead and contemporary jazz, with an added mix of R&B and funk. As a composer he incorporates various styles from jazz to gospel, hip-hop and beyond. He calls it the “New Jazz Swing.”
Songs like Congratulations, Macrame and Funk Me Up are true standouts. He also added his special touch of contemporary style to classics like A Night in Tunisia and You Don’t Know What Love Is. Cover tunes like Déjà Vu and One Woman Man shine with spectacular background vocals by Amanda Elliott and Troy Marshall.
Elliott has been performing and recording for years throughout the Bay Area and beyond. He played briefly with the popular Top 40 band Timex Social Club. He toured Europe with the group led by Bay Area favorite Mike Marshall who also has a new CD out Love, Lies and Life.
His recording credits include two jazz CD’s with composer, Karlton Hester and his Contemporary Jazz Art Movement and a recording with world beat soul artist Gregory Bledsoe and the Source of Light.
More recently he wrote, produced and performed on the CD Cultural Consciousness by the Contra Costa College Black Song and Poetry Ensemble (BSAP), a group he formed and directed. Look for another CD by BSAP later this year. Elliott was also the co-producer, composer and featured pianist on the CD Kissed By A Dove by vocalist Amanda Elliott.
As a composer he incorporates various styles from jazz to gospel, hip-hop and beyond. He calls it the “new jazz swing.”