Origin Records Artist Ted Brancato

Ted Brancato is a musician with four decades of experience in the music business. Since his early days, growing up in Seattle, WA, Ted has been actively performing, composing, arranging and recording music. Ted earned his bachelors degree in music from the University of Washington. While in Seattle Ted quickly became one of the most "in demand" pianists, both in the recording studio and in the jazz clubs. Ted was called on to accompany many jazz headliners that came through town--jazz greats such as Milt Jackson, Eddie Jefferson, Ernie Watts and Ernestine Anderson.

In the almost 30 years that Ted has worked in and around NYC, he has honed his skills as an arranger, composer, performer, conductor, and accompanist. He played on recordings by Houston Person and a Roger Kellaway recording that was produced by Creed Taylor and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in his historic Englewood, NJ studio. He served as musical director for jazz vocalist Jeanie Bryson--touring the world with her and arranging and playing on three of her albums. Alongside Ms. Bryson, Ted worked closely with many great jazz players such as Christian McBride, Jerry Niewood, Pacquito D'Rivera and trumpeters Claudio Roditi and Wallace Roney. While Ms. Bryson's musical director, Ted performed in Brazil, Japan, Greece, the Netherlands, and toured the United States. Other touring experience includes two USIA sponsored trips to West Africa with jazz vocalist Dee Daniels. Ted also kept his Seattle connection alive over the years, arranging and playing on two recordings by vocalist Kelly Harland, and collaborating with singer/songwriter Mark Pearson (longtime member of the Brothers Four) on numerous recording projects and live concert tours in the Pacific Northwest. For the past 11 years, Ted has utilized his arranging and conducting skills as musical director of a dinner theater in New Jersey.

In 2009 Ted realized a life-long dream and built a recording studio. Not only has there been a steady stream of artists clamoring to use his facility, Ted used the studio to record his own solo album entitled "The Next Step" - which will be released in the fall of 2013 on the Origin label. The album features 14 of Brancato's compositions and the expert musicianship of bassist Ron Carter, drummer Terry Silverlight and Saxophonist Matt Langley.