Connie Crothers

Connie Crothers (May 2, 1941 – August 13, 2016) was a jazz pianist. She majored in music at the University of California, Berkeley before becoming a student of Lennie Tristano.

Crothers began studying classical (or “European”) piano at age 9 and went on to major in composition at the University of California at Berkeley. At Berkeley, her teachers emphasized “procedure and structure” and “compositional rigor” over emotional expression, which did not sit well with Crothers. After he died in November 1978, she became President of the Lennie Tristano Jazz Foundation. She is also known for works done with Max Roach in the 1980s, such as the album Swish. As a leader she headed a quartet with Richard Tabnik and Roger Mancuso.

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