Jim Brickman life and biography

Jim Brickman is an American songwriter and pianist. He has been named the most charted male Adult Contemporary artist to date, with six of his albums receiving Gold and Platinum status.

In an era of increasing fragmentation of musical styles and genres, New Age solo instrumentalist Jim Brickman's pop savvy, which was honed and perfected from years spent writing commercial jingles, managed to strike a responsive chord in the hearts and ears of rather diverse, and sometimes diametrically opposed, segments of the adult music, buying public in America. "Rocket to the Moon" from his debut album, No Words, became the first solo instrumental recording to ever make an appearance on the adult contemporary singles chart. His follow-up album, By Heart, yielded three songs that made the unprecedented leap from the top of the New Age chart to the top of the adult contemporary chart.

Steve Vining, the president of Brickman's record label, Windham Hill, remarked to Billboard's Gina Van Der Vliet that "the album {Picture This, Brickman's third release} has just exploded and we're all thrilled. This is one of those rare instances where someone who operates in a solo piano kind of New Age genre is able to break out of that area and go pop mainstream with massive radio play and record sales.... We've tapped into something pretty special here, and I think it's just the beginning of a long, long career."

The Cleveland, Ohio, native did not intend to embark on a career as a solo instrumental new age pianist, let alone to pursue a rather lucrative recording career. He was pursuing studies in business at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University and was enrolled in classical composition courses at the Cleveland Institute of Music when he decided to undertake a career as a composer of music for advertising jingles. The 19-year-old Brickman's choice of a professional pursuit earned him the distinction of being the "black sheep of the conservatory." The "break the rules kind of guy" was quoted in the Lifetime web site as saying that "everybody was putting their studies to use in a very classical sense, but I was applying it to the mainstream. That's what came naturally to me. Pop song writing."

He set up his own company, Brickman Arrangements, to publish the commercial jingles he was writing. He explained his reasons for pursuing a career as a jingle writer to Shoot's Robert Goldrich, "I got into commercials to make a personal connection with people through my music--to affect people when they heard my work, and for me, instruments and real people performances are the only way to do that." Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Brickman and his company, Brickman Arrangements, worked on such prestigious and famous advertising accounts as Standard Oil, Purina Puppy Chow, the Gap, McDonald's, Pontiac, 7-Up, AT&T, Revlon, Miller Beer, and Walt Disney World. He was also instrumental in composing music for the children's television program Sesame Street and for various projects for the Henson Associates. Brickman also collaborated on projects with such popular vocalists as Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Richard Marx, and Michael Bolton.

By 1993, Brickman was beginning to lose interest in his career as a commercial jingle writer, as he related in Windham Hill web site: "Eventually, I got bored doing jingles, and it became creatively limiting because I had to fake being trendy much of the time. I realized that I never sat down at the piano, except for work. I wanted to make music that was more personal, more real and from the heart." Further commenting on this subject to Goldrich, Brickman said that "I purposely took a break from commercials, because while I was getting a lot of work, my clients weren't getting the best part of me creatively. In commercials, I was starting to move into a keyboards-and- synthesizer direction, which to me wasn't real music." About this same time, he signed to the Windham Hill Record label and started to embark on his new career as a solo instrumental pianist.

The six-song demo of Brickman's musical interludes formed and shaped the sound of his debut release No Words. No Words, which was released in 1994, deftly married the catchy musical hooks of contemporary pop with romantic lyricism. According to the Windham Hill web site, this pop savvy earned him good sales for his debut album and widespread radio airplay on adult contemporary radio stations. Brickman started to develop a devoted fan base, due in no small part to the tremendous success of the single, "Rocket to the Moon." "Rocket to the Moon" earned the distinction of being the first solo instrumental song to ever place on the adult contemporary chart.

The following year, Brickman released the follow-up to No Words. It was called By Heart and its success even managed to outshine its predecessor. By Heart spawned two top ten adult contemporary hits: "Angel Eyes," which peaked at number eight, and "If You Believe," which made it to number ten.

In 1996, Brickman signed an exclusive contract with the music and sound design collective known as Endless Noise. The contract was for the exclusive rights for the commercial representation of Brickman in all of his advertising music writing endeavors. Brickman still maintained his business, Brickman Arrangements, although its focus was now on maintaining and promoting Brickman's career as a solo recording artist. Explaining the impetus behind taking up jingle writing again and signing with Endless Noise, Brickman told Goldrich that "the attraction {of jingle writing} to me is very different than it was three years ago. I think people will think of me more for what I do best--performing on the piano and composing an organic, acoustic style of music. That's my specialty. And my music as a performer/composer might serve as a point of reference for agencies who want a score that sounds like a cut from one of my CDs."

Brickman's third album, the 1997 release Picture This, served to further solidify his position as the New Age/adult contemporary cross over king. The tremendous sales of Picture This were in excess of 100,000 its first month of release, thanks to the first single, a duet with country singer Martina Mc Bride. The duet was entitled "Valentine" and received airplay from not only adult contemporary stations but country ones as well. "Valentine" managed to crack the top 100 country singles chart besides easily making it in to the adult contemporary top ten. Picture This, the album the single was culled from, hit number 30 on Billboard's top album chart and debuted at number one on the top New Age album chart. In speaking about the phenomenal success of "Valentine," Mc Bride commented to Van Der Vliet that, "this just shows that good music of any kind can really transcend formats. I've sung all kinds of music in my life, including Top 40. It was fun to get to sing something a little different."

Brickman explained his appeal and success to Van Der Vliet as "I knew that a lot of the right things were in place. If you believe enough in what you're doing and how you're doing it, then it's very welcome. So, it's not terribly surprising, but I feel very fortunate that it's happening."

Later that same year, Brickman released his first Christmas album, The Gift. Like its predecessors, it was received warmly and with a good deal of acclaim. In the Windham Hill web site, Brickman offered his interpretation of why he has struck such a nerve with his audience. He said that "everyone has a different concept of what my music means to them, so they can paint their own pictures ... Also, there's my desire to reach those listeners and say 'O, come see what I'm doing, let me share a part of myself with you.' Again, the key is to be pure and honest."

He has produced several other Christmas-themed albums, Peace (2003), Christmas Romance (2006), Homecoming (2007), and The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (2008); and his two albums Grace (2005) and Faith (2008) concentrate on arrangements of well-known Christian music.

During his career, Valentine went platinum selling over one million records and four others have sold over 500,000 copies; By Heart (1995), Picture This (1997), The Gift (1997), and Destiny (1999), qualifying them as gold records in the United States. In November 2005, three of Brickman's albums, The Disney Songbook (2004), Grace (2005), and Greatest Hits (2004), held the top three spots on Billboard's new age chart.
He also received a Grammy nomination in 2003, an SESAC "Songwriter of the Year" award, and a Canadian Country Music Award for "Best Vocal/Instrumental Collaboration". The 2008 album, Faith, has been nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.

Brickman writes a variety of music. Besides his piano compositions and love songs, he has also created arrangements of existing songs and several of his albums feature arrangements of children's music. He has collaborated with artists from all genres with songs like "Love of My Life" with Michael W. Smith, "You" with Jane Krakowski, "Never Alone" with country group Lady Antebellum, "After All These Years" with Anne Cochran, "Never Far Away" with Christian contemporary group Rush of Fools, among others.
In 2008 Brickman teamed up with American Greetings lending his music to some of their eCards.

Selective Works:
-No Words (includes "Rocket to the Moon"), Windham Hill, 1994.
-By Heart (includes "Angel Eyes" and "If You Believe"), Windham Hill, 1995.
-Picture This (includes "Valentine"), Windham Hill, 1997.
-The Gift, Windham Hill, 1997.

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