Betty Liste

Career

Betty Liste, an American jazz pianist rooted in the modern mainstream, is a fixture on the New York and New Jersey club scene. She has shared the stage with notable musicians including trumpeter Ted Curson, altoist Richie Cole, and vocalist Bill Robinson. Liste began her professional career in 1978, performing at New Jersey venues like Gulliver's and Three Sisters. The following year, she started playing in small Greenwich Village clubs, and she has remained a consistent presence in both states' jazz circles ever since.

As of 2012, she leads a vocal jam session at Trumpet's Jazz Club in New Jersey and also performs regularly at the Stony Hill Inn. Beyond performing, Liste taught jazz piano, ear training, and functional piano at Montclair State University for eight years. She also launched a children's piano program there and has taught at William Paterson University and Manhattan College. Her performance credits include Lincoln Center and the Montreal Jazz Festival.

In the early 1980s, she worked with New Orleans vocalist Betty Shirley, co-writing several songs, among them "Jazz Waltz," a piece frequently heard in New York clubs and at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Liste has released two CDs. Her first, "Pensive Moments" (2006), featured Ted Curson and drew praise from Jazz Times for its "lively, creative performances and overall classy presentation." Her second, "Jazz Ventures" (2010), was noted by All About Jazz for her "youthful exuberance, emotional depth, and impressive skill" in interpreting works by Cole Porter, Miles Davis, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.