Lanny Hartley

Lanny Hartley is a jazz pianist, conductor and composer who began his career

as the pianist for his church in Burlington, New Jersey. With a solid gospel

music background he went on to study Music Education at Indiana University.

Jazz piano became his love and he performed with such great Jazz artists as

Wes Alexandra, Ernie Andes, Jon Hendricks, Lou Rawls, Linda Hopkins, and

Ernestine Anderson. Lanny has also played for such Pop Artists as Thelma

Houston, The Fifth Dimension, Joe Tex, Syreeta Wright, Al Wilson, and David

Clayton Thomas. He has been the Musical Conductor/Director for such shows

as Ain't Mis'behavin' (Alaska): Tracks (Yolanda King); The Late Great Ladies

of Blues and Jazz (Sandra Reeves): The Della Reese Musical Tour and Dinah

Was (New York, Los Angeles, and Williamstown). Recent recordings that he

has performed on include: Linda Hopkins and Her Black n' Blue Band; Live at

Spaghettinis and as producer and arranger on Yvette Freeman's A Tribute to

Dinah Washington.

Hartley's screen credits include the television movie 'Sinatra', as a blind piano

player; the motion picture 'Harlem Nights' as a piano player; the church

organist on the ABC television series 'Soul Man', starring Dan Ackroy and

most recently as Sam (the piano man) on the NBC series 'Working'.