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Michael Denny
(541) 346-5643
mdenny@uoregon.edu

Mike Denny is an instructor of jazz guitar. He has been on the UO faculty since 1995 and the Lane Community College faculty since 1994. Denny also works as a clinician for jazz events and seminars at the University of Oregon.

After lending his blues-rooted guitar stylings to the jazz scenes of New York City, Washington, D.C., Denver, Portland, Paris, and Barcelona over the past 16 years, Denny returned to his Oregon roots to complete his M.A. in Music History at the University of Oregon. His research interests include Mississippi blues performance practice, traditional New Orleans jazz, and traditional folk music of Appalachia.

Denny's professional associations include performances with Mary Wells, Della Reese, Eartha Kitt, Buddy Miles, Clarence Wheeler, Nancy King, Sonny King, Jim Pepper, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Carol Kaye, Larry Goldings, Joe Magnarelli, Paul Bollenback, and West African master drummer Obo Addy, with whom he recorded two albums in the 1980s. Denny has appeared with the Eugene Symphony under Marin Alsop, performing in Leonard Bernstein's Mass, and in concerts with the Oregon Festival of American Music.

Since 1996 Denny has been featured every month at the Provenance Gallery of Eugene for the First Friday Artists Reception; his trademark solo sets and performances with top jazz players from Seattle, Portland, and New York City have been instrumental in the evolution of Eugene's First Friday into a true celebration of art and jazz.

Denny has been recorded on two 1997 jazz releases from Provenance's Performance Series on the Origin label: Now...Here...This is a quartet setting with tenor saxophonist Rick Mandyck, bassist Jeff Johnson, and drummer John Bishop; Looking In features Denny in a solo setting. Both recordings have been favorably reviewed in Cadence, Victory Music Review, and Just Jazz Guitar.