Born in Christchurch, New Zealand on September 27, 1940, Mike Nock is a jazz pianist. He began studying piano at the age of 11 and by the time he was 18, he was performing professionally in Australia. He led a trio that toured England in 1961 and then relocated to Boston, Massachusetts to attend the Berklee College of Music. He left Berklee after a year in order to become house pianist in a Boston club, which led him perform with jazz greats such as Phil Woods, Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell, and others. He joined Yusef Lateef’s band in 1963 and played with him for two years. He released Almanac, his first album as a leader, in 1967. Mike Nock formed jazz fusion band Fourth Way in 1968 and performed live with them until 1970. His next solo album, Between or Beyond, was released that same year. He became a session musician throughout the rest of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s while also releasing solo albums such as Talisman (1979), Succubus (1980), and Strata (1983). He moved back to Australia in 1985 and continued his solo career with 1987’s Open Door followed by nearly two dozen albums that solidified his position as one of Australia and New Zealand’s finest keyboardists. He was nominated for seven ARIA Awards, winning the prestigious Best Jazz Album award in 2007 for the album Duologue, a collaboration with American saxophonist Dave Liebman. Appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to jazz in 2003, he taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music until 2018.
