Jonathan Chatfield Bio

Jonathan Chatfield grew up in Hartford Connecticut and began Classical piano lessons at the age of 8. He began composing and improvising shortly thereafter. His father was a Jazz drummer who exposed him to the music of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, The Modern Jazz Quartet and John Coltrane.

In High School Jonathan was fortunate to be surrounded by local musicians in the neighborhood that shared a collective musical vision. They formed a band that jammed constantly in his basement, wrote original music and played local bars. He also began taking Jazz piano lessons at this time.

Jonathan went on to attend the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. Here he studied Classical music for 2 years while graduating with a B.A. in Jazz Studies: Piano.

After graduating Jonathan returned to Hartford and began performing with a myriad of bands and different styles. He joined a Latin Jazz group led by Grammy Award Winning bassist Charles Florez that included Grammy nominated saxophonist Jimmy Greene. He performed with trumpeter Claudio Roditi and recorded with legendary Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell with the fusion jazz group Mystery Feet.

Jonathan joined Blues band Jeff Pitchell and Texas Flood, touring clubs and festivals along the East Coast for the next five years. The band opened twice for B.B. King and recorded two albums one of which has remained on the Billboard Top Ten Blues Chart.

In his thirties Jonathan became a freelance musician and house pianist at Foxwoods Resort Casino for over 4 years. At this time he also taught piano, composition, theory, sound recording and Latin jazz at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts for a total of 13 years.

Jonathan moved to Portland, Maine in 2020 where he was pianist and organist at First Parish Portland Unitarian Universalist church. In 2023 he and his wife moved to Danville, Vermont where he teaches music at Wolcott, Woodbury and Craftsbury Elementary Schools.