BIOGRAPHY:  Charles Bateman

Charles Bateman was a composer, soloist, accompanist and band leader.  He also tuned and repaired pianos entrepreneurially, before he attained constant demand status.

Charles was born in Youngstown, Ohio.  After his family moved to Buffalo, New York, he began playing with jazz trios at the age of eleven.  That’s correct – eleven!  At sixteen, he began private study of classical music with Jeno Swislowski, a master pianist from Poland.  Jeno recognized the musical gift possessed by Charlie and provided him with a scholarship for further study under Bruno Eisner, from Berlin, Germany.  This rare opportunity to study with a peer of Horowitz motivated Charlie to seek out the bright lights of Broadway, at the age of twenty-one.

Prior to moving to the Big Apple, Charlie was the youngest pianist to every sign a contract to play, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra at the ripe old age of eighteen!

A partial list of the New York venues Charlie performed in includes Carnegie Hall; Café Society; the Original Birdland; the Waldorf; Village Gate; Sweet Basil’s; Blue Note; Metropolitan Museum, and the upper crust World Trade Center Vista Hotel, for approximately two year.  Charlie performed on the bill with Sy Oliver, Lucky Millinder, John (Rabbit) Hodges, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Cab Calloway, Louis “Pops” Armstrong, Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, Stan Getz, Panama Francis, Lena Horne and other musical luminaries too numerous to list here.

Charlie re-located to Orlando, Florida in 1993 and created a musical whirlwind.  He was the pianist at the Radisson Hotel for approximately two years and performed in other venues such as the Windermere Country Club, Disney, Eastonville’s Zora Neale Hurston Festival; Heathrow Country Club; Mt. Dora and Maitland Jazz Festivals; Sleuths’ Dinner Theatre, etc.  he performed on the Florida scene with many musical luminaries including Mike Arena, Linda Cole, Barry Smith, Charlie Silva, Miss Jacqueline Jones, Elliot Dyson, Evelyn McGee Stone, Bernie Lee and his friend of long standing, Panama Francis.

Charlie’s quiet, reserved exterior belies the fact that he performed throughout South America; performed for three years in the United States Army and holds a black belt in the Seido Style of Karate.  One of the greatest testaments to Charlie’s pianist skills was the gig he received to play for Nat King Cole’s wedding.  Listening to Charlie Bateman play the piano is not just a musical experience, it is a happening.

Charlie’s two sisters, Eva Bateman Noles and Donnie Bateman Dukes are Uncrowned Queens.