Greene Glen Productions / Randy's Bio

Hi! Welcome to my bio page! I still remember hearing music in our home when I was very young. There were the records by Montovani, The 101 Strings, Frank Sinatra, The Jackie Gleason Orchestra, The Grand Canyon Suite...The list goes on... I studied classical piano for 12 years, clarinet for nine years, and played in many bands, orchestras, recitals, and contests throughout my elementary, secondary, graduate, and post-graduate years. My dad, who was born and reared in New Orleans, introduced me to Dixieland jazz as a youngster and I enjoyed playing along with Pete Fountain records at age nine. When I was a sophomore in high school, some friends took me to a Maynard Ferguson concert. I was never the same again. The formula was Pete Fountain + Maynard Ferguson + John Coltrane + Bill Evans + Sonny Rollins + Michael Brecker + Pat Metheny + David Sanborn and on, and on, and on = Randy Villars, permanently "hooked on jazz." I auditioned and was selected to play in a show band at Disneyland after my junior year in college. This experience was a huge factor for me in choosing my career path. Playing music with great players, visiting and recording in studios where the greats were recording, and receiving inspiring lectures, seminars, and master classes on a daily basis really revved me up to leave my pre-law studies behind and dive into music full force. After graduating from Wittenberg University, I accepted the position of Graduate Teaching Associate at The Ohio State University. I was awarded a full scholarship to attend OSU as a graduate music student. I worked in the Jazz Studies Department, instructing the jazz piano and jazz saxophone students, directing the combo program, and playing lead tenor sax in the OSU Jazz Ensemble, a group that performed often and crossed the ocean to play a tour in England. In the educational world, I have gotten opportunities to play with some of my musical heroes: Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, Maynard Ferguson, Ramsey Lewis, and Dave Samuels.\n\nMy networking with musicians led to opportunities in Cincinnati, Ohio as a session musician. I began to get a lot of calls to play recording sessions on keyboards and saxophone, getting in on the digital synthesizer revolution as music production was beginning to interface with the computer world. I was contracted regularly as a saxophonist to play on underscores for the TV soap operas Guiding Light, Another World, As The World Turns, Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous, and the European soap opera Riviera. The free-lance session work led to opportunities as a composer/arranger and producer. I composed original music and produced recording sessions for commercial clients such as McDonald's, IBM, Kodak, Time-Life/A&E, and Proctor and Gamble. I was privileged to work in the studio with the great recording engineer/producer Benny Faccone. I received calls to play on record dates for pop artists on CBS and Polygram records. A wave of Broadway opportunities came my way as I got calls to play piano and synthesizer in Broadway pit orchestras for Annie, Victor, Victoria, 42nd Street, and It's A Wonderful Life. My commercial music production experience sparked my desire to compose, produce, and play on an original CD project. My first CD was entitled "Levels" and was distributed internationally by David Chastain's Leviathan Records. Following that project, I recorded two CDs on Ken Navarro's Positive Music Records label. All three projects received great reviews and airplay on 50+ radio stations nationwide and on Time-Warner Digital Cable. Along the way, I continued to perform as a jazz pianist and saxophonist, playing with artists such as Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Tim Hagans, John Scofield, Eddie Harris, Mike Davis, John Fedchock, Mulgrew Miller, Fred Hersch, Ira Sullivan, Conrad Herwig, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, Warren Hill, and The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. A few years ago, I attended a great jazz workshop at The Banff Center for the Arts. It was at this time that I met and studied with Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, Judy Silvano, Dave Douglas, Andreas Wiedenmueller, Joey Barron, Ben Monder, Hugh Frazier, Owen Howard, and Dave Pietro. The workshop was incredibly inspriring and transformational and continues to have a positive effect on my music to this day. I am currently an instructor at The Ohio South Music Academy where I teach piano, saxophone, and jazz theory and harmony. I am excited about my involvement with Greene Glen Productions and very happy to be working with Dave Spyridon and his wife Angela in this new venture. I believe the possibilities are absolutely endless for our collaboration. Randy Villars, Composer/Producer Greene Glen Productions.