Armas Maiste

Armas or Art (born Armas) Maiste. Pianist, b Tallinn, Estonia, 9 Mar 1929; naturalized Canadian 1965. B.Mus. (McGill) 1972. After his first musical studies at the State Music Academy in Estonia, he attended the Stockholm State Academy for six years where he became interested in jazz. Maiste came to Montreal in 1950 and began a career as a cabaret pianist in addition to being a soloist and accompanist. He accompanied Sammy Davis Jr., Joyce Hahn (to whom he was married in the 1950s), Carmen Miranda and many others. He also performed in concert, on radio and television as a performer of classical, contemporary and jazz music and on variety shows. From 1958 to 1983, he was the official pianist of the OSM (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal), and appeared on the orchestra's recordings until 1986.
Maiste participated in the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival, the EBU-sponsored Oslo Festival in 1973 and, as a member of the RCI-sponsored All-Star Jazz Sextet, the 1979 Bracknell, North Sea and Montreux Jazz Festivals. He taught at McGill University from 1974 to 1983 and joined the faculty of Humber College in Toronto in 1984. He also taught the RCMT. Among his pupils were jazz pianists Luc Beaugrand, James Gelfand, Steve Holt and Dave Restivo. Maiste is clearly a remarkably versatile musician and he gives the measure of his stylistic skills and technical mastery on the LPs. Bach and the Blues and Pianostyles. On the latter, he plays in the manner of jazz pianists as different as James P. Johnson, Bud Powell, Erroll Garner and Bill Evans.