Burton Greene

Burton Greene (1937-2021) was an American free jazz pianist, born in Chicago, who took part in the New York avant-garde of the 1960s and later lived in Amsterdam for more than fifty years, mostly on a houseboat. He co-founded the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble with Alan Silva and developed a way of playing directly on the strings inside the piano, which he called piano harp. Greene joined the Jazz Composers Guild in 1964 and recorded Burton Greene Quartet (ESP-Disk, 1966) with Marion Brown and Henry Grimes. Presenting Burton Greene (Columbia, 1968) was produced by John Hammond.