It’s been nearly forty years since pianist-singer-songwriter Bruce Hornsby had the number 1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100, the title track of his debut album, The Way It Is:

For all the ways this song fit right into the radio soundscape of the time — smooth drum machine propulsion, synthesized bass licks and string pads — two novelty factors made it stand out musically: Hornsby’s strong yet laid-back baritone, earnestly surveying our society’s gap between legal equality and ongoing, prejudiced perception; and his extended piano solo steeped in jazz, channeling the supple lyricism of heroes like Keith Jarrett. The man could unquestionably sing and play; and supported by his rootsy backing band The Range, he had no hesitation about going for his own sound, both in the studio and live.

More hits followed, but by the second time I saw Hornsby in concert in 1990 (the first live show I caught in my new hometown), the pop trajectory of his career was already tapering off. Still, as the hot new piano player on the scene, he’d already had a series of collaborations that yielded hauntingly lyrical recordings with Don Henley (“The End of the Innocence”) and Bonnie Raitt (“I Can’t Make You Love Me”) and pulled in stellar guests from the jazz, folk and bluegrass worlds for his third album with The Range, A Night on the Town. The single from that album “Across the River” (Hornsby’s last Top 20 hit) featured a spirited guitar solo by Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead; after Dead keyboard player Brent Mydland passed away unexpectedly that year, Hornsby joined the hippie legends for roughly 100 gigs — and the freedom from audience expectations he found in that band has been the guiding star for his musical path ever since.

Dissolving The Range, Hornsby consistently expanded the reach of his music in the 1990s — building extended jazz and bluegrass interludes into his new songs, writing in the idiom of classic soul a la The Drifters and Sam Cooke, recording with a head-spinning variety of all-stars from pop marquee names Phil Collins and Chaka Khan to killer players Branford Marsalis and Pat Metheny. Then came 1998’s Spirit Trail: with Hornsby sharpening his keyboard skills to master an intricate two-handed style and cracking open his Tidewater Country heritage for deepened lyrical content, the result was a double album of quirky, compelling character sketches set off by a dizzying variety of sonic frames — driving boogie-woogie, greasy funk, proto-classical minimalism, pensive Appalachian balladry — with fuller piano and grittier vocals at the forefront. To cop from another American original: the album was large, it contained multitudes.

Spirit Trail (re-released last year for its 25th anniversary with bonus tracks and a live disc) tanked in the mass market, but Hornsby never looked back; pulling together a new band dubbed The Noisemakers, he hit the road and slotted right into the burgeoning jam band scene. Since the turn of the 2000s, all bets are off at a Bruce Hornsby concert; whether solo or with The Noisemakers, he launches headlong into the unknown – taking requests, completely rearranging old standbys and deep catalog favorites, weaving classical music from Bach to Charles Ives, vintage bebop heads by Bill Evans and Bud Powell, and outlaw rock gems of Bob Dylan and The Dead into the mix without hesitation or fear. As captured on releases like 2000s Here Come the Noise Makers and 2014’s Solo Concerts, Hornsby live is really something to hear.

And on record? The new music has come less frequently, but each Hornsby album of the 21st century has its own idiosyncratic spin, from 2007’s Camp Meeting (piano trio jazz in classic style with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Jack DeJohnette) through two collaborations with bluegrass titan Ricky Skaggs (check out the version of Rick James’ “Super Freak”!?) and Noisemakers efforts like Rehab Reunion (where Hornsby exclusively plays hammered dulcimer??) to the recent trilogy based on his Spike Lee soundtrack work (Absolute Zero, Non-Secure Connection, ‘Flicted), featuring guest shots from indie vocalists like Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. March 2024 brought yet another curveball: Deep Sea Vents, a song cycle co-composed with indie-adjacent chamber sextet YMusic (billed as BryhM), with lead-off track “The Wild Whaling Life” inspired by Hornsby’s reading of Moby-Dick:

After a somewhat unbelievable lapse of more than 30 years, I’ll be seeing Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers (backed by my local symphony orchestra) in concert later in the summer. And listening through his catalog over the last few weeks, I’m impressed once again by the depth and quality of his music and his constant commitment to growth in writing, playing and performing, as well as his omnivorous appetite for music of so many styles, tastes and eras. Perhaps like you, I’d forgotten about Bruce Hornsby; but now I remember what makes him such an American original — and I’m looking forward to making more memories this July.

— Rick Krueger