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Chestnut, who became known for his improvisational skills and unique jazz-gospel and bop style, has credited his abilities to those formative years when he played at church. Calvary Star Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the first songs young Cyrus learned was "Jesus Loves Me." Before long, seven-year-old Cyrus was playing piano in the family church, and by age nine he was promoted to church pianist at Mt. "Growing up, gospel music was what I heard in the house," Chestnut told DownBeat magazine.Īs a boy, Chestnut reached for the piano keys before he could walk, so his father began teaching the earnest three-year-old to play the piano. Chestnut has said that the roots of his love of music began there, and to this day, Chestnut's ties to the gospel church remain constant. Young Chestnut's home was filled with the sounds of the gospel music that his church-going parents played in their home, along with jazz records by artists such as Thelonius Monk and Jimmy Smith. Chestnut's father, a postal employee and the son of a church minister, was the official organist for the local church in Baltimore, Maryland, where Chestnut grew up. Either that, or a life in music was simply in his blood.
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Born on January 17, 1963, in Baltimore, MD son of McDonald (a retired post office employee and church organist) and Flossie (a city social services worker and church choir director), soulful jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut might just be proof positive of the impact that music has on babies in the womb.