Dylan Meek, Wimberley's rising, young jazz pianist

By Allan C. Kimball

At the age of 17, Dylan Meek has the jazz skills and performance experience people twice his age would be envious of.
The modest, polite Katherine Anne Porter High School junior is appreciative of where he is, the top musicians he has performed with, and ambitious about where he is going. After you listen to him play and once you’ve seen the broad smile he cannot suppress when talking about jazz, you’ll know nothing can stop the youngster.

How did someone from a generation that listens to Flo Rida and the Foo Fighters develop a passion for jazz? It’s partly because of parents Bill and Valerie Meek, partly just his own mindset.

“My parents always listened to every kind of music,” Dylan says. “They love old music. I grew up listening to the Beatles and to Dad listening to Keith Jarrett. I’ve always loved blues and boogie-woogie. Once I heard Oscar Peterson, I fell in love with jazz. I didn’t know the piano could be played like that. Jazz calls to me. I take to it.”

Dylan started playing the piano at age 10, playing by ear. He honed his skills under music teacher Michal Rosenberger, but about three years ago he stopped playing piano as much as he had because he felt he’d reached a plateau.

Then he met Wimberley’s own jazz legend Jimmy Neeley.

Jimmy toured worldwide with top performers like Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Arnet Cobb, Muddy Waters, Little Richard, Big Joe Turner, Dave Brubeck, and Bo Diddley—just to name a few.

“Dad brought me to Jimmy Neeley’s house and I was really nervous to go see a master,” Dylan says. “When I shook his hand for the first time I felt like I was shaking the hand of a giant. His presence was huge. I played some hard blues for him and he said, ‘You remind me of me when I was your age.’ I heard that and it was amazing.”

Dylan asked Jimmy if he could study under him but Jimmy was noncommittal. Dylan recalls he left the house in awe.
“One day he called and said to come over and bring my notebook, and I became his protégé. He’s opened my mind in every way.”

Watch the two of them play side by side and you see the difference between youth and experience. Dylan’s talent is obvious, especially when improvising, but he strikes the piano keys, making a statement, while Jimmy’s fingers flow over the keys, caressing them. Jimmy offers several performance tips, based on his many decades of playing, about how to grab this person’s attention or how to make love to that woman or how to get children interested in the middle of a song—all in just the way the music is played.

“Dylan has great potential,” Jimmy says. “He has what it takes, but to realize that potential will take experience and hardships.”

The two have more in common than a piano. Jimmy’s birthday is December 14, Dylan’s December 13. And both were artists before becoming musicians. In fact, in Jimmy’s music room is an abstract portrait of Jimmy that Dylan painted two years ago.

“He’s the spitting image of myself at his age. I’m passing on my knowledge to him as he will pass his on to others when he’s my age. I’m elaborating on his natural gift,” Jimmy says.

Dylan’s first public performance was back in 2005 when the 14-year-old performed a duet with Jimmy at the Wimberley Concert Association’s season opener. The concert sold out with a standing-room-only crowd.

That’s all jazz aficionados needed. Dylan performed solo at the Wimberley Jazz Festival in 2006, again to a sold-out crowd. And sold out the festival house again in 2007. He’s the only non-adult musician ever to be booked for solo concerts in the Jazz Festival’s history. He has also performed regularly at the Elephant Room, Austin’s premier jazz venue.
Dylan continues to learn. He continues his studies under Jimmy Neeley and won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music five-week summer program in 2007. He’ll return on a scholarship again this summer.

He’s also been mentored by and consulted with top musicians like Joyce Webb Tate, Billy Crockett, Larry Natwick, Ryan Gould, Alex Coke, and Floyd Domino of Asleep at the Wheel.

He practices everyday, usually between three and four hours but often as many as eight hours. It’s not a chore. “I absolutely love it,” Dylan says.

Asked what he plans to do with his life, Dylan almost laughs at the question because in his mind there is no question. It’s settled: “I am going to be a musician,” he says firmly.

But he has no illusions. Mentor Jimmy Neeley has seen to that—the master has warned the eager student that a life of making music is difficult but Dylan says he will follow Jimmy’s advice until the master’s teachings get to be such a part of him that they’re “under my fingernails.”

Once out of high school, he plans to go to college. He just can’t decide between Julliard, Berklee, the New School, or the New England Conservatory. He knows it’ll be Boston or New York, but whichever it is he knows where his future lies.
“I’d like to live in New York,” Dylan says. “After playing with my idols I want to do my own thing. I want to play with the best and I want to become one of the best.”

FYI • The Dylan Meek Quartet will perform for the Susanna’s Kitchen Concert Series at 7:30 PM on April 17 at the Wimberley Methodist Church. For bookings or for more information, call 512-847-0772.

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