Bruce Hornsby

===Solo===
[[File:BruuuceHead.jpg|thumb|Hornsby in [[Portland, Oregon]], 2006]]
Hornsby released his first solo album, ''[[Harbor Lights (Bruce Hornsby album)|Harbor Lights]]'', in 1993. The record showcased him in a more jazz-oriented setting and featured a lineup that included [[Pat Metheny]], [[Branford Marsalis]], [[Jerry Garcia]], [[Phil Collins]] and [[Bonnie Raitt]]. Hornsby secured his third Grammy in 1993 for Best Pop Instrumental for "Barcelona Mona" (composed with [[Branford Marsalis]] for the [[Barcelona Olympics]]).

In 1995, ''[[Hot House (Bruce Hornsby album)|Hot House]]'' was released, its cover art featuring an imagined jam session between [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]] musician [[Bill Monroe]] and [[jazz]] saxophonist [[Charlie Parker]]. Hornsby expanded into the jazz sound from ''Harbor Lights'', this time reintroducing elements of bluegrass from ''A Night on the Town'' and his earlier collaborations.<ref>{{cite web | last=Miller | first=Skyler | title=Hot House: Overview | url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r216522|pure_url=yes}} | publisher=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> "Walk in the Sun" reached number 54 on the [[Billboard Hot 100]].<ref>{{Cite magazine | url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/bruce-hornsby/chart-history/hsi/ | title=Walk In The Sun | magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]}}</ref>

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| style="text-align: left;" | "To be creative, spontaneous in the moment and make music in the present tense, that's what we're all about live. I write the songs, we make the records and then the records become a departure point, the basic blueprint, the basic arrangement. I'm fairly restless creatively. I was never a very good Top 40 band guy because I never liked to play the same thing every time. Too often songwriters approach their songs like museum pieces. I don't subscribe to that. I think of my songs as living beings that evolve and change and grow through the years."<ref>{{cite book | title=The Grateful Dead | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HxCDDwAAQBAJ | first=Michele C. | last=Hollow | publisher=[[Enslow Publishing]] | date=December 15, 2018|isbn = 9781978505230}}</ref>
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| style="text-align: left;" |—Bruce Hornsby
|}During this time period, "even his concerts conveyed a looser, more playful mood, and Hornsby began taking requests from the audience".<ref name=Grain/> Hornsby's concerts became "departure points" for his album compositions, which would be blended with and reworked into "lengthy spontaneous medleys".<ref name=Grain/> Both in terms of audience requests and in terms of spontaneous on-stage decisions, Hornsby's performances became opportunities for him to challenge himself by trying to "find a way to seamlessly thread these seemingly disparate elements together".<ref name=Grain/>

Hornsby next worked with several Grateful Dead reformation projects, including several Furthur Festivals and [[The Other Ones]], which resulted in the release of a live album, ''[[The Strange Remain]]''. As part of The Other Ones, Hornsby performed Grateful Dead tunes "[[Jack Straw (song)|Jack Straw]]" and "[[Sugaree]]" (which features Hornsby on lead vocal, in Jerry Garcia's absence), as well as Hornsby-originals "White-Wheeled Limousine" and "Rainbow's Cadillac". Hornsby dropped out of The Other Ones in 2002.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Joel | last=Selvin | authorlink=Joel Selvin | url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Other-Ones-reunite-Former-Grateful-Dead-mates-2749192.php | title=Other Ones Reunite | work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] | date=December 1, 2002}}</ref>

In 1998, three years after ''Hot House'', Hornsby released a double album, ''[[Spirit Trail]]''. Featuring a picture of his uncle on the cover,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19981009-1998-10-09-9810140303-story.html | title=HORNSBY CONJURES A NEW 'SPIRIT' | first=SAM | last=MCDONALD | work=[[Daily Press (Virginia)|Daily Press]] | date=October 9, 1998 | url-access=limited}}</ref> the collection blended instrumental tracks with the story-telling, [[rock music|rock]], jazz, and other musical forms Hornsby had delved into over his career. The album considered "very Southern" themes with "songs about race, religion, judgment and tolerance" and "struggles with these issues".<ref>{{cite AV media | url=https://music.youtube.com/channel/MPREb_4ruCbQcQebz | title=Spirit Trail | publisher=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> An example is "Sneaking Up on Boo Radley", which references the character from [[Harper Lee]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novel ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]''.

Throughout the sequence of ''[[Harbor Lights (Bruce Hornsby album)|Harbor Lights]]'', ''Hot House'', and ''Spirit Trail'', Hornsby's piano playing steadily gained further complexity, taking on a more varied array of musical styles and incorporating more difficult techniques, as evidenced by his two-hand-independence on ''Spirit Trail''{{'s}} "King of the Hill". During this same span of solo album years, Hornsby made several mini-tours playing solo piano gigs for the first time in his career.<ref name=leftfield/> The shows allowed Hornsby additional possibilities for segueing songs into other songs, often blurring lines between classical compositions, jazz standards, traditional bluegrass, [[folk music|folk]], and [[fiddle]] tunes, Grateful Dead songs, as well as reworkings of Hornsby originals.<ref name=grateful/> Hornsby reflected on these periods of intensive solo performances, stating that the solo tours helped him "recommit [himself] to the study of piano" and "take [his] playing to a whole new level", explorations and improvisations that would not be possible in a band setting.<ref>{{Cite press release | url=https://www.adelphi.edu/news/bruce-hornsby-to-perform-for-a-sold-out-audience-at-adelphi/ | title=Three-Time Grammy Award Winner Bruce Hornsby to Perform for a Sold Out Audience at the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center on February 10 | publisher=[[Adelphi University]] | date=January 23, 2012}}</ref>

In August 2014, Hornsby released his first entirely live solo album, ''Solo Concerts''.

In April 2019, his 21st album, ''Absolute Zero'', was released. It features collaborations with [[Justin Vernon]] and Sean Carey of [[Bon Iver]], [[Jack DeJohnette]], [[Blake Mills]], [[yMusic]], [[The Staves]], and Brad Cook.