Claude Sifferlin

Claude Sifferlen

(August 29, 1940 - March 18, 2010)

Claude Sifferlen was born into a musical family and began playing piano at age 5, with classical piano and violin lessons. He especially loved to listen to Fat's Waller recordings. After a stint in the army band, he began playing at many of the prominent jazz clubs in Indy. 

In a professional career that dating back to the 1960s, Sifferlen performed with the Duke Ellington and Woody Herman bands, played locally with the Baron Von Ohlen Quartet and briefly subbed for Stan Kenton in the Kenton Orchestra, backing such vocalists as Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme. He played with notable jazz artists Buddy Tate, Cleanhead Vinson, Lockjaw Davis and Milt Jackson.

In 1970 he formed the Claude Sifferlen Trio with bassist Paul Imm and drummer Greg Corn. He was a member of the Zebra Quartet (playing vibes), which also featured pianists Steve Corn and Steve Allee. 

By the '80s, however, he had settled into a primarily local career, most visibly launching a 25-year collaboration with saxophonist-clarinetist Frank Glover that included a weekly stand at The Chatterbox. The father-son friendship between the older pianist and the younger winds player was explored poignantly in the 2010 WFYI television documentary Take 2. The two also performed a Carnegie Hall Recital in 1997. At the Chatterbox, he also performed with many others, including Mark Buselli (trumpet), Ron Brinson (drums), Joe Deal (bass), and the Deep Six Band, formed by Harry Miedema (sax and director of jazz studies, University of Indianapolis).

In 2013, his rare solo album finally saw the light of day, more than two decades after it was recorded and nearly three years after the artist's death. Every Time We Say Goodbye by Claude Sifferlen was recorded in April 1990 at the old Northside location of Meridian Music. This was the first public release of a recording that had circulated privately among musicians and friends for years. The chief reason for the delay, people behind the project say, is that Sifferlen was so uninterested in promoting himself. Claude Sifferlen was and still is a major influence on many generations of Midwest musicians.