RANDY BONIFIELD
A piano-playing singer/songwriter and film composer from humble roots and the grand musical heritage of Kansas City, Randy Bonifield's recent work reflects a wide range of musical exploration – a song cycle of previously unreleased songs from his vault in 2013, a liturgical journey through Lent in 2018, a Christmas album in 2019, and film scores from successful independent films on the festival circuit in 2017 and 2019. While these projects represent the breadth of his work (or artistic wanderlust, one might say), Bonifield has devoted most of his career to the world of sacred artistry and liturgy, serving as a pastor of congregational worship for the last eighteen years in the southern part of Kansas City.
Loves: family, baseball, brass bands, freshly tuned pianos, old hymnals, the sound of a record needle when it first makes contact with an LP, bunting against the shift, anything with a 6/8 gospel groove, deep conversation over a warm latte, Jesus, and a good game of catch. Not in that particular order.
Influences: Bruce Hornsby, Ray Charles, Keith Green, Billy Joel, Richard Page, Keb' Mo', William Himes, James Curnow, Rob Mathes, James Newton Howard, Thomas Newman, Howard Shore, Constance Cherry, N.T. Wright, James K.A. Smith, Buck O'Neil, Robert and Ruth Bonifield, cool Summer nights, a melancholy soul, a really good story, and the love of a girl named Wendy.