Kenny Werner, 57, of New York, is considered to be one of the top six or seven jazz pianists in the world, says David Lambert, an assistant music professor at the University of Mary.

And Werner soon will be in Bismarck. For one evening.

At 7 p.m. Friday, he and his trio will perform at the University of Mary and then give a master class.

Werner has performed with Dizzy Gillespie and others, and for years has composed and performed with Betty Buckley - the film actress and a Tony-Award-winning actress for her lead role in the musical "Cats."

Buckley, now in Australia filming a Steven Spielberg HBO series, calls Werner a genius. She said when she performs with Werner their goal is "to take the audience on a journey - hopefully provide them with a catharsis and help them feel more in touch with their own hearts as they leave the theater."

The heart issue is a big one for Werner.

Werner, who teaches his techniques at New York University and now, for a night, in Bismarck, said he thinks something is missing with a lot of music instruction: The heart of it.

He contends that music instruction often focuses on the machinery of how to do it. It doesn't focus on such things as spirituality or the musician's state of mind.

He said those things are essential to turn out a performance that "really turns on an audience."

He said musicians "can't lit up a room by trying to lit up a room."

"Good artists indulge themselves,"he said in a telephone interview. "They don't try to please others. … They turn themselves on."

He said when a musician just stops caring, just stops trying to be good, then powerful things can happen.

"Musicians (often) feel pressure, sort of obliged when they sit down to play very, very well - and all the nerves come from that,"he said. "So if you can let go of the need to play very well, your music will soar much higher."

He said he was lucky to have had as an instructor Madam Charloff, mother of a famous baritone saxophone player. She focused on the importance of spirit.

"She had a mystical approach to the piano,"he said.

Lambert said Werner's popular music instruction book, "Effortless Mastery," is a lot about life skills, breaking down barriers, "finding yourself in whatever you do."

Werner started playing at 7. He said he remembers visiting a friend's house and hearing the friend's father playing the piano.

"I must have been electrified,"he said.

Werner, raised by a produce buyer and a homemaker mom, went home to tell his mom he needed a piano. He was able to, on the piano they got - before he had any instruction - figure out songs by listening to the radio.

At 11, he recorded a single with a 15-piece orchestra and appeared on television playing stride piano. He later attended the Manhattan School of Music as a concert piano major, and in 1970 transferred to the Berklee School of Music.

He said he slipped into jazz, but unlike some jazz greats who have a particular style and never stray from jazz, he strays all the time.

His dream is to compose movie scores, romantic piano and string type things. Werner said when he watches movies, he hears music in his head, composes on the fly.

Werner said if he had had more insight when he was younger, composing movie scores is probably what he'd be doing now.

But the 1970s, a time when "if you didn't smoke pot, people were suspicious," kind of got him off track. "I wasn't exactly plotting my future." In the 1980s, he got back on track.

He has composed pieces for the Seattle Symphony, the BBC Radio Orchestra and others.

Then it's back to jazz. And other experiments. In a Munich, Germany, club, he once wound up some wind-up toys, and, as they "danced," he composed music to their movements.

The world-famous pianist has had some nightmare moments, he said.

He remembers agreeing to play an avant garde piece, with barely any practice, with a 60-piece orchestra in Germany after their piano player became sick. He didn't know what he was getting into. Didn't know he would be formally introduced, and would have to walk out in front of everyone. He was wearing painter pants, a sweatshirt and cabbie hat. But that's OK compared to what came next.

"It was a nightmare, an incredibly complex (piece),"he said. His first entrance was 104 measures in, but the piece was so bizarre he couldn't figure out the length of a measure, so he couldn't count them, and ended up coming in at the wrong time. "The conductor shakes his head, (wrong place), … Now, I'm totally lost," he related.

He ended up improvising, not using the music, for 20 extremely long minutes.

"The conductor looked completely angry,"he said.

Werner slinked out and ended up in a restaurant. The surprise came when the music's composer saw him there, came up and thanked him for a great job.

Besides music and family, Werner's passion since childhood remains the New York Yankees baseball team. He gets misty on old-timers' day, "Something comes back to me." And when performing in Europe, he will stay up, despite the time change, to watch Yankees' games that sometimes start as late as 2 a.m. there.

Werner received a Grammy nomination for a composition called "Inspiration." He also at one point was commissioned to compose and conduct a memorial piece for Duke Ellington, performed by the Manhattan School of Music's Stage Band and the New York City Choir.

And recently he was asked to join and write music for a company formed by composer Quincy Jones.

Tickets will be $5 at the door. U-Mary students and staff get in free.

For more information, call 355-8301.