Guitarist, composer and arranger Peter Hand leads his own big band, ten-piece band and smaller groups, and his music encompasses a wide variety of original compositions, new interpretations of jazz classics and Latin & Brazilian jazz.

His recordings include three highly acclaimed big band albums on Savant Records and his newest small band album, Blue Topaz, on the Whaling City Sound record label. He has worked with many top artists and bands as a leader, arranger/composer and sideman, including Carmen Lundy, Jon Lucien, George Coleman, Lee Konitz, Houston Person, Claudio Roditi, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Central New York Jazz Orchestra, Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, Charleston Jazz Orchestra and the New Jazz Orchestra at the Amersfoort World Jazz Festival, Netherlands.

A New York City native, Peter took piano lessons before starting guitar in his early teens. Growing up in New York in the mid-1960s he was fortunate to hear all kinds of music, in venues from Greenwich Village to Broadway to Carnegie Hall. After first becoming aware of blues artists Buddy Guy, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, he become especially enamored of the blues guitar sounds of B.B. King and Albert King, teaching himself on guitar and striving to develop his own ideas.

While a pre-med student at Binghamton University, NY, Peter led his own blues band, and in his third year made the commitment to pursue music. He left Binghamton and began to work with his own groups and others in NYC, including Jerome Arnold (bassist with Howlin' Wolf and Paul Butterfield). His interests expanded to the great soul music artists of the day, one of many being James Brown, then at the peak of his musical career. In addition to Brown’s rhythm section innovations, Peter was inspired by Brown’s horn section arrangements and his albums with big bands and string orchestras.

Wanting to have a formal music education, Peter took courses in classical counterpoint and harmony at City College of New York and orchestration and music notation at Manhattan School of Music. As he became more involved in jazz, he decided to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

At Berklee, he became immersed in the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Oliver Nelson, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among many others. A guitar major at first, Peter’s interest in arranging blossomed and he studied jazz arranging and composition with Herb Pomeroy, Larry Monroe and Ted Pease, plus classical composition with John Bavicchi, Jeronimas Kascinskus and others, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in composition in 1977.

After graduating, Peter put together a 9-piece rehearsal band in Boston before moving to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Living there for almost three years, he gained valuable experience in jazz and Caribbean bands, working with saxophonists Frank Vicari and Eddie Shu, vocalist Jon Lucien, guitarist Attila Zoller and others. During this time, he developed a strong interest in Latin and Brazilian music, which has influenced many of his compositions.

Returning to New York in the early 1980s, Peter led his own small bands and nonet, and became active as a sideman and arranger. He wrote original arrangements and compositions for the George Coleman Octet, Lee Konitz Nonet, Carmen Lundy, Mike Abene, Victor Lewis and many others.

From 1991 to 1996, he was a member of the BMI Advanced Jazz Composers Workshop in New York City. Directed by Manny Albam, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely, it met weekly, with annual big band concerts of members' compositions. Peter credits the workshop for opening up new ideas for extended jazz composition.

In 2002, Peter moved to Westchester, where he conceived and co-founded the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, a non-profit big band and educational organization consisting of noted jazz musicians in Westchester County, New York. He served as artistic director, composer-in-residence, arranger and guitarist during the orchestra’s first season (2003-04), presenting a series of theme concerts with special guests. The Orchestra also conducted many educational workshops with high school jazz bands.

Peter decided to launch his own big band in 2005, and his first album, The Peter Hand Big Band Featuring Houston Person - The Wizard of Jazz: A Tribute To Harold Arlen, was released on Savant Records in 2009. It showcased tenor saxophonist Houston Person performing Peter’s arrangements of Arlen songs, and also featured saxophonists Don Braden and Ralph Lalama, trumpeters Jim Rotondi and Valery Ponomarev, trombonist John Mosca, pianist Richard Wyands, bassist Harvie S and drummer Steve Johns. The album received excellent reviews and reached #19 on the nationwide JazzWeek Top 50 radio chart, also making the Top 10 on radio stations in several cities.

His second recording, Peter Hand Big Band - Out Of Hand (Savant Records, 2014), featured Peter’s original compositions and arrangements, with Houston Person returning as a guest on three selections. Out Of Hand received extensive radio airplay, climbing to #4 on the JazzWeek Top 50 Albums Chart, and many stellar reviews- including a Downbeat “Editors’ Picks” and a five-star review in Jazz Journal (UK).

Hand Painted Dream, the third album by the Peter Hand Big Band on Savant Records (2019) also received excellent reviews and international radio airplay. It includes Peter’s arrangements of music by Charlie Parker, Tadd Dameron, Randy Weston and John Coltrane, plus his original compositions. The album also features Downbeat "Rising Star" Camille Thurman as a guest vocalist and saxophonist, and a String Quartet led by violinist Jennifer Choi joins the big band on the title track.

His newest album, Peter Hand - Blue Topaz, released by Whaling City Sound Records in January, 2024, is his first small band recording. Presenting more of Peter’s original compositions as well as several standards, it allows for more soloing and interplay with a group of outstanding musicians from his big band. Blue Topaz has received many excellent reviews, staying on the JazzWeek Top 50 Chart for 18 weeks, peaking at number 8. As a result, this has led to many more opportunities for his small band performances at clubs and concerts in the greater New York area and New England.