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BIOGRAPHY
Over the past 35 years Pianist/Composer Michael Jefry Stevens has been associated with some of the most important figures in modern jazz. Beginning with his first CD release in 1991 as a member of Mark Whitecage's Liquid Time Group, Mr. Stevens has been in the forefront of the NYC improvised music scene. Between 1988-1990 he co-led the now legendary "Mosaic Sextet" with Dave Douglas. This group included Mark Feldman on violin, Michael Rabinowitz on bassoon, and the rhythm section of Harvey Sorgen on drums and Joe Fonda on bass. Their "Today This Moment" CD release on Konnex Records and re-release on GM Recordings is considered one of the classic modern jazz recordings of the last 25 years. This rhythm section went on to become the nucleus for Mr. Stevens working quartet the Fonda/Stevens Group. Since the quartet's inception in 1993, the Fonda/Stevens Group has released 10 cds, repeatedly toured Europe and is one of the premier working modern jazz groups on the international scene. Mr. Stevens also began a very fruitful and fulfilling relationship with Leo Records with his duo "Haiku" CD release in 1994, featuring Mark Feldman on violin. These piano/violin improvisations proved to be a pivotal link between Mr. Stevens work in both the composed and improvised music worlds. Mr. Stevens has currently released nine cd’s on Leo Records, including "Elements" with bassist Dominic Duval, and "Twelve Improvisations" with the Fonda/Stevens Group. To date he has released 52 cds.
Michael Jefry Stevens has composed over 400 works for various ensembles, including big band, string quartet, music for voice, music for solo instruments and various small group compositions. Mr. Stevens was the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow at "The MacDowell Colony" in the summer of 2000, received 2nd prize in the prestigious Monaco International Jazz Composition in 1998, and was most recently a composer fellow at the Centrum Arts Colony in Port Townsend, WA in June 2005. In 2007 he received a “Professional Development Support Grant” from the Tennesee Artos Commission. He has been Composer-in-Residence at Virginia Intermont College (1999) where he scored music in collaboration with the dance department and was composer –in–residence at the Oxford Music Academy Summer workshop in 2002. He is currently on the music faculty of Rhodes College in Memphis, TN and is artist-in-residence every November at the jazz workshop at EMU in La Plata, Argentina.
In 1999 Mr. Stevens began the Conference Call Quartet, featuring his partner of many years, bassist Joe Fonda, in collaboration with German saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann and currently featuring George Schuller on drums. This quartet has released 4 cd's, including their latest CD "LIve at the Outpost Performance Space" on 482 Records (2005). The Conference Call Quartet has appeared in the past year at the Bolzano Jazz Festival in Italy, the Nattjazz festival in Norway and the Braga Jazz Festival in Portugal. Their upcoming CD is scheduled for release on Nottwo Records in early 2008.
A proponent of the philosophy that there are only 2 kinds of music "good and bad", Mr. Stevens has also been working in a standard jazz piano trio setting for the past 16 years. His collaborative trio "Stevens, Siegel & Ferguson" has released 5 cd's on Imaginary Jazz and toured Europe and the United States continuously for the past decade. They have worked with such jazz luminaries as Steve Turre, Cecil Bridgewater and Valery Ponamerev and they continue to expand and evolve in the tradition of the jazz piano trio.
Michael Jefry Stevens continues to explore new musical avenues and associations. His new "In Transit" Quartet, featuring drummer Dieter Ulrich, Bassist Daniel Studer and saxophonist Juerg Solothurnmann was recently recorded by Swiss Radio in Zurich and released on Unit Records in Switzerland. Since 2005 he has released 2 cds on the Polish Nottwo Record Label: Decade featuring the Sorgen-Rust-Stevens Trio and most recently the Fonda/Stevens Group "TRIO" CD. Other new projects include a recent duo recording featuring Serbian violist Szilard Mezei and a new quartet project "Eastern Boundary" featuring Hungarian drummer Balazs Bagyi and Hungarian saxophonist Mihaly Borbely.
Michael Jefry Stevens is truly a believer in the global music community and a vocal exponent of an international music.
November, 2007
MICHAEL JEFRY STEVENS: "Interview with myself" from CD "HAIKU" - 1995, Leo Records
Tell us about yourself.
Well, I was born in NYC, March 13, 1951, lived there till age 8, moved to Florida, went away to college, dropped out of college at age 20 to play jazz. Moved to NYC in 1980 and have been living in Brooklyn since then.
You dropped out of college...
Yes. I had started playing piano at age 4 or 5, on my own initiative and stopped studying piano when my family moved to Florida. Then I became a rock and roll Farfisa organ player until age 17 or 18 when I heard my first jazz recordings.
What recordings were those?
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (with Bill Evans on piano); Mose Allison trio recording and some John Coltrane.
What kind of effect did this music have on you?
I was literally in shock. I could not believe that there existed such incredibly beautiful and powerful music. This music changed my life and by the time I reached age 20 I just wanted to play jazz. I quit college and spent several years in the shed about 12 hours per day. By the way, I do not advise this as a healthy course of action to take, but this is what happened to me. (I did eventually get a Master's Degree in Music).
Do you consider this CD featuring yourself on piano and Mark Feldman on violin to be jazz?
I don't want to get hung upon semantics. At the same time as I got involved in Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea (just to name a few influences) I was also strongly attracted and influenced with my first listening ventures into Mahler, Bartok, Stravinsky, Satie, Debussy, Ravel and Berg. So I would have to say that in my development as a jazz musician I have come to accept and include all the influences that have entered my heart and mind.
What do you mean heart and mind?
For me music is first and foremost an expression of beauty. That is what I am trying to do. Express beauty. This beauty can and will take different shapes and forms. There is beauty in a triad and there is a different but no less exotic beauty in a dissonant interval or sound. Along with the expression of beauty I am trying to express my heartfelt emotions at the moment. It is the expression or improvisation of music at a precise moment of time that to me defines that essence of jazz. Now in the 40's and 50's that expression has been titled bebop. For myself as a jazz musician and improviser living in the 90's I feel the strenght and freedom to express myself as an improvisor using as my pallette all my influences, classical, rock, jazz, blues, funk etc. This is my freedom and from these choices I am beginning to develop my own unique expression within the structures of tonal music.
Please elaborate on what you mean by tonal music.
I am referring to Western music. Music that is defined by the octave divided equally into 12 chromatic half step intervals. Music that is derived from the great master musician J.S. Bach and his work. Music that develops from the tension/release of the V-I progression which gradually moved towards the free use of dissonance as demonstrated historically by Beethoven, Mahler and Schoenberg.
Speak more about Bach.
I will tell you a story. I was fortunate to take several lessons with Sir Roland Hanna and at one of the lessons I asked him how he would explain bebop and how I could try to understand this unique and profound musical language. He told me "study Bach". To me, Bach's music is truly beautiful and romantic. His harmonies are exquisite, constantly modulating with secondary dominants much like bebop. His melodies are simple but elegant. To me, he is maybe the first jazz musician.
The first jazz musician?
Well of course not really. He does not have the rhythmic language that is the essence of jazz syncopation, swing, blues, etc. But what a great improvisor.
Talk about this CD.
Several years ago I dediced to record myself in different duo settings with musicians I have been working with for the past 10 or more years. The first ones were duos with saxophonist Mark Whitecage (my first CD recording was with Mark Whitecage and Liquid Time on Acoustics Records) who to me is my mentor in so many ways. The second duet was with percussionist Phil Haynes. I am very happy with these recording and we are still looking to release both of these in the future. The last recording was with violinist Mark Feldman.
How did you meet Mark?
I have been living in NYC for the past 15 years and Mark moved here in 1986. I met him shortly after that through mutual friends. We started a band in 1988 that featured Dave Douglas on trumpet, Michael Rabinowitz on bassoon, Mark on violin, myself on piano, Joe Fonda on bass and Harvey Sorgen on drums. This band was together for 3 years and has a CD release on Konnex Records in Germany called "The Mosaic Sextet". Anyway I approached Mark approximately 2 years ago about this duo project and he was interested. So we did several recording, the last of which we are releasing here thanks to Leo Feigin's support and encouragement of this music.
Any final comments?
I am very happy with this CD. There is real musical, emotional and spiritual communication between myself and Mark. He was a great inspiration to work with. This truly was a collaboration. I hope the listeners will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.
Michael Jefry Stevens
June 8, 1995. Brooklyn, NY, USA.
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