Michael Jefry Stevens

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Michael Jefry Stevens (born March 13, 1951 in New York City ) is an American pianist and composer who has emerged primarily in the field of creative jazz .

Live and act

Stevens began taking piano lessons at the age of five. As a teenager in Florida, he devoted himself to rock and roll and played a Farfisa organ. Under the influence of the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane , he turned to jazz. From 1980 he studied at Queens College with Roland Hanna , Jimmy Heath and Donald Byrd .

Since the mid-1980s, Stevens worked with Mark Whitecage in the Liquid Time ensemble . From 1988 to 1990 he co-directed the Mosaic Sextet with Dave Douglas , which included Mark Feldman , Michael Rabinowitz , Joe Fonda and Harvey Sorgen ; his album Today, this Moment is now one of the classics of the genre. The Fonda-Stevens Group has been working with the same rhythm section since 1992, with whom he toured Europe regularly and produced Birdtalk and other outstanding albums. Together with Fonda, the multi-instrumentalist Gebhard Ullmann and changing drummers, he formed the Quartet Conference Call in 1999 , which has released seven albums to date. He also worked with Nicole Metzger , Wendy Jones, Dom Minasi , Jon Hemmersam, Dominic Duval , Daunik Lazro , Matt Wilson , Szilárd Mezei , George Schuller and Jay Rosen . He was also with the band in transit to Jürg Solothurnmann and Songbook Project with singer Miles Griffith active.

Stevens composed more than 400 compositions and led various workshops.

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian Morton , Richard Cook The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1000 Best Albums 2010
personal data
SURNAME Stevens, Michael Jefry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (piano, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City