Pianist Jeff Baumeister teaches Jazz Studies at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pa. As a freelance writer, his transcription and analysis essays are often featured in DownBeat magazine. In 2004, he received the prestigious Cultural Incentive Grant from the Bucks County Community College Foundation to record his original compositions for jazz quartet. This recording, titled “Useful Music,” became his debut CD as a leader and was acknowledged by All About Jazz.com as Editor’s Choice, Best of 2005 - New Discoveries, and Publisher's Top Picks for 2005, and was selected Top Ten Best Albums Of 2005 by Jazz Views.com.
Jeff earned degrees in jazz studies from William Paterson University and The University of the Arts. His teachers include, Uri Caine, Tom Lawton, Don Glanden and Jim McNeely. He studied classical piano with Sam Bellardo, and composing and arranging with McNeely and Manny Albam at the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop in NYC. He was awarded the Eubie Blake Scholarship and the Bernard Peiffer Jazz Piano Award for Excellence, Creativity, and Dedication to Jazz Piano. Jeff lives in Huntingdon Valley, PA with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Annemarie, and dog, Maggie.
“Jeff Baumeister is an artist deserving wider recognition, he is the newcomer alongside more established forward-thinking folks like Dave Douglas, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Bill Frisell, Tomasz Stanko and others - he's got his own thing happening that bodes well for the future.”
- John Kelman, All About Jazz.com
Editor’s Choice,
Best of 2005 - New Discoveries
- John Kelman, All About
Jazz.com
Top Ten Best Albums Of 2005
- Nick Lea, Jazz Views.uk
Publisher's Top Picks for 2005 - Honorable Mention
- Michael Ricci,
publisher, All
About Jazz.com
“A prediction for the coming year
(or
two) - you will soon know the name of local pianist, Jeff Baumeister”
- Ken Weiss,
Philadelphia Correspondent, Cadence Magazine
Congratulations to you and your saxophonist!
Your music is world-class.
- Mark C.
Gridley (author of Jazz Styles: History And Analysis, Prentice Hall)
“Baumeister is completely original, with a fresh take on free/avant garde jazz that is
challenging yet eminently listenable.
An example of the terrific music coming out of
Philadelphia's thriving jazz scene.”
- Tony Rogers, Jazz CD Reviews.com
“Completely captivating and with a certain aesthetic connection to classic ECM piano
recordings, Useful Music has all the potential to be a classic in its own right.
Baumeister’s writing, while evoking its deceptively gentle veneer, is more structurally rich
than its antecedents, making it a completely modern take on an established aesthetic.
-
John Kelman, All About Jazz.com
“The organic lucidity that animates each of Baumeister's composition is the real treasure of
Useful Music and a compelling reason to return to this album again and
again”
- Dimitry Ekshtut, Jazz Improv Magazine
“Useful Music is moody, detailed, and unique. The quartet weaves in and out of
changes with subtlety and grace on this spectacular set of originals. Highly
recommended.”
- Andrew Ciccone, Sound of Market Street
“This is my favorite sort of jazz approach,
really smart and burning.”
- John
Anthony, audio engineer, Maja Audio Group
“While not recommended for short attention spans, the session is a refined study of high -
end improvisation - full of quiet but fiery interplay, cerebral and engaging. Pianist Jeff
Baumeister's new CD could just as easily be found amid the hushed discs of the Munich-
based ECM label.”
- Karl
Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Improvised music that has the lyricism of the best composed music of the last century -
wonderfully mysterious - a beautiful, clear recorded sound, live and personal.”
-
David Demsey, saxophonist, Coordinator of Jazz Studies, William Paterson University
“Useful Music is an album that combines the cerebral to the hot playing in
colorful,
modern and high aesthetics.”
- Vangelis Aragiannis, Jazz & Tzaz , Greece
“Exploratory yet rooted, oblique yet lyrical, dark but playful, all rendered with synergetic
group interplay.”
-Tom Lawton, pianist and composer, Dreambox Media
“I really enjoyed this cd! Great songs and great playing,
Check it out!”
-Uri
Caine, pianist and composer, Winter and Winter
“There's a quiet intelligence to Jeff Baumeister's playing that often brings Paul Bley to
mind. In many ways this is the sort of piano session ECM releases by the
bucketful only with warmer, more upfront production. If you're as fond of smart, probing
piano music as I am, this is a fine example.”
-Jerome Wilson, Cadence Magazine
“Baumeister, Dan Capecchi, Greg Riley and Peter Paulsen executed every piece with
boldness. The abstractly painted soundscapes are a Stenson-like blending heritage with a
touch of groovy lyricism. They defy all, culminating in six masterpieces. As soon as your
ears will get to this album you will be impressed by Baumeister’s craft. Highly
recommended! “
- Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez, Jazz Review.com
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