Jazz Articles about Avram Fefer

Avram Fefer Quartet: Juba Lee

by Mark Corroto
December 8, 2022

Avram Fefer comes out swinging on Juba Lee, the second release from his quartet,. It must have certainly been fated, as the opener “Showtime" hits hard with its muscular sound. Fefer's tenor saxophone blows out any existing cobwebs before handing off to guitarist Marc Ribot. The music continues the rich sound heard on the quartet's critically acclaimed previous release Testament (Clean Feed, 2019). Fefer built this sound first in trio with bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Chad Taylor heard the ...

Avram Fefer, Tell No Lies, Tru Cargo Service & Pia Hernandez

by Maurice Hogue
December 5, 2022

The flood of new releases continues unabated and this episode jumps right into the deep end, sampling new works from a pair of European bands, Tru Cargo Service from Germany and Tell No Lies from Italy, German drumming legend Gunter Baby Sommer in a duo with Scottish saxophonist Raymond McDonald, Buenos Aires pianist Pia Hernandez, Dave Douglas, New Zealand's Trioglodyte and a pair of Canadians busy at work, vibraphonist Dan McCarthy and trumpeter Elwood Epps with his Boston version of ...

Avram Fefer, Harris Eisenstadt, Satoko Fujii & Joe Fonda and More

by Maurice Hogue
December 18, 2019

You can always count on Clean Feed Records for great music, and this episode features some tunes from recent releases on the Portuguese label's catalogue. Saxophonist Avram Fefer adds Marc Ribot to his usual trio and the results on Testament are fantastic. Pianist Zack Clarke steps back to a traditional piano trio format, but the music is anything but traditional. He twists the format into a musical pretzel. English trumpeter Tom Arthurs mixes his usually sublime style with electronist Isambard ...

Avram Fefer Quartet: Testament

by Mark Corroto
November 12, 2019

After a blindfold listening test, maybe the greatest compliment you can give Testament is to guess the leader's name to be drummer Chad Taylor, or maybe bassist Eric Revis, guitarist Marc Ribot or saxophonist Avram Fefer himself. This misapprehension is attributed to the equal footing each of the four musicians is given on the recording. Partly this, and credit must be shared with the mixing engineer Eli Crews for his application of parity. Nevertheless, this is the Avram ...

Avram Fefer's Big Picture Holiday: Shimmer And Melt

by Mark Corroto
April 1, 2016

Let's rescue the musical descriptor 'fusion,' a pejorative word used in jazz circles to connote a work of lesser weight and significance. We don't use that word when the jazz fusion is carried out by Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and in this case saxophonist Avram Fefer. His assemblage called Big Picture Holiday merges not just jazz and rock, but the Afrobeat music of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Morocco, James Brown's funk, blues, and the electricity of New Orleans. Fefer, ...

Avram Fefer Trio: Ritual

by Troy Collins
May 23, 2009

Saxophonist Avram Fefer has led a diverse career since his emergence in the early 1990s. An eclectic collaborator, Fefer has performed with pianist Bobby Few, The Last Poets, North and West African musicians, numerous acid jazz and trip-hop artists, and served in the big bands of Frank Lacy, Adam Lane, Butch Morris and David Murray, among others.

Ritual finds Fefer reunited with his longstanding trio-mates, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Chad Taylor, whom he first met in the ...

Avram Fefer and Bobby Few: Kindred Spirits

by Dan McClenaghan
June 11, 2005

Multiple reedist Avram Fefer and pianist Bobby Few team up here to play some jazz standards by Monk, Ellington, and Mingus--not what you'd expect from a pair of artists better known for their free jazz credentials. Few played for ten years with Steve Lacy, and Fefer put out several fine sets on the CIMP label; they collaborated with the late bassist Wilbur Morris on the outstanding Few and Far Between (Boxholder, '02). Few, who has been called a true American ...