Home » Jazz Musicians » Jeff Lederer

Jeff Lederer

Little (i) Music is a Brooklyn-based record label founded by saxophonist Jeff Lederer, which produces creative music in the jazz and improvised music fields. The catolog focuses on the work of Jeff Lederer and his projects, including Shakers n' Bakers, Mary LaRose, Swing N' Dix, and the upcoming Brooklyn Blowhards release! New release by Honey Ear Trio is coming in Sept 2016!

Jeff Lederer is a New York based saxophonist-clarinetist/composer/educator whose work crosses the genres of jazz, latin and creative improvised music. In 2014 he has been named in both the critics and Readers Polls of Downbeat Magazine recognizing his work on tenor and alto saxophones and clarinet. He has worked for many years in the Matt Wilson Quartet and the grammy nominated ensembles of Bobby Sanabria and Salsa trombonist Jimmy Bosch. He has recorded for Gunther Schuller’s GM Recordings, CIMP Records, Palmetto Records and his own Little (i) Music label. His quartet “Sunwatcher” made it’s debut in 2011 on the Jazzheads label featuring Buster Williams on bass, Jamie Saft on piano and Matt Wilson, drums. His longstanding ensemble “Shaker n’ Bakers” performs modern jazz interpretations of the Vision songs of the Shaker religious sect and has released two recordings of Shaker music and performed at the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles.

Jeff’s cross-stylistic composition/arranging projects include “Los Sazones”, a salsa reimaginng of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” which was commissioned by the Ravinia Festival for the Chicago Symphony and has been performed by many major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

New projects for 2014 include a new recording and tours with the Honey Ear Trio with drummer Allison Miller and bassist Rene Hart and the debut of his new ensemble, “The Brooklyn Blow-Hards”- a brass band that plays sea shanties and Albert Ayler compositions.

Jeff has performed at numerous major jazz festivals including the Newport Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival , Monterey Jazz Festival, Litchfield Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, Moldes Jazz, Guimaraes Festival (Portugal), Tiempo Latino (France) and many, many others. In 2013 Jeff performed a duo concert with drummer Allison Miller at the mainspace of the San Francisco Jazz Center. In 2010 he was invited as a special guest to perform spontaneous improvisations with the pianist Shahin Novrasli at the Baku Jazz Festival in Azerbaijan.

As an educator, Jeff has worked with Jazz At Lincoln Center where he was featured in the 2010 Jazz for Young People Concert “What is Free Jazz?”.

Read more

Tags

7

Album Review

Jeff Lederer: There's a Yearnin'

Read "There's a Yearnin'" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Jazz and classical music have been intersecting for decades. One of the most prominent examples of this was the Third Stream movement of the sixties, where composers and musicians like Gunther Schuller and John Lewis encouraged the efforts of jazz musicians who wanted to experiment in the world of classical music. The music created through the movement is little heard today, but Jeff Lederer has here assembled a selection of works from that period by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and Oliver ...

1

Radio & Podcasts

Unearthing Dolphy & Ornette: Inside Jeff Lederer’s There’s A Yearnin’

Read "Unearthing Dolphy & Ornette: Inside Jeff Lederer’s There’s A Yearnin’" reviewed by David Bixler


In this episode of LINER NOTES we are diving into a monumental new release from saxophonist and composer Jeff Lederer called There's A Yearnin,' out on Little “i" Music. This record is a boundary-blurring project for winds and voice that features the Wildebeest Wind Quintet and vocalist Mary LaRose. Together, they tackle unissued and rare archival scores by Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, alongside several of Jeff's brilliant arrangements of the music of Oliver Nelson. In our conversation today, Jeff ...

26

Album Review

Bobby Sanabria: Arsenio and Beyond

Read "Arsenio and Beyond" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Much of the music on Arsenio and Beyond was written by the trailblazing Cuban composer Arsenio Rodriguez, a master of the mandolin-like Cuban tres guitar who is credited among other innovations with creating the musical design that became known as son montuno. Rodriguez, drummer and bandleader Bobby Sanabria writes, was “the true Father of Mambo and Son Montuno," without whom “there is no salsa, Afro-Cuban jazz, or, many would even argue, rock or funk." Sanabria and his Multiverse ...

3

Radio & Podcasts

Black Nile, Bria Skonberg, Arturo Sandoval and an interview with Jeff Lederer and Mary LaRose

Read "Black Nile, Bria Skonberg, Arturo Sandoval and an interview with Jeff Lederer and Mary LaRose" reviewed by Hobart Taylor


This week's show features an interview with Jeff Lederer and Mary LaRose about their new release in conjunction with the Wildebeest Wind Quintet, “There's A Yearnin.'" The album consists of newly resurfaced scores by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and Oliver Nelson with new lyrics by Mary LaRose.Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Yazz Ahmed “Dawn Patrol" from Shinrin-Yoku (Night Time Stories) 01:06 Black Nile “Exposure" from Indigo Gardens (MASS MoCA) 08:03 Host Speaks 12:00 Angelique Kidjo} “Nadi Balance (feat. Fally ...

5

Album Review

Joe Fonda: Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation

Read "Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


The bassoon is rarely heard in a jazz context, but bassist Joe Fonda got the idea to use the instrument in a free-swinging small group format. He incorporated Michael Rabinowitz, one of the few improvising bassoonists around, into a quartet with two of his long-time collaborators, drummer Harvey Sorgen and reed player Jeff Lederer. Fonda's original idea was for Lederer to play tenor saxophone in the group, but Lederer decided instead to play higher-pitched reeds, clarinet, flute, and piccolo. The ...

1

Album Review

Joe Fonda: Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation

Read "Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Only bassist /composer Joe Fonda--who cut his teeth and honed his humor in the company and camaraderie of such global visionaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altschul, Paul Bley, and Annette Peacock-- can stand defiantly at the  epicenter of a free jazz and classical quartet and ease the ensemble through either door with the deceptively sly and boozy opener “Deja Vu for DC."  It whirls. It twirls. It is a whole lot of fun and a particularly ...

30

Album Review

Silvano Monasterios: The River

Read "The River" reviewed by Jack Bowers


To enhance his musical excursion along The River, composer, arranger and pianist Silvano Monasterios invited eight talented companions on board to share the ride. He did not make it easy for them. As envisioned by Monasterios, this river is by turns placid or turbulent, sparse or overflowing--but invariably tricky to navigate and tame. The entire work, he writes, is “a suite of what I consider Venezuelan music," and was inspired by the people in his native land ...

Read more articles
112
Jackson Cotugno
saxophone, tenor

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Hope Etudes

Orchard Of Pomegranates Records
2026

buy

Two Jeffs

Grizzley Music
2026

buy

There's a Yearnin'

Little (i) Music
2026

buy

Love Is The Whole...

Palmetto Records
2026

buy

The River

Self Produced
2025

buy

Home. Coming.

From: The Hope Etudes
By Jeff Lederer

Home. Coming.

From: The Hope Etudes
By Jeff Lederer

Home. Coming.

From: The Hope Etudes
By Jeff Lederer

Fireplace

From: Good Trouble
By Jeff Lederer

Light Out of Darkness

From: Wanderlust
By Jeff Lederer

Leap of Faith

From: Live at The Cafe Bohemia
By Jeff Lederer

Hubub

From: Hubub!
By Jeff Lederer

Hug

From: Hug!
By Jeff Lederer

The Crazy Poet Song

From: All Hot Bodies Radiate
By Jeff Lederer

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletters highlight our top stories, top album reviews, website news, free songs, radio & podcast shows, news, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.