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Gordon Beeferman
Gordon Beeferman is a composer, pianist, and improviser based in New York City, He has created and performed innovative opera, chamber and orchestra music, avant-jazz, and numerous collaborations with choreographers, writers, and video artists. His varied projects include bands that perform his compositions: an Organ Trio; Other Life Forms, a quartet; and Music for an Imaginary Band, a septet—“a commanding avant-jazz ensemble” (Time Out New York). Beeferman has composed two operas with librettist Charlotte Jackson: “The Rat Land,” praised as “complex and daringly modern” by The New York Times, and “The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera,” scenes of which have been performed to sold-out theater and nightclub audiences in downtown Manhattan. His music has been performed by New York City Opera orchestra, Momenta Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, California EAR Unit, St. Urban Concerts, Talea Ensemble, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, and others. He has received commissions from the MAP Fund, Fromm Foundation, the BMI Foundation, and Concert Artists Guild, three BMI Student Composer Awards, a Tanglewood fellowship, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Copland House, and Ucross. An active member of the New York music scene for over 25 years, Beeferman has performed at venues and series including Roulette, MATA, and the Vision Festival. Beeferman’s recordings are available on zOaR, Minor Amusements, Different Track, Clang, Innova, OutNow, Generate, Genuin, and Summit Records. He is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow.
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Gordon Beeferman: Other Life Forms
by Troy Dostert
A keyboardist and composer with ambitious reach, Gordon Beeferman creates music designed to surprise and challenge. He specializes in avant-garde contexts, whether with his Organ Trio (alongside guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer Ches Smith) or in a larger septet format, with Music for an Imaginary Band (Generate Records, 2009). And then there's his work writing operas with librettist Charlotte Jackson, the most recent of which is The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera. So it's not really a shock to encounter ...
Continue ReadingGordon Beeferman: Other Life Forms
by Glenn Astarita
New York-based pianist, composer Gordon Beeferman is also a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, in addition to his multifarious career spanning several music genres and extensive collaborations with a diverse array of artists and bands. On this outing he leads a quartet, featuring a notable cast of like-minded futurists. Beeferman is armed with a distinct compositional style and is perhaps an under-recognized leader amid the 'new' music vibe, where progressive jazz is fused with classical, ...
Continue ReadingAlbum Review
Gordon Beeferman: Four Parts Five
by Alberto Bazzurro
Disco assolutamente futile, persino fastidioso, nel suo incessante, inesorabile, impietoso rimuginare attorno a pochi patterns che vengono ripetuti per qualche decina di secondi (o più) ciascuno, per passare poi al successivo, e così via. Questo, lungo i quattro brani che compongono l'album (appena mezzoretta di musica, ma che fatica arrivare ciò nonostante alla fine!), senza soluzioni altre da un'autoreferenzialità totale e -come dicevamo -veramente fastidiosa, creativamente impalpabile da qualunque proiezione la si guardi. Nulla o quasi di ...
Continue ReadingJeff Arnal/Gordon Beeferman/Seth Misterka: Rara Avis
by John Kelman
Consisting of three relatively wet-behind-the-ears yet nonetheless daring improvisers, Rara Avis is notable for its obstinate devotion to pure instrumental sounds. Most artists working in the modern creative/avant-garde area of jazz are want to use prepared instruments, play inside the piano box or bow cymbals; here percussionist Jeff Arnal, electric pianist Gordon Beeferman and saxophonist Seth Misterka stick to a more traditional approach. Still, they manage to coax a variety of sounds out of their respective instruments, creating an inventive ...
Continue ReadingMarch 5 At New England Conservatory: Gordon Beeferman, Eden MacAdam-Somer, & Joe Morris Embrace Improvisation, Classical Virtuosity, Roots Music And Avant-jazz Innovation
Source:
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
NEC’s Contemporary Musical Arts presents a special residency concert with composer, pianist, and improviser Gordon Beeferman joined by CMA Department Chair Eden MacAdam-Somer (voice/violin/foot percussion), CMA and Jazz Studies faculty Joe Morris (guitar) and CMA students on Thursday, March 5 in Jordan Hall. The program features Beeferman's works, drawing on a multitude of genres and influences, including songs, compositions and improvisations on solo piano, and scored improvisations for trio and large ensemble. Admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is free ...
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Gordon Beeferman/Jeff Arnal October 6 @ Roulette
Source:
All About Jazz
Friday - October 6, 2006
ROGUE STATES CD Release Concert
Gordon Beeferman (piano) Jeff Arnal (percussion)
Roulette 20 Greene St (between Canal and Grand St) New York, NY 8:30 PM $15 / Students $10 / Members free www.roulette.org www.generaterecords.net/gen11.htm
“The pianist Gordon Beeferman and the percussionist Jeff Arnal create tightly knit improvisations that range from the angular to the pastoral"--The New Yorker ...
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“Beeferman’s musical world is a very special place that should not go unnoticed.” — Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz
“A wide-eyed polymath who masterfully toes the lines of myriad genres” (Brooklyn Rail)
“Packed with humour, mischief, and an urge to dance” (The Wire)
"Complex and daringly modern...Mr. Beeferman’s music, with its skittish melodic lines and pungent atonal harmony, is gritty, fidgety and intriguing." - New York Times
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Gordon Beeferman
Location: New York City
Instrument: Piano
Born: August 23, 1976
