Philip Yaeger

Born in Northern Maine, Philip Yaeger learned to sing as soon as he could talk. Improvisation came naturally to him and by the age of fourteen he was playing engagements with a jazz trio - not an easy thing to accomplish in a town of ten thousand souls.

The stations of his life thus far: William Paterson University: B.A. or B.M. (I can never remember) in Jazz Performance; studied w/Ed Neumeister, Steve Turre, Conrad Herwig, Rufus Reid, et al).
New York City: the Lower East Side free scene - often as an apprentice/observer but also occasionally as a participant, also numerous work in soul, pop, rock and Afro-beat.
Philadelphia: that fantastic West Philly do-it-yourself scene, work with Tim Motzer, Ursula Rucker, Elliot Levin et al.
Graz, Austria: Master of Arts from the Arts University of Graz; further studies with Ed Neumeister and others.
Vienna, where he currently lives and happily works with whomever will have him. He plays throughout Europe (and, when he's Stateside, there as well), is the house composer for the Jazzorchester Vorarlberg, and is regularly called upon to write for any number of different ensembles, ranging from contemporary classical to jazz to art-pop. His debut album as a leader, "Hunter", is available on Jazzwerkstatt Records.

Further name-dropping: Ari Hoenig, David Murray, Joe Zawinul (fleeingly), Elliott Sharp, Jon Sass. In Austria, people and organizations who have been rearranging the music landscape for the last few years: the JazzWerkstatt Wien, Studio Dan, Elektro Guzzi.
Yaeger also works as a translator and writes a great deal.

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