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Organ Trio: SECOND BEING

Gordon Beeferman’s ORGAN TRIO, with guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer/percussionist Kate Gentile, riffs on the classic jazz organ trio through a 21st-century lens. Each piece is an intricately structured mix of written and free-improvised aesthetics, turning on a dime between precise ensemble passages and freewheeling solos. SECOND BEING includes five very different pieces that take ballad, blues, big band, minimalism, and modernism to subversive and unexpected ends

THE SWAY (2022)

Solo violin/voice, 15 minutes. Commissioned by Eden MacAdam-Somer and the New England Conservatory Department of Contemporary Musical Arts for the Department’s 50th Anniversary season. Premiere November 15, 2022, Jordan Hall, Boston

GLOW

GLOW offers eleven improvised pieces from a quartet of uniquely inventive virtuosos: Shelley Hirsch (voice), Michael Foster (saxophones), Gordon Beeferman (piano, electric piano, and Hammond organ), and the late Michael Evans (drums and percussion). A mind-meld of far-out jazz, noise, and spoken word, among other influences, and featuring improvised texts by Hirsch, the pieces range from intricate sonic landscapes to deadpan comedy. Hardly your average album of improvised music, the album could be described at times as “Anton Webern at the Café Carlyle.” Recorded in New York City in June 2021, this is the last studio recording Michael Evans made before his sudden and untimely death two months later.

“It’s music – and, why not, theatre – of top quality and class… Likely the most rewarding release of spontaneous compositions I heard in the first half of 2023. Compelling action, individual talent galore and unarguable intelligence are on display across the entire program. You have no excuses to miss this one.” – Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

ALERTA! (ANTIFASCISTA) (2020)

for soprano, violin, clarinet, piano, 12 min. Written for the Washington Square Chamber Music Society. Texts: anti-fascist slogans and chants in Spanish, Greek, and Yiddish, plus speeches, interviews, and other writings by Crimethinc, Marek Edelman, Robert F. Williams, Clara Zetkin, and others. Premiere: April 15, 2023, Talea Ensemble, Washington Square Chamber Music Society at Tenri Cultural Center, New York City

TUNNEL VISIONS

Tunnel Visions (2015) commissioned by Peter Pohly for Stephanie Griffin and the 2015 Momenta Festival. Performed by Stephanie Griffin (viola) and Gordon Beeferman (piano).

ALPHAWHORE

ALPHAWHORE, the trio of Chris Cochrane (guitar), Kevin Shea (drums) and Gordon Beeferman (organ), performs fiery, sexy, often brutal, and always compelling improvised music, which they have collectively developed out of their experiences in avant-garde jazz, rock, noise, new-music, and other scenes. This is their first album, a 30-minute EP recorded in the summer of 2016, available exclusively on Bandcamp.

ORGAN TRIO

Gordon Beeferman, on his first full album playing Hammond organ, is joined by two remarkable collaborators, guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer/percussionist Ches Smith. Beeferman’s set of compositions riff on the classic jazz organ trio through a 21st-century lens. Completed at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming in the fall of 2016, these intricate and extended pieces traverse unusual moods, forms, rhythms, and sound-worlds, opening up to feature each member of the trio, each unique virtuoso improvisers in their own right. The album is produced by guitarist Chris Cochrane (No Safety, THEM, Collapsible Shoulder).

“Beeferman splatters and smashes his way through a cosmic and complex set of psychedelic jazz and rock fusion-minded freak-outs, invoking Sun Ra and electric Miles.” –Brooklyn Rail

“Intricate interplay revealing impressive themes and variations.” –Jazzweekly.com

ORGAN TRIO

Gordon Beeferman has created two albums of music for a new organ trio, collaborating with two remarkable musicians — guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer/percussionist Kate Gentile (replacing Ches Smith). Beeferman’s compositions for the trio traverse and investigate unusual moods, forms, rhythms, and sound-worlds. These intricate, all-consuming compositions open up to feature each musician, each unique virtuoso improvisers in their own right.

For more information

Other Life Forms

OTHER LIFE FORMS is an innovative avant-jazz quartet led by composer Gordon Beeferman (piano & organ), with Stephanie Griffin (viola), Pascal Niggenkemper (bass) and Andrew Drury (drums). Virtuosic, intense, and quirky, Beeferman’s compositions have a unique approach to integrating complex written charts with collective improvisation. The members of O.L.F. are among the forefront of the creative contemporary music scene, and bring a wide array of experience and sensibility to the music. This is their debut album, released November 2018 on Different Track Recordings.

“Beeferman’s musical world is a very special place that should not go unnoticed.” — Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz

“Idiosyncratic compositional strategy… thoughtful structure but with an unmistakable spirit of uncanny exploration… This is music that isn’t afraid to take its time; Beeferman prefers patient, devious statements to overt, brash ones… an imaginative set of music…more than enough to keep Beeferman on the radar when it comes to forward-thinking, creative approaches to jazz and improvised music.” — Troy Dostert, All About Jazz

“The ‘jazz’ root in Beeferman’s music is indisputable. But so are the modern classical, advanced improvisation, non-committable-to-memory atonal whatchamacallit roots. The scores may look complex on paper but, for some miracle, the acoustic outcome sounds as natural as spring water.” — Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

DAFNA NAPHTALI and GORDON BEEFERMAN: PULSING DOT

Dafna Naphtali and Gordon Beeferman perform duet pieces for voice and piano with kinetic sound processing, fractal rhythms, and general polyphonic/kaleidophonic disturbances. Beeferman fleshes out protean fragments into strikingly visceral structures and landscapes that take the piano to its limit. Naphtali augments her high-energy live Max/MSP processing of Beeferman’s piano with extended vocal techniques/sounds/multi-modal singing and her custom take on hand and voice-activated electronics. Not just manipulation of live sound, this is a feedback loop of seamless interaction between two remarkable musicians. These pieces are improvised and were created entirely in the moment without overdubs or edits.

 

“An extraordinary and stunning release…extended and multidimensional..almost of orchestral and theatrical proportions to use an inadequate comparison. The music really breathes and is full of energy, not losing itself in meaningless experimentalism and stays focused and very together.” (Vital Weekly)
“live interaction between the collaborators makes for some truly groundbreaking improvisation” (Peter Thelen, Exposé)
“The well-thought-out evolution…slowly unfolds into something more like a sonic daylight.” (Chain D.L.K.)
“Naphtali & Beeferman have hit the nail on the head with this release.. a feedback loop of seamless interaction” (Sigil of Brass)
“Quirky & playful… unpredictable, yet constantly active … balances scuttling tension with slurred alien tribal-ness.” (Musique Machine)

FOUR PARTS FIVE

Four Parts Five is a quintet tour de force that takes virtuosic rhythmic ensemble playing to a new level. It’s a densely harmonious, frequently hair-raising, and deeply groovy piece of music: imagine György Ligeti, Philip Glass, Igor Stravinsky, Steve Coleman and Conlon Nancarrow having a dance party – with Morton Feldman and Count Basie watching wryly from the corner. Performed by an ensemble consisting of Beeferman (on piano and Hammond B3 organ), Peter Hess (woodwinds), Anders Nilsson (electric guitar), James Ilgenfritz (bass), and Adam Gold (drums), the album’s four pieces showcase tight, disciplined ensemble playing that spans the sparse, punctuated spaces of “1” and the spiraling, expansive curls of “4” with equal facility.

“Packed with humour, mischief, and an urge to dance.” –The Wire

GORDON BEEFERMAN TRIO: OUT IN HERE

Pianist/composer Gordon Beeferman turns the traditional piano trio inside out with these nine completely improvised pieces. “Out in Here” documents a subversive and elegant mind-meld with two exceptionally creative collaborators, bassist James Ilgenfritz and drummer/percussionist Michael Evans. This entirely acoustic record conjures up electronica, noise, free jazz, and new-complexity, in a sublimely creative fashion. Disquieting, occasionally absurdist, and beautiful, this is music for our surreal age of unpredictability and unrest.

THE ENCHANTED ORGAN: A PORN OPERA

“The Enchanted Organ” is a burlesque opera that celebrates sexuality and satirizes the porn industry, while parodying four hundred years of the operatic tradition. Composer/librettist team Gordon Beeferman and Charlotte Jackson bring wit and polymorphous perversity to this journey through “the Magical Kingdom of Porn,” a place where past and present, straight and queer, and dead and living converge. Drawing on influences as diverse as classic 70s porn soundtracks, baroque oratorio, Ancient Greek hymns, and the Nutcracker ballet, this work-in-progress is as close as you’ll get (or want to get!) to “aural sex.”

Duration: two hours, with one intermission. Instrumentation: alto sax/recorder/bass clarinet, violin, guitar/elec. guitar, bass/electric bass, organ/piano/harpsichord (2 players), drumset

Act I was premiered as a work-in-progress at Dixon Place, June 22-23, 2012, directed by Beth Greenberg.


“An Edifying Masque” from Act Two, performed at Operotica, New York City, January 2015

For more information, including videos and photos of our 2012 preview production of Act One, visit www.enchantedorgan.com.

SYMPHONY #1 (1996-97)

for full orchestra, 25 min. Third movement (La Aurora, 15 min.) premiered by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Orchestra Hall, Chicago, conducted by Cliff Colnot, April 11, 1999; additional performance by Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, Los Angeles, June 1999. First and second movements presented in a public reading by the Minnesota Orchestra, at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, March 2002.

HABITATS (2011)

flute, viola, trombone, percussion, 25 minutes. Commissioned by the American Music Center Live Music for Dance program for choreographer Anita Cheng. Premiere April 28-May 1, 2011, Abrons Arts Center, New York, by Jen Baker, Stephanie Griffin, Margaret Lancaster, David Shively.

Shorter version for nine instruments (flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, horn, percussion, violin, viola, cello, bass). 10 minutes. Premiered by International Contemporary Ensemble, April 2012, at New York University.

STRING QUARTET (2006)

In two movements, 16 minutes. Premiered at the Deer Valley Chamber Music Festival, Park City, Utah, August 5, 2006 by the California Quartet. NYC premiere by the Momenta Quartet, November 9, 2009 at Serial Underground at Cornelia Street Café; additional performance by Momenta at Roulette, December 2010.

BURNT SIENNA (2006)

solo bassoon, 4 minutes. Commissioned by the Albany Symphony. Premiere: March 4, 2007, Albany NY. Version for bass clarinet premiered by Amy Advocat, October 12, 2010, New England Conservatory, Boston. Version for baritone saxophone premiered by Josh Sinton, Anti-Social Music Drinks Alone at Douglass Street Music Collective, May 9, 2013.