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Steven Feifke: Kinetic
Courtesy Chris Lee
Steven Feifke
pianob.1991
Opening with the title track, a burner featuring the leader, trumpeter
Gabriel King Medd
trumpet
Ulysses Owens, Jr.
drumsb.1982
While that track best reflects Feifke's thoughts on the matter, it's but one of many originals that live up to the theme. The jaunty "Word Travels Fast," which provides a platform for Feifke, Medd, tenor saxophonist
Lucas Pino
saxophone, tenorb.1987
Jimmy Macbride
drumsb.1991
Bob Mintzer
saxophoneb.1953
Sam Dillon
saxophone, tenorAdditional works—"Unveiling of a Mirror," playing with perception while creating "a juxtaposition between seeing things for what they are and seeing things as you want them to be," and chart expansions on "Wollongong" and
Horace Silver
piano1928 - 2014
Veronica Swift
vocalsHaving been introduced to each other through trumpeter/vocalist
Benny Benack III
trumpet and vocalsIn framing this dynamic collection as potential willed into existence, Feifke speaks clearly to both process and the profound nature of kinship that drive this music. But the presence of kinetic energy isn't just limited to this specific section of his story. In fact, it's an essential aspect of this artist's entire professional journey in music. Over the course of the past decade, Feifke has been a man in perpetual motion. He's twice been a semi-finalist in the
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown
saxophone, tenorb.1989
Alexa Tarantino
saxophone, altob.1992
Veronica Swift
vocals
Randy Brecker
trumpetb.1945
Steve Tyrell
vocalsb.1944
Sean Jones
trumpetb.1978
Katie Thiroux
bass
Ken Peplowski
woodwindsb.1959
Growing up in Lexington, Massachusetts, Feifke would use the aforementioned energy to find his way over to the piano as a toddler. "My mom said that I was drawn to the piano that we had at our house. She saw that I liked the instrument, and she's a great amateur pianist, so she started teaching me when I was four." Those lessons gave Feifke an introduction to the 88s, and early studies with another teacher helped to lay a foundation for success. But it was his third instructor who truly set him on his path. "When I was seven or eight, I switched to an amazing teacher named Susan Capestro. And Susan was a formative influence in my learning process. Basically, she was the first person to teach me about composition and improvisation, and that those two things aren't all that different. Every single week I had an assignment from her to write a new composition. But I didn't really realize that that's what it was at the time."
In sitting at the bench with Capestro, Feifke arrived at the juncture where imagination and actuation intersect. "She would basically say, 'OK, play a waterfall.' And I was a kid. So, of course, I took my hands and ran them down the length of the piano. And then she would lead me from there, saying, 'Great! Now what happens when the water hits the bottom?' And I would think, and then just smash my hands down on the lower register of the piano. And then she'd ask, 'What happens to the water afterwards? Does it turn into mist?' So basically, she started walking me through this whole process that, to this day, stays with me when I write. It's the connectivity between music and real life—imagery, expression, emotion. How I deal with those things is due in a large part to the fact that, from a young age, Susan trained me [to know how to] express my innermost thoughts and feelings through music. I was eight at the time, and I had no idea that that's what she was doing, but she did it. She also worked on ear training, taught me my first bebop licks, my first voicings, my first songs. I still have my first Real Book from my lessons with her, which is all marked up. And she would invite me to sit in with a Boston-area big band that she played with. At a certain point, Susan started buying me records, too—Infinity (Impulse!, 1995) by
McCoy Tyner
piano1938 - 2020
Concurrent with (and following) that time with Capestro, Feifke was exploring jazz in school ensemble settings. Working under Jeff Leonard in the Lexington High School Jazz Band and its feeder program, he received some solid direction in everything from performing to the art of transcribing comping rhythms. And when Leonard brought pianist
Makoto Ozone
pianob.1961
Oscar Peterson
piano1925 - 2007
Over that significant stretch of time, as Feifke developed his technique and taste(s) as a prodigious child and teenage pianist, he simultaneously explored his passion for writing. "Honestly, my favorite thing to do was to write music. I just remember being at sports practice as a kid and thinking, 'Man, I wonder what this chord sounds like?' [laughs]. It was in my head—[I was] piecing together notes of a chord—and I would go home and just write these things out. In high school I would write out arrangements for septet because that was the instrumentation of the small band at Lexington. The combo I was in just happened to be alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, guitar, piano, bass and drums. So that's what I grew up writing for and that's the instrumentation on my first record, Peace in Time."
A fascination for the sound and mechanics of big band writing—the work and language of everybody from
Thad Jones
trumpet1923 - 1986
Jim McNeely
composer / conductorb.1949
Maria Schneider
composer / conductor
Dave Pietro
saxophone, altoFortunately, ambition and a desire to learn would right those problems as Feifke went on to learn from the ground up during his undergraduate years at New York University. "My roommate started teaching me to play saxophone. And it was the first time I learned that there's really a lot that you need to consider when you play. So I started to get a real experience for playing other instruments. I can't actually play them, but I learned enough on saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass and flute to kind of know how to do some damage with a pen. I learned what it actually felt like to try to play a high note on the trumpet and then a low note on the trumpet. And vice versa. And I started to understand what's very difficult. As a college freshman, I had never really reckoned with or thought about that before."
As Feifke began to discover the different nuances surrounding each horn, he continued to flex his fingers at the piano while exploring the art of the chart. Playing in trumpeter Brian Lynch's Artist's Ensemble at NYU helped him to increase his understanding of how to better flesh out combo arrangements and working under " data-original-title="" title="">Rich Shemaria in the NYU Jazz Orchestra gave him a chance to dig deeper into his passion for big band work. Eventually, Shemaria even gave Feifke a chance to try his hand at writing for that large ensemble. "At the end of every semester there would be a concert featuring a guest artist. And I started bugging Rich to let me write [laughs]," he confesses. "Basically, in my sophomore year I said, 'Mr. Shemaria, I would love to write a chart for this concert. Do you need any help writing something for this concert? I can write something for the band. I'd like to do that.' And he said, 'No, Steven. No. Thanks, but no thanks.' And I did that a few times, always getting the same answer. Then, when
Stefon Harris
vibraphoneb.1973
That experience, which was deepened with further opportunities to write for the ensemble, along with studies with
Gil Goldstein
pianoThat initial taste of leading a large ensemble whetted Feifke's appetite, as he explains: "Shortly after I released the first video I decided that I wanted to have a big band. So I started booking shows all around the city, literally anywhere I could play. I premiered the group at the 92Y Tribeca. And we played at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn and at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan. We were eventually booked at Dizzy's for the late set, so we played there a couple of times too. And that's when it started to feel real. That room and milestone were very special." Right then and there, in beginning to realize big dreams while contending with a small repertoire, Feifke also saw he had some work to do. "I knew that I needed to write more music and I had to have a regular gig in order to make things happen. So there was a place in Brooklyn called Sir D's [formerly known as The Tea Lounge] and I would play there twice a month. The gig literally paid nothing, so I would pay everybody out of pocket. And I would bring three or four new charts to every show, whether they were from scratch or simply updated charts. I really got my charts together there, with that gig."
Having developed the beginnings of a solid book and started to craft a clear identity, Feifke soon found another outlet for the band that would become something of a home base. "At a certain point, The Django started booking big bands," he shares. "So we played there once and it went well. And then we played there another time and it was also great. At one point in that period, [tenor saxophonist]
Ken Fowser
saxophone, tenorb.1982
As things took off for Feifke—with a big band in bloom, writing commissions coming in, sideman work filling out his schedule and teaching engagements entering the picture—it was clear that his trial run in music had been a success. So with his eyes on the future, and a self-diagnosed need to fine-tune his skills, Feifke returned to school. "I said, 'OK, this is working out and this is exactly what I want to be doing.' But I knew there were holes in my knowledge that I needed to fill. And I had always wanted to work with Jim McNeely, ever since I had played [his composition] 'Extra Credit' in the all-state band that Dave Pietro had conducted. So I applied to the Manhattan School of Music. I studied with Jim there and had some mind-boggling experiences taking a class with
Dave Liebman
saxophoneb.1946
Phil Markowitz
pianoIn the years during that period, as the band settled into a steady groove with performing and Feifke completed the music for Kinetic, the personnel began to solidify. Charter members and close friends helped to anchor the group as it evolved—Pino, Benack, Medd, alto saxophonist (and co-producer)
Andrew Gould
saxophone
Andrew Gutauskas
saxophone, baritoneJimmy Macbride
drumsb.1991
Different pieces of that puzzle would fall into place as Feifke steadily worked his way through his past and present. "Alexa Tarantino and I became friends at Skidmore Jazz Institute when we were in high school. And when I moved to the city I needed a second alto one night so I called her. Besides saxophone, she's just the most incredible flutist. I just remember hearing her on flute and thinking, 'I can write so much [for that] if she's in the band.' Then there's tenor saxophonist
Sam Dillon
saxophone, tenorArmando Vergara
trombone
Jennifer Wharton
trombone, bassMax Darché
trumpet
John Lake
trumpet
David Berger
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1949
Alex Wintz
guitarDan Chmielinski
bass
Bryan Carter
drumsb.1990
Joe Peri
drumsBy the time the two-day recording session for Kinetic came into view at the dawn of 2019, the Steven Feifke Big Band, with set personnel in place, had become a well-oiled machine. And the music most certainly bears that out. Its ten tracks offer strength in forward motion that stands in stark contrast to the stasis that settled over the land during the pandemic. Just over a year after those sessions, while the album was undergoing post-production work in various stages, COVID-19 brought live performances to a standstill. But nothing, of course, could stop Feifke from working. In addition to taking commissions, penning new material for his own ensemble and writing all of the charts for the Chad LB Virtual Big Band's Quarantine Standards (Self-Produced, 2020), Feifke formed a new enterprise in collaboration with trumpeter
Bijon Watson
trumpet
Lauren Sevian
saxophone, baritoneb.1979
Roxy Coss
saxophone, tenorb.1986
Mike Rodriguez
trumpetb.1979
John Fedchock
tromboneb.1957
Kurt Elling
vocalsb.1967
All of that activity bodes well for Feifke's musical future and, despite the current COVID-related hiatus for many if not most live big band performances, he remains optimistic about where things are headed and the state of large ensembles in the grand scheme of the scene. "Right before 1920 we had the Spanish Flu, right? And that ushered in The Roaring Twenties, which was a huge decade for jazz and big bands in general. There has to be some sort of parallel here. There are so many big bands around today. And there are so many incredible composers and arrangers and big band leaders on the scene right now. I can probably spend hours just talking about some of my favorite contemporaries—
Charlie Rosen
composer / conductorb.1990
Jihye Lee
composer / conductor
Miho Hazama
composer / conductorb.1986
Brian Krock
saxophoneRemy LeBouef
saxophone, altoTags
Interview
Steven Feifke
Dan Bilawsky
Lydia Liebman Promotions
Gabriel King Medd
Ulysses Owens, Jr.
Lucas Pino
Jimmy MacBride
Neil Hefti
bob mintzer
Sam Dillon
Horace Silver
Veronica Swift} while offering another dimension to the program.
Having been introduced to each other through trumpeter/vocalist {{m: Benny Benack III Thelonious Monk Chad Lefkowitz-Brown and Alexa Tarantino Veronica Swift 8-Bit Big Band randy brecker Steve Tyrell Sean Jones Katie Thiroux Ken Peplowski McCoy Tyner Jeff Leonard Makoto Ozone Dave Zoffer oscar peterson Thad Jones Jim McNeely Maria Schneider Ken Schaphorst Dave Pietro Brian Lynch Rich Shemaria Stefon Harris Gil Goldstein Ken Fowser Dave Liebman Phil Markowitz Andrew Gould Andrew Gutauskas Armando Vergara Jennifer Wharton Max Darche John Lake David Berger Robert Edward Jeffrey Miller Alex Wintz Dan Chmielinski Bryan Carter Joe Peri Bijon Watson Lauren Sevian Roxy Coss MIKE RODRIGUEZ John Fedchock Kurt Elling Charlie Rosen Jihye Lee Miho Hazama Brian Krock Remy Le Bouef Omar Thomas
Having been introduced to each other through trumpeter/vocalist {{m: Benny Benack III Thelonious Monk Chad Lefkowitz-Brown and Alexa Tarantino Veronica Swift 8-Bit Big Band randy brecker Steve Tyrell Sean Jones Katie Thiroux Ken Peplowski McCoy Tyner Jeff Leonard Makoto Ozone Dave Zoffer oscar peterson Thad Jones Jim McNeely Maria Schneider Ken Schaphorst Dave Pietro Brian Lynch Rich Shemaria Stefon Harris Gil Goldstein Ken Fowser Dave Liebman Phil Markowitz Andrew Gould Andrew Gutauskas Armando Vergara Jennifer Wharton Max Darche John Lake David Berger Robert Edward Jeffrey Miller Alex Wintz Dan Chmielinski Bryan Carter Joe Peri Bijon Watson Lauren Sevian Roxy Coss MIKE RODRIGUEZ John Fedchock Kurt Elling Charlie Rosen Jihye Lee Miho Hazama Brian Krock Remy Le Bouef Omar Thomas
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