2017 release. Dan Tepfer - whom New York magazine dubbed "one of the
moment's most adventurous and relevant musicians" - has criss-crossed
the globe over the past several years. The broad success of the
pianist's 2011 album Goldberg Variations / Variations - an
improvisational exploration of J.S. Bach's masterpiece - led to packed
concerts from London's Wigmore Hall, Chicago's Ravinia Festival and SF
Jazz in San Francisco to events in Berlin, Prague, Tokyo, Vancouver and
Manhattan's Le Poisson Rouge, with The New York Times declaring the
latter performance "riveting and inspiring." Tepfer followed that with
Small Constructions, a studio-savvy 2013 album with reed player Ben
Wendel, as well as his ongoing collaboration with sax icon Lee Konitz.
Then there was Tepfer's composing of fractal music for classical groups
and his fascinating algorithmic music project, Acoustic Informatics. Now
- kicking off what will be one of his most productive years yet -
Tepfer presents Eleven Cages, a trio album with bassist Thomas Morgan
and drummer Nate Wood to be released by Sunnyside Records on June 2,
2017. The seemingly telepathic trio performs a sequence of hook-heavy
Tepfer originals, two free-improv pieces and irresistible
interpretations of a classic ballad (Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy")
and an iconic pop hit (Beyoncé's "Single Ladies"). Eleven Cages features
Tepfer returning to the jazz piano trio format for the first time since
the 2010 album Five Pedals Deep (a Sunnyside release with Thomas Morgan
and Ted Poor). According to The New York Times review, Five Pedals Deep
saw Tepfer "unfurl his lyricism in great silvery arcs." All Music Guide
described the album as "inventive" and "intense, " while Stereophile
judged it simply "beautiful." For Eleven Cages, Tepfer sought to explore
the concept of freedom within boundaries, as well as the malleability
of time in music. The pianist - bred to blend his right brain and left
brain with rare parity - began classical piano studies at age 6 at the
Paris Conservatoire-Paul Dukas. But he took a circuitous route to a jazz
career, first earning a bachelor's degree in astrophysics from
Scotland's University of Edinburgh (with his thesis on "Numerical
Simulations of Galactic Superwinds"). After playing extensively on the
jazz scene in college and even enjoying a brief stint as an opera
conductor, he graduated in 2005 from Boston's New England Conservatory,
completing his masters under the guidance of Danilo Perez. The acclaimed
recordings, prize-winning performances and adventurous collaborations
that have followed only underscore the fact that Tepfer is an ambitious
thinker in music.
