| Biography: Jeff Curry was born in the small town of Lewisburg, West Virginia, on February 6th, 1978. Being influenced by his mother's guitar playing and his oldest sister's Kiss records, he thought the most natural thing to do was to play music. Trumpet was his first instrument. I didn't like trumpet very much because I knew that Gene Simmons would not have approved. He quickly gave up the trumpet and started mowing grass to earn money for a bass. Finally, with enough cash, he bought a used short-scale Sears bass and an amp with a ripped speaker from a friend on his little league baseball team. It was time to rock, and so he did.Jeff joined his first band with drummer Fen Ikner at age 13. They were composing their own songs and covering bands like Faith No More, Kiss, Primus, Rush, and Van Halen. He and Fen played together throughout Jr. High and High School.Jeff was growing tired of his record collection around the 9th grade and wanted to listen to something different. He heard from some older kids that National Public Radio sometimes played weird music late at night. A program called Jazz through the night grabbed his attention. Jazz scared me at first because I had never heard music like that before. At first I thought it was madness but then I started to hear basic themes and forms. The more I listened, the more I heard. I fell in love with the fact that the music could change, depending on what the other musicians in the band where doing at the time. I also just loved the sound of the string bass. After hearing Percy Heath in the Modern Jazz Quartet, he had to learn how to play the string bass.By this time, Jeff was a member of a Jazz group called Ghost Town swing. The members of Ghost Town Swing all played a big part of teaching Jeff the mechanics and the spirit of Jazz. Ghost Town Swing went on to record a CD and play around West Virginia, Virginia, and New York. The band is still making music today.After graduating High School, Jeff got a gig at the Greenbrier Hotel playing most popular styles of music six nights a week for a year and a half. During this time he was also a member of the instrumental rock band Zeudus. Zeudus recorded three albums that have yet to be released. Jeff still gets together with this group every year to play.In 1998 Jeff moved to Denton Texas to attend school at the University of North Texas. There, he studied with jazz bassist Lynn Seaton and classical bassist Jeff Braditich. While in school, he met and played with many amazingly talented musicians from all over the world. One of those talented musicians was his now wife Tomoko Ishikawa. Trying to keep up in class while being in two different bands that were working proved to be too much for him, so he decided that seeing the country and playing music was better education. He had the chance to tour with Little Jack Melody, and Waking Norman.Jeff moved to Tokyo Japan in February of 2004. There he leads his own quintet playing original material. He is playing with a variety of groups in the jazz and pop vein. Recently, he recorded a new album intitled "In Pieces." About Jeff's Music: When I write a song, it is a time capsule of what I am thinking and feeling. My songs now are not just jazz templates. Most of the stuff I'm writing now is more through composed and arranged. Although I still think improvisation is what makes this music exciting, I don't write vehicles for solos. I use improvisation as a section of music or a movement. I try to think of a song as being a work of art instead of just a tune. I want to make others think and feel differently. That is the way we get closer to the truth." |
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Jeff Curry
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Jeff Curry Releases "In Pieces"
Tokyo, Japan - April 4, 2005 bassist / composer Jeff Curry releases his new album "In Pieces." "In Pieces" features an acoustic jazz quintet playing all original music. The band, comprised of Neil Stalnaker on trumpet, Katsuya Moroto on piano, Norihiko Hibino on sax, and Masashi Tomikawa on drums is a tight knit, international group.
The music contained on "In Pieces" ranges from hard bop to free form and has an overall feeling of contemplative quite intensity. The title track is a cinematic, through-composed piece that really sparks the imagination. With each listen of the album you begin to understand that this composer is trying to tell a story. The songs are about the process of learning to be your own person. You can tell by reading the song titles that this is not going to be your standard jazz record.
" When I write a song, it is a time capsule of what I am thinking and feeling. My songs now are not just jazz templates. Most of the stuff I'm writing now is more through composed and arranged. Although I still think improvisation is what makes this music exciting, I don't write vehicles for solos. I use improvisation as a section of music or a movement. I try to think of a song as being a work of art instead of just a tune. I want to make others think and feel differently even if just for a moment. That is the way we get closer to the truth".
You can hear samples and purchase "In Pieces" directly off the Jeff Curry official website.
www.jeffcurrymusic.com
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