Born: January 6, 1980 Primary Instrument: Composer/conductor/leader
JEFF FAIRBANKS' PROJECT HANSORI, NYC-based 17-piece Jazz orchestra, plays the original Asian folk-influenced music of award-winning composer Jeff Fairbanks. The band's eagerly awaited debut album “Mulberry Street”, which won an American Music Center recording grant, will be released on 6/1/11 by Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. The album features Linda Oh, Fred Ho, Remy LeBeouf, Erica von Kleist, and Sebastian Noelle among a cast of 22 of New York's top Jazz musicians. In Jeff's unique blend of Asian folk music and modern Jazz, traditional Asian instruments join the big band on much of the tracks, and on certain live performances. Grammy-nominee Darcy Argue produced the recording sessions. Hansori means “one sound” in Korean, and depicts Fairbanks' vision of combining music of different cultures into one setting.
COMPOSER: Jeff Fairbanks has won a number of highly competitive awards for composing, including the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, BMI Charlie Parker Award, runner-up for the IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship, and recognition from the NY Youth Symphony. He has won two grants from the Queens Council on the Arts, and three grants from the American Music Center. Jeff's music has been performed at the Montreux, Vienne, Umbria, and North Sea Jazz festivals, Merkin Concert Hall, and at IAJE conferences, among other venues.
PERFORMER: Fairbanks is also a seasoned performer on trombone, having played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Carnival Cruise Lines, Busch Gardens, Wito Rodriguez, and many others. He has toured in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and throughout the U.S.
BACKGROUND: Fairbanks is a native of South Florida. After earning a Master degree in Jazz Composition from USF in 2005, he moved to New York to join the BMI Jazz Composer Workshop under Jim McNeely. Now, in addition to leading and writing for Project Hansori, Jeff freelances as a composer and performer, and lives in Queens with his wife and two children.
Awards:
Aaron Copland Fund Recording Program Grant 2011 American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant 2011 American Music Center Recording Grant 2010 Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Initiative 2010 American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant 2009 BMI Charlie Parker Award 2008 American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant 2008 IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship finalist 2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award 2006 First Music Award finalist 2006-2008 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award finalist 2003”His composition was so sophisticated and artful”. -Mike Wood, Queens Buzz
”an ambitious suite that mixed traditional Chinese gongs and musical gestures with more jazz-like passages”. -Joe Phillips, Numinous
”Jeff Fairbanks Wins Charlie Parker Composition Prize at BMI Jazz Showcase” -American Music Center, New Music Box
Primary Instrument:
Composer/conductor/leader
Location:
Sunnyside, NY
Willing to teach:
Intermediate to advanced students
Credentials/Background:
New York Jazz Academy
Graduate Teaching Assistant at University of South Florida 2004-2005
