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Ted Hefko

Ted Hefko and his band The Thousandaires bring original stories to life with the spontaneity of jazz, the bare-bones sensibility of early folk and the vibrancy of New Orleans. Ted Hefko and The Thousandaires encompasses the full range of his musical experiences and talents, with Ted strumming a guitar while he sings his original lyrics before switching to tenor sax or clarinet for his solos.

After several years living in Brooklyn, writing, touring and recording, Ted is happy to once again reside in his musical home: New Orleans, Louisiana. His latest album Distillations of The Blues is playing all over North America and the English speaking world and he’s looking forward to taking his new line-up on tour in 2016.

Born in Madison, WI, Ted developed an appreciation for a wide variety of jazz and world music at an early age. He moved to New Orleans in 1994 to study music and broaden his horizons, and he received a B.F.A in Jazz Studies at The University of New Orleans in 2000. He moved to New York in 2003, to further his development and explore a different musical environment. It was in this context that he began to come into his own as a songwriter and bandleader, releasing a string of albums that contained not only sax and clarinet solo but original songs and lyrics that draw as heavily on folk singers such as Bob Dylan and John Prine as they do on jazz composers such as Duke Ellinton and Fats Waller.

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"[Distillations of the Blues] delivers introspective lyricism with a cabaret swagger, capturing a range of emotion - the star attraction here is Hefko’s showcase of multi-instrument prowess." Frank Etheridge in Offbeat September 29, 2015

"A wonderfully wild ride, this is a distillation of what it is to make an underground record that somehow everyone finds out about. From the heart and the gut as well as the cerebellum, this is simply a gasser that'll keep you on board and wondering if you heard what you think you just heard." Midwest Record, May 18. 2015

"[Distillations Of The Blues] was recorded in Brooklyn and New Orleans and immerses you in an atmosphere bluesy, jazzy swing and country twangs. The album is a series of songs that will not leave you unmoved, the perfect backdrop supervisor of the balmy summer evenings, which will follow. Eric Schuurmans www.rootstime.be june 10th 2015

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, tenor

Location

New Orleans

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

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