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Jeff Denson

In the current jazz environment, the art of jazz expression and the world of formal education are fully intertwined. Serious dedication to either path takes powerful commitment, but fully pursuing both demands a level of diligence and focus that is immensely challenging. Jeff Denson is a man who is meeting that challenge.

Fully immersed in both worlds since the late 1990s, the bassist/composer has balanced a full career as sideman and leader while taking a full course of studies leading to his doctorate. In addition to maintaining an intense performing and touring schedule in the U.S. and Europe while in school – including a long relationship with legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz that continues to this day – Jeff has also taught extensively all over both continents.

Today he is a full professor at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, California and the Director of its Outreach Program designed to develop the Bay Area’s most talented musicians while making the local scene a productive and fertile environment for jazz. While this intensive level of activity is easily a full-time job, Jeff takes a relentless 24/7 approach, composing for and leading three distinct ensembles, participating in a few cooperative groups and working on his three-act Chamber Opera, WEBS.

At first glance, it might seem that Jeff Denson, like so many of the younger generation that has emerged in the past 20 years, is a product of the formalized jazz education system. This is simply not the case. In reality, he has developed in the age-old tradition that dates back to the earliest days of jazz – listen to the masters, sharing in oral traditions through his personal mentors, and straight-up hands-on experience in the trenches.

“I have the highest degree that a person can earn in music; however I owe a great deal of my ‘education’ to my experiences on the ‘street’ or on the bandstand.”

Jeff’s “bandstand” credentials are indeed impressive. He has recorded 11 albums as leader/co-leader and over a dozen more as a featured sideman - four with Konitz (including live recordings at the Village Vanguard and Birdland). Over the past 15 years, he has shared the bandstand with an impressive and diverse array of remarkable musicians including Anthony Davis, Mark Dresser, Joe Lovano, Jane Ira Bloom, Kenny Werner, Dave Douglas, Bob Moses, Giacomo Gates, Howard Alden and many more.

Born in Arlington, Virginia – just outside of Washington, D.C. – in 1976, Jeff grew up in a fertile musical environment and began playing the alto sax at 8 years old, switching to electric bass in high school. His mother’s love of the Beatles became his own, and he also discovered R&B, especially Stevie Wonder, James Brown & the J.B.’s and Marvin Gaye– particularly affected by the legendary Motown Records bassist James Jameson. By the time he was completing his high school education, Jeff was playing and singing with his own funk and rock bands. His interest in jazz started with fusion – Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke – but shifted direction one fateful day. Like countless musicians over the past 50+ years it was a chance encounter with Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue – specifically Paul Chambers playing lead on So What – that provided an epiphany. Soon after, Charles Mingus’ Haitian Fight Song locked the young bassist into this new direction, both as a player and an artist.

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2
Album Review

Jeff Denson, Romain Pilon and Brian Blade: Finding Light

Read "Finding Light" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Boston's Berklee College of Music has the reputation as an incubator of some top rated musicians including Quincy Jones, Diana Krall and Melissa Etheridge among others. So it should come as no surprise that the threesome attached to this recording, bassist Jeff Denson, guitarist Romain Pilon and drummer Brian Blade were all standout students and friends while simultaneously attending Berklee. Like many other musicians, the two terrible years of the Covid-19 pandemic, put many communal activities ...

9
Album Review

Jeff Denson, Romain Pilon, Brian Blade: Between Two Worlds

Read "Between Two Worlds" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


American bassist Jeff Denson and French guitarist Romain Pilon not only became professional acquaintances, but also great friends, when they began their studies at the much-revered Boston Berklee College of Music at the end of the last century. On Between Two Worlds the two celebrate their twenty years of on-and-off collaborating, with leading drum wizard Brian Blade completing the trio. In a set of mostly clear structures and highly melodic interplay between all involved, a crunchy guitar effect paired with ...

4
Album Review

Jeff Denson: Outside My Window

Read "Outside My Window" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Bassist Jeff Denson has been showing his abilities as a singer on several recent recordings. He performed a couple of The Beatles' songs on the San Francisco String Trio's May I Introduce To You and did Jeff Buckley's “So Real" on the Negative Press Project's Eternal Life: Jeff Buckley Songs and Sounds. Here he devotes an entire album to his vocals, singing the work of Buckley, Peter Gabriel, Abbey Lincoln and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, in addition to several of his ...

Album Review

Jeff Denson Quartet: Concentric Circles

Read "Concentric Circles" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Quartetto classico con piano, contrabbasso e batteria, questo a nome del compositore e contrabbassita Jeff Denson si distingue per la presenza come fiato di un fagotto, strumento decisamente atipico, nelle mani di Paul Hanson. Questa particolarità caratterizza un lavoro per il resto abbastanza convenzionale, incentrato perlopiù su ritmi molto serrati e composto interamente da brani originali -tutti a firma di Denson -eccetto il solo conclusivo “I Got It Bad," omaggio a Duke Ellington per solo contrabbasso. Aldilà del ...

2
Album Review

Jeff Denson Quartet: Concentric Circles

Read "Concentric Circles" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


The immediate standout feature of Jeff Denson's group is that he uses a bassoon as the reed instrument. That gives an interesting twist to the quartet's sound. Denson's compositions are a free-ranging mix of fast-paced progressive jazz and pretty ballads. The nimble, woody tone of Paul Hanson's bassoon gives an intellectual feel to the shifting tempos of pieces like “City Life" and “Look Before You Leap" that suggests the quirky music of old Canterbury Sound jazz-rock bands like ...

5
Album Review

Jeff Denson Trio: Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz

Read "Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Part of the beauty and challenge in following the late career recordings of saxophone icon Lee Konitz can be traced to the way he continues to grow and evolve, inspired by the many and varied musicians he works with and, in turn, inspiring them. Anybody who's heard him wildly deconstruct a standard with pianist Dan Tepfer, paint ethereal fever dreams with guitarist Bill Frisell, or bound along with saxophonist Grace Kelly can attest to that fact. Konitz is always himself, ...

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Performance / Tour

Ridgeway Arts Presents Internationally Acclaimed Pianist/Composer Vadim Neselovskyi And Renowned Bassist Jeff Denson In Three Bay Area Concerts May 5-7 In San Jose, Napa And Berkeley

Ridgeway Arts Presents Internationally Acclaimed Pianist/Composer Vadim Neselovskyi And Renowned Bassist Jeff Denson  In Three Bay Area Concerts May 5-7 In San Jose, Napa And Berkeley

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

Ridgeway Arts, the new non-profit dedicated to developing the Bay Area educational and performance scene, presents three concerts May 5-7 by internationally renowned pianist/composer Vadim Neselovskyi. Neselovskyi will also conduct workshops with area students. Classically trained at conservatories in his native Odessa and in Germany, Neselovskyi honed his jazz chops on German jazz stages and at Berklee College of Music. There, he was discovered by Gary Burton, who made him a member of his Next Generation band. Neselovskyi now tours ...

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Education

Renowned Jazz Bassist / Composer / Educator / Community Activist Jeff Denson Spearheads Ridgeway Arts, Inc. New Non-Profit Serving Bay-Area Jazz Scene

Renowned Jazz Bassist / Composer / Educator / Community Activist Jeff Denson Spearheads Ridgeway Arts, Inc. New Non-Profit Serving Bay-Area Jazz Scene

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

Renowned bassist/composer/educator/community activist Jeff Denson and a small group of colleagues have formed Ridgeway Arts, Inc—a multi-faceted San Francisco Bay Area-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. Two years in the planning, Ridgeway Arts is built upon a series of initiatives designed to enhance and fortify the Bay Area scene, and to make a strong contribution to the national landscape of jazz and the arts in general. While Jeff Denson’s vision provides an extremely significant force, the spirit of partnership and collective effort ...

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Recording

"Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz" To Be Released July 7 By Denson's Ridgeway Records

"Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz" To Be Released July 7 By Denson's Ridgeway Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Bassist/composer Jeff Denson has enjoyed a richly rewarding musical and personal relationship with alto saxophone legend Lee Konitz since 2007, when Denson joined Konitz’s well-traveled New Quartet. The latest chapter in their association involves the recording, at Berkeley’s Fantasy Studios in February of this year, of Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz, with pianist Dan Zemelman and drummer Jon Arkin. Scheduled for release by Denson’s Ridgeway Records on July 7, the CD explores new music, offers fresh takes on seldom-played ...

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Recording

Two New Duo CDs By Bassist/Composer Jeff Denson Due April 15

Two New Duo CDs By Bassist/Composer Jeff Denson Due April 15

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Best known for his work in the celebrated cooperative trio Minsarah (which he founded with Florian Weber and Ziv Ravitz) and his seven-year tenure in the Lee Konitz New Quartet, bassist and composer Jeff Denson has also led a highly regarded quartet featuring Weber, Ralph Alessi, and Dan Weiss. Now Denson is preparing to showcase other aspects of his virtuosity and exquisite musicality with the April 15 release, by the San Diego-based pfMENTUM label, of two very different duo albums, ...

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Performance / Tour

East Coast Tour Dates Announced By Bassist Jeff Denson & His Quartet

East Coast Tour Dates Announced By Bassist Jeff Denson & His Quartet

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Bassist and composer Jeff Denson introduced his commanding new quartet last year on the CD Secret World (Between the Lines), followed by a West Coast fall tour. This spring, Denson has scheduled several East Coast dates to feature the band, which consists of German-born pianist Florian Weber, captivating trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and the singularly versatile drummer Dan Weiss. They will bring their revelatory music to the Lilypad in Cambridge on 3/30; Twins Jazz, Washington, DC, 4/2; and Cornelia Street Café ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Seven Shades of Violet

Ridgeway Records
2023

buy

Finding Light

Ridgeway Records
2022

buy

Between Two Worlds

Ridgeway Records
2019

buy

Outside My Window

Ridgeway Records
2018

buy

Concentric Circles

Ridgeway Records
2016

buy

Seven Shades of Violet

From: Seven Shades of Violet
By Jeff Denson

Daily Jubilee of Dancing Herbie D.

From: Finding Light
By Jeff Denson

Song of A Solitary Crow

From: Between Two Worlds
By Jeff Denson

For a Brand New Day

From: Outside My Window
By Jeff Denson

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