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Michael Feinberg

Michael Feinberg is a very talented young bassist on both acoustic and electric. He is a bassist to keep an eye on, he has the flexibility energy, love of the music and intensity necessary to make a difference NOW!” John Patitucci

Hailed as a "musical prodigy turned evil genius" (spinner) bassist Michael Feinberg has quickly "become one of the premier young artists on the New York scene" (Jazz Inside Magazine). Raised in Atlanta, Ga. Feinberg began his music career on the bandstand as a member of Grammy nominated trumpeter Russell Gunn’s quartet. Performing every week at Churchill Grounds, 18 year old Feinberg held the bass chair for 6 months until he left for the University of Miami. As a sophomore at UM, Michael recorded his debut record “Harajuku" which helped him to earn a residency at Betty Carter’s Jazz Aheadat the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Back in Miami, Feinberg decided to take composition more seriously, and began work on his sophomore album 2009's "Evil Genius." Following the release of "Evil Genius" Michael was invited to headline at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Following graduation Feinberg pomptly moved to New York

In 2009 Feinberg began his graduate studies at NYU and quickly found himself working and performing with some members of the faculty including John Scofield, Jean Michel Pilc, George Garzone, Kenny Werner and Billy Drummond. Equally inspired by the wealth of talent from his peers around NYC he began working on his next record. After workshopping the music for over a year at the 55 bar, Smalls, and Fat Cat, Feinberg was ready to hit the studio and in 2010 he released "With Many Hands"  to critical acclaim including Bass Player Magazine, who featured Feinberg in its July 2011 issue.

In 2012 Feinberg signed with Sunnyside Records to record the "Elvin Jones Project" with an all star lineup of Billy Hart, George Garzone, Tim Hagans, Leo Genovese, and Alex Wintz. While on a self imposed break from composing, Feinberg found himself digging deep into the great drummer Elvin Jones' catalogue. Subsequent gigs would consist of more and more Elvin themed tunes until Feinberg made the decision to form his Elvin Jones Project. Much like his previous album, the EJP matured in the jazz clubs of the west village and features many of the great young stars of jazz including Billy Buss, Tivon Pennicott, Leo Genovese, Noah Preminger, Godwin Louis, Joe Santa Maria, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Victor Gould, and Glenn Zaleski.

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Multiple Reviews

Criss Cross Records: The Healing Power Of Authenticity

Read "Criss Cross Records: The Healing Power Of Authenticity" reviewed by Chris May


When the founder of the Netherlands-based Criss Cross Jazz label, Gerry Teekens, passed away in 2019, there was an odds-on chance that Criss Cross would leave town with him. That is often the fate, in such circumstances, of organisations led by a singular visionary and defined by their personal aesthetic. The loss of the label would have been sorely felt, for between 1981 and 2019, the label released over 400 albums, every one of them uncompromising and most of them ...

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Album Review

Michael Feinberg: Hard Times

Read "Hard Times" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Although the Covid pandemic has been devastating to the artistic community, and certainly jazz musicians are no exception, albums like Michael Feinberg's Hard Times point to the possibility of hopeful resilience. With a top-shelf bunch of colleagues and smart compositions with rhythmically crafty arrangements, the bassist's eighth release is a winner, with a plucky spirit and satisfying grooves in abundance. Feinberg pulled this band together in October 2020, and with folks like drummer Jeff “Tain" Watts and pianist ...

41
Album Review

Michael Feinberg: From Where We Came

Read "From Where We Came" reviewed by Jim Worsley


At the dinner table or in the studio, there are many subtle methods to interject a staunch conversation starter. Or you can always burst into the room with your hair on fire. Veteran soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman, he of many rich and complex lines past, here opted for the latter approach. After bassist and leader Michael Feinberg opened the record with a mood leveling bass intro, Liebman grabbed the attention of his younger generation bandmates in the Feinberg composition “Louisville," ...

11
Album Review

Michael Feinberg: Whatever Possessed Me

Read "Whatever Possessed Me" reviewed by Don Phipps


Tribute bands are glowingly appreciated by fans of great rock acts; perhaps it's time jazz fans got with it! Michael Feinberg's Whatever Possessed Me is a dedication to the works and sound of John Coltrane and his classic quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. The performances on this album are so good, one can imagine Coltrane's ghost hovering overhead and nodding approvingly. Feinberg has chosen some prime selections from the bop lexicon to infuse with ...

Album Review

Michael Feinberg's Humblebrag: Live at 800 East

Read "Live at 800 East" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Nato ad Atlanta ma stabilitosi a New York nel 2009, il bassista e compositore Michael Feinberg è uno dei migliori jazzmen emergenti del decennio. Poco più che 25enne ha già inciso alcuni dischi a suo nome, tra cui spicca l'Elvin Jones Project, registrato nel 2012 per la Sunnyside con la presenza di nomi illustri quali Billy Hart, Tim Hagans e George Garzone. In quest'album torna a dirigere un focoso quintetto composto da altri notevoli emergenti, come il trombettista Billy Buss, ...

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Extended Analysis

Michael Feinberg's Humblebrag: Live at 800 East

Read "Michael Feinberg's Humblebrag: Live at 800 East" reviewed by Dave Wayne


Blending modern jazz with any aspect of funk or R&B is a risky proposition for a young jazz musician. No matter how personal one's concept may be, or how artfully executed, a segment of the jazz- listening population is going to yell “sellout!" at the first electric bass slap. Though he doesn't do slap bass, Michael Feinberg is unapologetically drawn to the funky, danceable aspects of jazz. He does so without really making any obvious pop or R&B overtures. Live ...

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Extended Analysis

Michael Feinberg: The Elvin Jones Project

Read "Michael Feinberg: The Elvin Jones Project" reviewed by Dave Wayne


Electronic boops and beeps are the first thing you hear on bassist Michael Feinberg's The Elvin Jones Project. This could either be a good sign or a bad one. Fortunately it's the former, and it acts as an effective reminder that drummer Elvin Jones was a pioneering and exploratory musician whose legacy extends well beyond his years with the legendary John Coltrane Quartet. If he had, say, quit drumming after leaving Coltrane's band, Jones would still be recognized as a ...

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Recording

Michael Feinberg - With Many Hands (2011)

Michael Feinberg - With Many Hands (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Yesterday, Atlanta, GA bassist Michael Feinberg put out his second album, With Many Hands, a part of a quiet revolution taking place in jazz today. The twenty-somethings like Feinberg and his band who are plying their trade in this hallowed American institution of jazz didn't grow up listening to only Armstrong, Parker and Davis records. Like everyone else of their generation, they filled their ears with heaping helpings of alt rock, hip hop, electronica and ethnic fusion. The best of ...

"The influence of that period of (Miles) Davis' career comes through in the writing as well as the musicianship. That ESP!, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer aesthetic is evident." - Jazz Inside Magazine "This new release by Michael Feinberg underscores what a remarkable bandleader Jones was" -Wall St. Journal "Michael Feinberg's Elvin Jones Project is a an inviting and thoughtfully swung listen" -LA Times "Feinberg’s original material is fresh and refreshingly free of empty complexity, giving his group... material that they can stretch out on without getting lost in technique

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Primary Instrument

Bass

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

www.nyja.com I teach private lessons in bass, theory, composition, and ensemble playing.

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Blues Variant

Criss Cross
2023

buy

Hard Times

Fresh Sound Records
2021

buy

From Where We Came

Steeplechase Productions
2020

buy

Whatever Possessed Me

Sear Sound Studios, NYC
2018

buy

Live at 800 East

BeHip Records
2014

buy

Michael Feinberg: The...

Sunnyside Records
2013

buy

Blues Variant

From: Blues Variant
By Michael Feinberg

Tutuola

From: Live at 800 East
By Michael Feinberg

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