AVRAM FEFER
Saxophone veteran Avram Fefer has long held true to an ethic of loyalty. The musical relationships he forms are anything but fleeting. “I like to stick with people,” he says, discussing his longtime trio with bassist Eric Revis and Chad Taylor, the lineup that recorded the weighty albums Ritual (2009) and Eliyahu (2011). When the opportunity arose to expand the trio to a quartet with the unclassifiable guitar icon Marc Ribot, Fefer jumped at the chance. The resulting Testament (2019) was one of the saxophonist’s most widely praised albums to date, hailed by Downbeat in an Editor’s Pick as “a hothouse of a recording.” Now this illustrious quartet has returned with Juba Lee, a set of new music that for Fefer represents a triumph, an overcoming of personal demons in the aftermath of the death of one of his closest friends, the legendary essayist and bandleader of Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, Greg Tate. “I had a photo of Greg over my piano throughout the time that I was preparing the music for this album,” Fefer reports.
Taylor, the drummer in Ribot’s Albert Ayler-themed Spiritual Unity project (Spiritual Unity, Live at the Village Vanguard with the late Henry Grimes), came to Juba Lee with a good deal of groundwork already laid. He had also played drums on Revis’ stellar recent recordings Sing Me Some Cry and Slipknots Through a Looking Glass. The longtime bassist for Branford Marsalis, Revis boasts additional sideman credits ranging from Kurt Rosenwinkel to Peter Brötzmann. Fefer recalls how years ago, Revis would come off the road with Marsalis and still make it to the Knitting Factory Tap Bar the same night, eager to hold it down for Fefer’s weekly gig. Making music was that important, as was the fellowship with like-minded peers.
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