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Avram Fefer

Background information
Born	East Palo Alto, California
Genres	Jazz
Occupation	Musician
Instrument(s)	Saxophone, clarinet, flute
Years active	1990–present
Spouse	Lorenza Astengo Fefer

Website	www.avramfefer.com

Musical artist

Avram Fefer is an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and band leader. He has recorded thirteen albums as a leader, many more as a sideman, and has performed in all the major venues of New York, as well as touring throughout Europe, Africa, Japan, and the Middle-East. His latest quartet albums - Testament and Juba Lee - feature guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Chad Taylor.

Career

Fefer, a first generation American whose father was born in a Siberian labor camp, grew up on both coasts of the United States, before attending Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, and the New England Conservatory. He spent several years in Paris, where he played with Archie Shepp, The Last Poets, Sunny Murray, Kirk Lightsey, Rasul Siddik, Graham Haynes, and John Betsch. In Paris he became interested in West African and Arabic music, playing with musicians from Senegal, Cameroon, Mali, and Morocco. While in France, he was a composer and soloist for the acid jazz group Beigels Daisy Toast each of whose albums sold in more than 15,000 copies.

He has been a featured soloist in the David Murray Big Band, Butch Morris Orchestra, Joseph Bowie Big Band, Mingus Big Band, Frank Lacy's Vibe Tribe, the Rob Reddy Octet, Famoro Diabate's Kakande, the Adam Lane Octet, and the Michael Bisio Quartet, but his longest associations have been with Adam Rudolph's Organic Orchestra, and Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar Arkestra. He worked with director Ivo Van Hove on A Streetcar Named Desire and with Melvin Van Peebles on his 2010 theatrical production of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in which he played tenor saxophone and had a small acting role. He is the creator and performer of the Resonant Sculpture Project - a series of solo musical interactions with the large-scale works of sculptor Richard Serra. In addition to performing and composing, he teaches privately from his Brooklyn studio.