home catalog news links contact otwo Jeff Arnal
percussionist and composer
Biography
Jeff Arnal performs and collaborates with a wide range of musicians and choreographers in the U.S. and Europe. Recent performances include: Ausland (Berlin), Berlin Exploratorium, deSingel (Antwerp), Festival of Music & Literature (Paris), German Nordwestradio - NDR (Bremen), Hallwalls (Buffalo NY), Music at the Anthology (NYC), Music Gallery (Toronto), Roulette (NYC), and Vision Festival XIII (NYC).
He studied orchestral percussion at Peabody Conservatory and later drumset with visionary-percussionist Milford Graves. From 1993-1996 he studied composition and contemporary music with Stuart Saunders Smith. It was during this time that he began performing improvised music concerts pulling from his interests in new music, jazz and rock - setting into motion a life journey investigating sound, percussion and improvisation as composition.
Arnal has received grants and fellowships from ASCAP, Brooklyn Arts Council, Meet the Composer and Art Omi International. In 2010, he was endorsed by Istanbul Agop cymbals. His music can be heard on a number of independent record labels. 2011 releases include: Silver Ash 7" with Aaron Dugan & Casey Block + Pail Bug with Astrid Weins, John Hughes & Dietrich Eichmann.
Jeff has been active as an organizer of music, dance and multimedia events in the NYC music community since 2000. From 2001-2006 he was Co-Artistic Director of Improvised and Otherwise, an annual experimental music and dance festival in Brooklyn, NY. Between 2003-2007 he was curator of On The Way Out, a monthly music series in Brooklyn.
In a parallel life Jeff works as a modern dance accompanist and teaches percussion. His collaborations with choreographers have been produced at PS 122, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, The Chocolate Factory and Judson Church.
Arnal holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies: Music Composition and Filmmaking from the University of Maryland and an MFA in Music from Bennington College.
Selected Press
"Percussionist Jeff Arnal's balletic sense of time and imaginative deployment of colour have combined into a highly original concept" Philip Clark, The Wire
"Arnal dances on his percussion, playing highly subtle, speedy and multicolored patterns, with great virtuosity and refinement." DM, Vital Weekly
"Someone to be reckoned with on either side of the Atlantic" Ken Waxman, Jazz Word
"Jeff Arnal's percussion is immensely righteous, like some spirit dancing freely on the flames of a fire." Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
MEJA: "Eschewing bombast and grandstanding, percussionist Michael Evans and Jeff Arnal are sympathetically matched in their sensibilities... two drummers create one full and balanced meal." David Greenberger, Signal to Noise
Mogami with Ryan Smith: "This is an oddity deserved of the "believe It Or Not" category. It's very simple in execution, but quite complicated in the aural identification department... This is so good, that once you really get into the recording, it's like living a whole new life." C.H.C, Neozine
Selected Press Links
All About Jazz - 12/2011 Silver Ash review by Glenn Astarita
Squid's Ear - 12/2011 Silver Ash review by Marc Medwin
Furthernoise - 10/2011 Silver Ash + Pail Bug review by Derek Morton
All About Jazz - New York - 8/2009 article about JA & Generate Records by Marc Medwin
The Wire - 1/2010 JA & Generate Records review in by Philip Clark
Jeff Arnal : CD Roundup - One Final Note 2005Selected Discography
• (2011) Pail Bug with Dietrich Eichmann, John Hughes, Astrid Weins (CD) - Generate
• (2011) Silver Ash with Aaron Dugan, Casey Block (7") - Generate
• (2009) Brooklyn Mantra with Ernesto Diaz-Infante (7") - Generate
• (2009) Quadrologues with Seth Misterka, Nate Wooley, Reuben Radding (CD) - Clean Feed
• (2009) Dog Day with Aaron Dugan (CD) - C3R
• (2007) Live in Hamburg with Dietrich Eichmann (LP) - Broken Research
• (2006) Rogue States with Gordon Beeferman (CD) - Generate
• (2006) MEJA with Michael Evans (CD) - C3R
• (2006) Looking in My Ear with Lars Scherzberg, John Hughes (CD) - Creative Sources
• (2006) Transit with Seth Misterka, Nate Wooley, Reuben Radding (CD) - Clean Feed
• (2004) Red with Seth Misterka, Chris Dahlgren (3" CD) - Generate
• (2004) Mogami with Ryan Smith (CD) - Public Eyesore
• (2004) Rara Avis with Seth Misterka, Gordon Beeferman (CD) - Generate
• (2004) The Temperature Dropped Again with Dietrich Eichmann (CD) - Leo
• (2002) Tripwire with Lars Scherzberg, John Hughes (CD) - Generate
• (2002) Focus Quintet with Anita Dechellis, Chris Forsyth, Dan Dechellis (CD) - Sachimay
• (2001) Spy Satellite with John Dierker, Jonathan Vincent (CD) - Generate
• (2001) Top Floor Encounter with Lars Scherzberg, John Hughes (CD) Oaksmus
• (2001) Bodies of Water with Gordon Beeferman (CD) - Generate
• (2001) Badlands (with Blaise Siwula, Vattel Cherry (CD) - Cadence Jazz
• (2000) Red Room with John Dierker (CDr) - Generate
• (1999) Generations Duo with Philip Wofford (CDr) - Generate
