Jeff Arnal
percussionist and composer of experimental and avant-garde music
Biography
Jeff Arnal frequently 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 the Peabody Conservatory and 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. These experiences set 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, including Transit (Clean Feed 2009 & 2005), Dog Day with Aaron Dugan (C3R 2007), Rogue States with Gordon Beeferman (Generate 2006), MEJA with Michael Evans (C3R 2006) and with Dietrich Eichmann (Broken Research 2007 & Leo 2004).
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. Currently he is the Artistic Director of VOOM, a new music venue opening in Brooklyn - Fall 2011.
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" The Wire
“Arnal dances on his percussion, playing highly subtle, speedy and multicolored patterns, with great virtuosity and refinement.” 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 - New York - 8/2009 article about JA & Generate Records
JA & Generate Records - review in the Wire - jan 2010
Jeff Arnal : CD Roundup - One Final Note 2005More Links
Myspace: www.myspace.com/jeffarnal
Upcoming Shows: www.generaterecords.net/events.htm
