Jeff Arnal
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), deSingel (Antwerp), German Nordwestradio (Bremen), Hallwalls (Buffalo NY), Music at the Anthology (NYC), Music Gallery (Toronto), Roulette (NYC), and Vision Festival (NYC).
He has received grants and fellowships from ASCAP, Brooklyn Arts Council, Meet the Composer and Art Omi International. His music can be heard on a number of independent record labels; releases include Dog Day with Aaron Dugan (C3R 2007), Rogue States with Gordon Beeferman (Generate 2006), MEJA with Michael Evans (C3R 2006), Tripwire (Creative Sources 2006), Transit (Clean Feed 2005 & 2009) and with Dietrich Eichmann (Leo 2004, Broken Research 2007).
Jeff began playing the drums at the age of 13 in his hometown of Lilburn, GA. He studied orchestral percussion at the Peabody Conservatory with timpanist Jonathan Haas and later drumset with Milford Graves at Bennington College. In 1993, under the mentorship of composer Stuart Saunders Smith, Jeff began writing music and performing in a 20th century music ensemble. During this time Jeff, along with John Dierker, Jonathan Vincent and John Hughes, began performing improvised music concerts that combined their interests in new music, jazz and rock. These experiences set in motion a lifelong journey investigating sound, percussion and improvisation as composition.
Arnal has been active as an organizer of experimental music, dance and multimedia events in the NYC music community since 2000. From 2003-2006 he was Co-Artistic Director of Improvised and Otherwise, an annual experimental music and dance festival in Brooklyn, NY. Between 2003 and 2007 he was curator of On The Way Out, a monthly new music series in Brooklyn.
Arnal holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies: Music Composition and Filmmaking and a MFA in Music from Bennington College. He teaches drumset privately and works as a dance accompanist at several colleges.
Currently Jeff lives in Maplewood, NJ with his wife, choreographer Estelle Woodward, and their sons Thomas and Ian.
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
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
Rogue States with Gordon Beeferman: " The eerie sounds of bowed cymbals and stark piano open "Three-Wheeled Ride", soon both players are doing Morse-code like phrases and moving into hyper-tense section. Many of these pieces explore slow-moving and spacious textures, just a few notes at a time suspended carefully. On "Auuk", they take one small section and repeat it and slowly mutate it on the piano, as the percussion dances, rising up and down in density... There is a strong thread or connection that runs though all of this, both players breathing and thinking as one inter-connected force." Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
Transit with Seth Misterka, Reuben Radding and Nate Wooley "This music is made of movable modules and riveting energy, something perfectly described by Dietrich Eichmann as "spontaneous dialogues that remain completely unpredictable". One of those cases in which the total is greater than the sum of the involved parts.. " Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
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
Chronology
2008
Awarded ASCAP PLUS Award
premieres
Breath of Panic, University of Maryland Baltimore County, MD
selected performances
Vision Festival XIII, New York, NY
Sci Fi Philly-Gojjo, Philadelphia, PA
Zebulon, Brooklyn, NY
2007
premieres
Drifting Awake, The Chocolate Factory, LIC, NY
selected
performances
Cake Shop, New York, NY
Tonic, New York, NY
FFMUP, Princeton, NJ
CIM, Brooklyn, NJ
recordings
Dog Day (C3R) with Aaron Dugan
Live in Hamburg (Broken Research) with Dietrich Eichmann
2006
premieres
Dog Day, Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY
Sway, Vision Dance Music at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center,
New York, NY
Point of Departure by
Static Decoy, Improvised and Otherwise Festival - Bric Studio, Brooklyn,
NY
selected
performances
Barbès, Brooklyn, NY
Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY
Tonic, New York, NY
Roulette, New York, NY
The Stone, New York, NY
WFMU 91.1, Jersey City, NJ
Music Gallery, Toronto, Canada
recordings
Rogue States (Generate) with Gordon Beeferman
Tripwire, Looking in My Ear (Creative Sources) with Lars Scherzberg
and John Hughes
Meja (C3R) with Michael Evans
2005
premieres
Transparent Paths, The Chocolate Factory, LIC, NY
No Frame, Danspace Project, New York, NY
Loophole 8/25/05, Chez Bushwick,
Brooklyn, NY
Music for choreographer Anita Cheng's Field Continuum, Joyce Soho,
New York, NY
selected
performances
An die Musik, Baltimore, MD
Ausland, Berlin, Germany
Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA
Musikerinitiative Bremen, Germany
Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
Movement Research Festival, New York, NY
Vision Club, New York, NY
recordings
Transit (Clean Feed) with Seth Misterka, Reuben Radding, Nate Wooley
2004
Curated the music events for the Fresh Meat Festival, The Chocolate Factory,
LIC, NY
premieres
Rara Avis meets Loophole, Roulette, Location One, New York, NY
Blastano, Improvised and Otherwise Festival - WAX, Brooklyn, NY
Mogami, Assembled: Free Jazz and Electronics, Free 103 at Office Ops,
Brooklyn, NY
selected
performances
CBGB’s Lounge, New York, NY
Vision Howl Festival, New York, NY
Composer Concordance at Makor, New York, NY
German Nordwestradio - Radio Bremen, Germany
Phenomorphonic Festival, Hamburg, Germany
Stralau 68, Berlin, Germany
Kanten, Copenhagen, Denmark
Stralau 68, Berlin, German
recordings
Rara Avis (Generate) with Gordon Beeferman, Seth Misterka
The Temperature Dropped Again (Leo) with Dietrich Eichmann
Mogami (Public Eyesore) with Ryan Smith
2003
Awarded a fellowship at Art Omi International Art Center, NY
premieres
Static Decoy, Vision Collaborations Festival,
The Center, New York, NY
Primordial Forms, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philadelphia, PA
Loophole, World Turning Festival, Medicine Show Theatre, New York,
NY
selected
performances
Barbès, New York, NY
Chashama Arts Space, New York, NY
deSingel, Antwerp, Belgium
Duets with Charles Gayle, Tonic, New York, NY
Music at the Anthology Festival, New York, NY
San Francisco Alternative Music Festival, San Francisco, CA
Live Constructions, WKCR 88.9, New York, NY
2002
Awarded a Meet the Composer Grant for a project with Peter Kowald, Blaise
Siwula and Dom Minasi
selected
performances
Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY
Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany
Knitting Factory, New York, NY
Tonic, New York, NY
WFMU 91.1, Jersey City, NJ
recordings
Focus Quintet, 1-8 in 1 (Sachimay) with Dan DeChellis, Ernesto Diaz-Infante,
Chris Forsyth, Anita DeChellis
Rev.99, Everything changed after 7-11 (PAX) with 99 Hooker, Ernesto
Diaz-Infante, Donald Miller, Akio Mokuno
Tripwire (Generate) with Lars Scherzberg, John Hughes, Dietrich Eichmann,
Alberto Braida, Giancarlo Locatelli
2001
selected performances
DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Big Sur Experimental Music Festival, Carmel, CA
Labor Sonor (Kule), Berlin, Germany
Kulturhaus Mitte, Berlin, Germany
The Knitting Factory, New York, NY
Live at WREK 91.1, Atlanta, GA
KFJC 89.7 Los Altos, CA
recordings
Bodies of Water (Generate) with Gordon Beeferman
Spy Satellite (Generate) with John Dierker, Jonathan Vincent
Dirigibles Between Similarities (Sachimay) with Dan DeChellis
1999
- 2000
premieres
Violin and Cello, performed by the 20/20 Ensemble
Solo for percussion, performed on tour with Butoh dancer Zack Fuller
selected
performances
Movement Research at Judson Church, New York, NY
Hot House at PS 122, New York, NY
Knitting Factory, New York, NY
Williamsburg Art and Historic Center, New York, NY
Autumn Uprising Festival, Boston, MA
Red Room, Baltimore, MD
Mass MOCA, North Adams, MA
recordings
Top Floor Encounter (Oaksmus / Berlin) with Lars Scherzberg and John
Hughes
Expositions of Freedom… Now! (Cadence Jazz) with Blaise Siwula
and Vattel Cherry
* Photo Credits
1. JA @ Oaksmus Concert in Berlin, Germany - 2004
2. Aaron Dugan + Jeff Arnal @ Tonic, NYC - 2007
3. JA + Michael Evans @ Freddy's, Brooklyn, NY - 2006 : Photo by Scott
Friedlander
4. JA @ Mass MOCA, MA - 1999
5. Tripwire with Lars Scherzberg, JA and John Hughes @ Musikerinitiative
Bremen, Germany - 2005
6. Transit with Seth Misterka, JA, Nate Wooley, Reuben Radding @ the
Delancey, NYC - 2005
7. Gordon Beeferman, John Hughes and JA @ Improvised and Otherwise Festival,
Brooklyn, NY - 2003 : Photo by Maria Dumlao