Local Grammy winning musician Steven Feifke discusses his latest album
Viewers may have noticed local representation among the winners at this month’s Grammy Awards. Composer and pianist Steven Feifke took home his first Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for his album Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra. Feifke, 31, a Lexington native and Berklee professor, is the youngest person to ever win the category. His album brings together numerous well-known jazz legends with decades of experience. Arun Rath talked to Feifke about GBH’s Everything considered. This transcript has been edited slightly for length and clarity.
Arun Rath: I should tell you I’m sitting in Lexington right now. I’m in the home studio this week because I’m overcoming COVID. Did you expect to win the Grammy? I mean this is huge.
Steven Feifke: Oh, well, first of all, I hope you’re feeling better.
advice: Thanks
Feifke: It’s really huge. No, we didn’t expect to win. We were completely shocked when we did that. We were also very surprised – pleasantly of course – when we were nominated. And for me to be the youngest person ever to win the award in that category and now to be on that list of people that I really respect as a musician, like Duke Ellington, like Miles Davis in jazz, and then people like Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini, the award really goes well beyond the jazz genre in this category. To even be included in this list, let alone to be the youngest winner in this category, is a great honor.
advice: Let’s talk about them Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, because you work with living legends. They started this with Bijon Watson, a great trumpet player. Tell us how it came about.
Feifke: Well, first let me just sing Bijon’s praises, because Bijon is probably one of the greatest lead trumpeters of all time. Bijon and I met backstage at a gig one night and we just hit it off. We struck up a pretty strong friendship straight away and he’s kind of become a little bit of my mentor over the years. We would make a few phone calls here and there. He’s also from Boston, from Sharon, Massachusetts. So we had the Massachusetts connection up and running and we started talking and he said, “You know Steve, why don’t I hire you to write some big band arrangements for me?” And I said, “Well Brian, why don’t we form a big band together?” And that’s how the idea came about. And so Bijon and I have more or less two decades between us. And that’s really the idea of Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra right there – to revitalize that spirit of mentorship that jazz language itself is so grounded on. And so, Bijon and I are true collaborators on this project, and we just called each member of the ensemble from our two-generational perspective. And in that regard, it’s pretty cool.
advice: The music reflects all of that, right? I’m thinking of a tune like “Sassy” which feels like bebop but is also very contemporary and funky and totally wacky at the same time.
Feifke: Kurt Elling is the composer of this song and he is also the guest artist on this song. Elling is one of the world’s preeminent jazz singers, or just an old singer. He’s an incredible artist, someone I’ve listened to since I was probably in my New England Conservatory Preparatory School days and first got involved with this music. So the opportunity to feature him on the record is very special. And the composition you mentioned, “Sassy”, the lyrics refer to Sarah Vaughan. “Sassy” was Sarah Vaughan’s nickname. And so it bridges so many different gaps. I would even go so far as to speak of generational differences.
advice: And I can tell from the way he sings that he likes that approach.
Feifke: Oh man. I feel most praised when an artist feels comfortable bringing every single aspect of their own artistry and craftsmanship into the arrangements and orchestrations I have created for them. All I want to do is enable someone else to be the best possible version of themselves that they can. So when Kurt does a performance like that in “Sassy” or “Until,” which is a beautiful composition by Sting from the movie Kate and Leopold, there’s a section at the end where I intentionally left a lot of space in hopes Kurt would fill it. And what he ended up doing with that attitude was so far and beyond what I had in mind when I wrote the first arrangement. When we were in the studio mixing the record, we hadn’t heard the full realization of what Kurt contributed to this track until we started hearing all the layered vocals on top of each other. Bijon and I just looked at each other and just started crying. It was such a deep moment because we really got to relive the arrangement right next to Kurt’s performance.
advice: This is fantastic. One track that pretty much brought me to tears – the song is killing me how you and Bijon dealt with it – is “Remember Me”.
Feifke: “Remember Me” is a beautiful song from the movie coconut. Yes, the American songbook in general of Tin Tin Pan Alley Days is really a collection of songs that started out as Broadway standards. I’m always looking for a new repertoire that embodies that, that is, music that fools you. In terms of Remember Me, the way we did it here is totally different than the way they did it in any movie. And I was able to sing the song through, through Bijon. And I said, “Well, man, why don’t we show the more sensitive side of John Watson, of Mr. Watson?” And he handles that tune so beautifully.
advice: Steven it was such a pleasure talking to you about your music which is wonderful. Congratulations. I’m really looking forward to hearing this next chapter. Thank you very much.
Feifke: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me Arun. And with that in mind, my next album is coming out in June this year. It’s my own big band, The Steven Feifke Big Band, and the album is called catalyst.