Alan Ferber Nonet

"The nonet format holds a special place in jazz," says bandleader and Grammy nominee Alan Ferber. "The format produces the wide array of voices and colors of a big band, while maintaining the tight, quicksilver unity of a small ensemble. Miles Davis and Gil Evans put the format on the map with their historic 1948-50 Birth of the Cool recordings."

Top-call New York trombonist Alan Ferber reunites with his twin brother Mark, a celebrated Los Angeles-based drummer, to lead an all-star St Louis Nonet.
Alan Ferber / trombone & compositions
Garrett Schmidt / trumpet
Bennett Wood / alto saxophone
Chris Cheek / tenor saxophone
Joel Vanderheyden / baritone saxophone
Matt Sewell / guitar
Adam Maness / piano
Bob DeBoo / bass
Mark Ferber / drums
Special guest: Jody Redhage Ferber / cello

Multiple GRAMMY-nominated trombonist/composer Alan Ferber has been called “one of the jazz world’s premier composers and arrangers for larger groups” (All About Jazz-NY) and was recognized as 2022’s winner of Down Beat magazine’s International Critics’ Poll for Rising Star trombonist.  He has released nine albums as a bandleader, most recently featuring his celebrated nonet called Alan Ferber Nonet: Up High, Down Low on Sunnyside Records.  For this show, Alan Ferber will perform music from this album with an all-star band sourced not only from the cream of the St Louis scene, but from jazz stalwarts from both coasts.  

Ferber relocated from New York to live with his family in the Compton Heights neighborhood of St Louis from 2020-2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, and used this two year stint to not only spend more time near his wife's family, but to meet and cultivate a new network of musicians in the area.  While the musical world was at a stand-still, this two year interval proved creatively fruitful for Ferber's own writing thanks to the help of area musicians Bob Deboo on bass, Adam Maness on piano, Matt Sewell on guitar, and saxophonists Joel Vanderheyden, Chris Cheek, and Bennett Wood, all of whom reunite with Ferber on April 26.  Though all but Deboo and Maness have relocated back to the east coast, this will be a reunion of sorts, made extra special by the addition of Alan's identical twin brother, Mark Ferber, a first call drummer currently living in Los Angeles.  They will perform music primarily written and developed during this two-year St Louis period.

Concurrently during this time, Ferber was working on finishing another project: a collaborative trio with his wife, cellist Jody Redhage Ferber, and his brother Mark. The project was a by-product of a duo performance at Carnegie Hall, on which Jody and Alan performed a reimagined version of Bach's 3rd Cello Suite.  The artistic world effectively shut down three days later, but the project would end up being completed at the famed St Louis recording facility, Shock City Studios, just a few blocks from where Jody & Alan lived, and feature guests including Maness, Sewell, & Cheek.  Jody will sit in with the nonet on this Blue Strawberry performance to play selections from this album, which is set to be released in May of 2025.
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