Happy New Year everyone! The Grammy Awards are 4 February 2024. This continues the overview of last year's nominees, winners and associated albums.
Jim Hynes/MakingAScene!: “Catalyst is the new album for Steven Feifke, where he does all the heavy lifting as pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, bandleader, and producer. Feifke became the youngest ever Grammy winner for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2023… Catalyst will only further his growing reputation, especially as an arranger.”
This is his ~7th album since 2015 (5 big band), plus alotta session jobs, and work with saxophonist Alexa Tarantino. He is all of 32 years old… Wikipedia. Discogs is disorganized. The YouTube link for this album has 8 of the 10 tunes played live-in-studio.
Steven Feifke, Catalyst, full album: free YouTube ; Spotify
Here is his Grammy-winner album Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra (GGJO). The album cover shows the quality players involved. Jack Bowers/AllAboutJazz: "GGJO, co-led with trumpeter par excellence Bijon Watson, is a 17-member ensemble comprising seasoned players paired with young lions whose … debut album is sharp and radiant from start to finish. " A Zoom performance of the 3rd album tune is shown.
Steven Feifke & Bijon Watson, Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, full album: free YouTube ; Spotify ; Bandcamp
His 2021 big band album Kinetic is aptly titled. This was the 1st of his hat-trick of excellent big band jazz albums! Jack Bowers/AllAboutJazz: “Feifke's intense and high-powered charts neatly pave the way, giving the band a well-drawn road map on which to shape its dynamic course.” The YT link has videos of the entire album played live-in-studio, with the title-tune shown below.
Steven Feifke Big Band, Kinetic, full album: free YouTube ; Spotify ; Bandcamp
Catalyst is on Jazz Best Albums 2023 and Big Band 2023. GGJO is on Jazz Best Albums 2022, Big Band 2022, and Grammy Jazz 2022. Kinetic is on Big Band 2021. All are at Spotify/Jazz Todayish. 😎