Recent Reviews
about ORGAN TRIO
“Gordon Beeferman is a wide-eyed polymath who masterfully toes the lines of myriad genres. … Alongside guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer/percussionist Ches Smith, Beeferman splatters and smashes his way through a cosmic and complex set of psychedelic jazz and rock fusion-minded freak-outs, invoking Sun Ra and electric Miles.” — Brooklyn Rail
about Other Life Forms
“Beeferman’s musical world is a very special place that should not go unnoticed.” — Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz
“Idiosyncratic compositional strategy… thoughtful structure but with an unmistakable spirit of uncanny exploration… This is music that isn’t afraid to take its time; Beeferman prefers patient, devious statements to overt, brash ones… an imaginative set of music…more than enough to keep Beeferman on the radar when it comes to forward-thinking, creative approaches to jazz and improvised music.” — Troy Dostert, All About Jazz
“The ‘jazz’ root in Beeferman’s music is indisputable. But so are the modern classical, advanced improvisation, non-committable-to-memory atonal whatchamacallit roots. The scores may look complex on paper but, for some miracle, the acoustic outcome sounds as natural as spring water.” — Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
Review of “Rites of Summer” in the LA Times, May 16, 2008
“Bursts of ensemble activity are almost neurotically tight rhythmically, though tense and ragged in terms of clustered harmonies. Such fervent energy is juxtaposed with passages of airier lyricism, all with a distant kinship to ‘The Rite of Spring.’ ”
Anthony Tommasini’s Review of “The Rat Land” in the New York Times, May 15, 2007
“Complex and daringly modern…Mr. Beeferman’s music, with its skittish melodic lines and pungent atonal harmony, is gritty, fidgety and intriguing.”
about ROGUE STATES (with percussionist Jeff Arnal)
“…A multitude of curiously interesting motifs – all enamored with great depth and an irrefutable touch of class.” ejazznews, March 2007
“…Beeferman’s compositional instincts are readily in evidence: tracks like “Pirouette on a Pin” and “Terra Infirma” follow an informal “arch” form, bridging out in the middle sections to points—elsewhere, only to revisit the opening gambit; the insistently iterated monotones of ‘Auuk’ unravel organically in tight clusters; and ‘Split Screen’ and ‘In a White Haze’ illustrate the pianist’s ability to flesh out the implied architecture of his initial impulse, building ephemeral edifices from protean melodic cells.” All About Jazz, March 2007
“A rich palette… Rogue States surprises with its density and variety of approaches.” Jazzosphere
“The pianist Gordon Beeferman and the percussionist Jeff Arnal create tightly knit improvisations that range from the angular to the pastoral”–The New Yorker
“A particularly strong and well-balanced duo excursion… There is a strong thread or connection that runs though all of this, both players breathing and thinking as one inter-connected force.” Bruce Gallantner, Downtown Music Gallery
Sounds of stirring music and shaking up the status quo — The Boston Globe, December 31, 2006
…When BMOP composer-in-residence Lisa Bielawa sang Gordon Beeferman’s haunting “West of Winter” in a vocal quartet with three prerecorded versions of herself, the effect was so entrancing…
Premiere of “West of Winter” by Anita Cheng Dance
Village Voice, January 2005
“A fascinating dialogue…conjures up storms.”
Rara Avis in The Wire, August 2004
“First-rate improv from a couple of youngsters charting their own course with a depth of dynamic and feeling…”
Rara Avis in Jazz Review
“A cohesive unit… meshing superior technical ability with extreme imaginative powers.”
about MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY REPORT
“Beeferman showed knowledge and skill of the orchestra, creating vivid scenes in miniature. The doomed Russian submarine Kursk was evoked through breathy wind playing, clicking and tapping, and a chilling single use of the cymbal. A fight scene was unpredictable but ultimately brutal. Beeferman lent some welcome grit to a program overly dominated by the sunny and accessible side of American music.” —Albany Times Union
about BODIES OF WATER (with percussionist Jeff Arnal)
“…An energized ritual of free expression… Their Mephistophelean command over the performance is hypnotic. Arnal and Beeferman may view the world through heavily tinted glasses, but they do produce music with muscle and appeal.”
— Cadence Magazine