Avram Fefer

Who is Avram Fefer?

Avram Fefer is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and band leader, currently residing in New York City. He has been performing and recording internationally since 1990. After spending the decade as a soloist with a number of different groups, his first several recordings as a leader were singled out as among the Best of 2001 and Best of 2002 in publications such as Down Beat, Cadence, the Village Voice, the Chicago Weekly Standard, and JazzPortugal. He has four releases with the jazz pianist Bobby Few, and has performed in most of the major clubs in New York, as well as numerous clubs and festivals in Europe, Africa, Japan, and the Middle East. His latest recording, Eliyahu, featuring Eric Revis on bass and Chad Taylor on drums, was released on Not Two Records in 2011.

Avram grew up on both coasts of the United States, received a liberal arts degree at Harvard University and studied music at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory. He spent several years in Paris, where he played with Archie Shepp, The Last Poets, Sunny Murray, Kirk Lightsey, Jack Gregg, Rasul Siddik, Graham Haynes, and John Betsch. It was also in Paris that Avram first became interested in West African and Arabic music, playing with a variety of musicians from Senegal, Cameroon, Mali, and Morocco. He was also a composer and soloist for an “acid” jazz group in France with two top-selling discs on Virgin records.