Jeremy Steig
Encyclopedia
Biography
Steig is the son of New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
cartoonist William Steig
William Steig
William Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
,
At age 19 Steig was involved in a motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
accident which left him paralyzed on one side. For some years afterward, he played the flute with the help of a special mouthpiece.
After a start in mainstream jazz, with albums with Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
and Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin is an American jazz pianist and composer, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco...
, Steig became an early force in the jazz-rock fusion experiments of the late 1960s and early 70s, including the short lived band Jeremy and the Satyrs, featuring Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt is a noted pianist in jazz, pop and classical music.His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to piano, and he learned some rudiments of keyboarding from his friends. At five his parents moved to New York City where he began studying seriously under...
, Eddie Gomez
Eddie Gomez
Edgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...
and Adrian Guillary. Steig's album Energy, later re-released with additional material under different titles, featured keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
player Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
and bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Eddie Gomez
Eddie Gomez
Edgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...
, and was recorded at Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios
Electric Lady Studios, at 52 West 8th Street, in New York City's Greenwich Village, is a recording studio originally built by Jimi Hendrix and designed by John Storyk in 1970...
under the hand of sometime Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
engineer Eddie Kramer. Additionally, Steig played flute on the seminal Peter Walker
Peter Walker (guitarist)
Peter Walker is an American folk guitarist noted for dextrous instrumental pieces that reference the Indian classical and Spanish flamenco traditions...
record "Rainy Day Raga", providing an atmospheric color essential to the records fusion of Eastern Indian and Americana Folk traditions.
Steig addressed the tonal color restrictions of the instrument by the use of "modern" acoustic
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
techniques (voice multiphonics and overtones similar to Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
, key percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
) electronic effects, and by using the entire battery of flute-family instruments, from piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
to bass flute
Bass flute
The bass flute is the bass member of the flute family. It is in the key of C, pitched one octave below the concert flute. Because of the length of its tube , it is usually made with a "J" shaped head joint, which brings the embouchure hole within reach of the player...
(including the obscure Sousa-era alto piccolo), often over-dubbed and multi-tracked together.
His song "Howlin' For Judy" from his 1970 album Legwork is the main source of the sample on the 1994 Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
' single "Sure Shot
Sure Shot
"Sure Shot" is a song by American hip hop group Beastie Boys, released as the third single from their 1994 album Ill Communication. The single was released a few days after the release of the album, on May 31, 1994.-Release:...
".
Steig performs the role of "The Pied Pipe," exclusively on flute, in the film Shrek Forever After
Shrek Forever After
Shrek Forever After, taglined as The Final Chapter, is a 2010 animated fantasy-comedy film, and the fourth and final installment in the Shrek film series, produced by DreamWorks Animation. The film was released by Paramount Pictures in cinemas on May 20, 2010 in Russia, and on May 21 in the United...
, based on the character created by his father.
Discography
- 1963: Flute Fever (Columbia)
- 1968: Jeremy & The Satyrs (Reprise)
- 1969: Legwork (Solid StateSolid State Records (jazz label)Solid State Records was a jazz record label formed in 1966 by noted producers Sonny Lester and Phil Ramone, with arranger Manny Albam.The label released original recordings in the mid to late 1960s by Joe Williams, Chick Corea, Jimmy McGriff, Dizzy Gillespie, The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Jazz...
) - 1969: This Is Jeremy Steig (Solid State)
- 1969: What’s NewWhat's New (Bill Evans album)What's New is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1969.-Track listing:# "Straight, No Chaser" – 5:40# "Lover Man" – 6:19# "What's New?" – 4:50...
(with Bill Evans Trio - Verve) - 1969: Jazz Wave Ltd, On Tour (Blue Note)
- 1970: Wayfaring Stranger (Blue Note)
- 1970: Energy (Capitol) re-released wholly or partially on CD, with different combinations of extra tracks, as Fusion and Something Else
- 1972: Fusion (Something Else) (Groove)
- 1974: Flute Summit (with James MoodyJames Moody (saxophonist)James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
, Sahib ShihabSahib ShihabSahib Shihab was an American jazz saxophonist and flautist.-Biography:...
, Chris Hinze - Atlantic) - 1974: Monium (Columbia)
- 1975: Temple of Birth (Columbia)
- 1976: Leaving Trio
- 1976: Outlaws (live) (Enja)
- 1977: Firefly (CTI RecordsCTI RecordsCTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 by producer/A&R manager Creed Taylor. Initially, CTI was a subsidiary of A&M Records, but the label went independent in 1970...
) - 1977: Crawl Space (with Art FarmerArt FarmerArthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
) - 1978: Lend Me Your Ears (CMP)
- 1978: Music for Flute & Double-Bass (with Eddie GomezEddie GomezEdgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...
, CMP) - 1980: Rain Forest (CMP)
- 1992: Jigsaw Joe (Triloka)
- 2002: What's New at F
- 2003: JAM
- 2004: IMPROVISED
- 2005: Flute On The Edge
- 2007: Pterodactyl
- 2008: Howlin' for Judy (Blue Note) compilation of Blue Note albums; Legwork & Wayfaring Stranger