Peter Noah Apfelbaum (born August 21, 1960) is an American

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz, experimental jazz, or "new thing") is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through the late 1 ...

pianist, tenor saxophonist, drummer, and composer born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

Career

Apfelbaum formed the Hieroglyphics Ensemble in 1977. He performed with

Carla Bley Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she gained acclaim for her jazz opera ''Escalator ...

from 1978 to 1982 and toured with Warren Smith and

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (March 30, 1935 – April 9, 2023) was a German-American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. He was a leading figure in jazz improvisation from the 1960s when he settled in the United States for life. He founde ...

. He has composed for the Hieroglyphics Ensemble and for Don Cherry. In 1990, he toured and recorded with Cherry in the band Multikulti, playing piano and saxophone. Apfelbaum's main instruments are tenor saxophone, piano, and drums. His work is influenced by

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

with experimental jazz.Down Beat Profile

Discography

As leader

* ''Pillars'' (Jewish Matador, 1979) * '' Signs of Life'' (Antilles, 1991) * ''Jodoji Brightness'' (Antilles, 1992) * ''Luminous Charms'' (Gramavision, 1996) * ''It Is Written'' (ACT, 2005)

As sideman

With

Trey Anastasio Ernest Joseph "Trey" Anastasio III (born September 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Phish, which he co-founded in 1983. He is credited by name as composer of 152 ...

* ''Bar 17'' (Rubber Jungle, 2006) * ''Plasma'' (Elektra, 2003) * ''Seis De Mayo'' (Elektra, 2004) * '' The Horseshoe Curve'' (Rubber Jungle, 2007) With

* ''Live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival'' (MPS, 1980) * ''New Moon'' (Palcoscenico, 1980) * ''Stillpoint'' (Double Moon, 2002) With Steven Bernstein * ''Diaspora Soul'' (Tzadik, 1999) * ''MTO Volume 1'' (Sunnyside, 2006) * ''Diaspora Suite'' (Tzadik, 2008) * ''MTO Plays Sly'' (Royal Potato Family, 2011) With

Dafnis Prieto Dafnis Prieto (born July 31, 1974) is a Cuban-American drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator. Career In his home town of Santa Clara, Cuba, Prieto studied percussion and guitar. During his teens, he moved to Havana to study at the Nati ...

* ''Taking the Soul for a Walk'' (Dafnison, 2008) * ''Live at Jazz Standard NYC'' (Dafnison, 2009) * ''Triangles and Circles'' (Dafnison, 2015) * ''Back to the Sunset'' (Dafnison, 2018) With Jai Uttal * ''Beggars and Saints'' (Triloka, 1994) * ''Shiva Station'' (Triloka, 1997) * ''Thunder Love'' (Nutone, 2009) * ''Roots, Rock, Rama!'' (Mantralogy, 2017) With others * Ben Allison, ''Peace Pipe'' (Palmetto, 2002) *

Cyro Baptista Cyro Baptista (born December 23, 1950) is a Brazilian-born percussionist in jazz and world music. He creates many of the percussion instruments he plays. Career Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Baptista arrived in the U.S. in 1980 with a scholarship ...

, ''Beat the Donkey'' (Beat, 2004) * Cyro Baptista, '' Love the Donkey'' (Tzadik, 2005) *

Jon Batiste Jonathan Michael Batiste (born November 11, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists including Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Prince (musician), ...

, ''The Process'' (M.O.D., 2014) * Will Bernard, ''Medicine Hat'' (Antilles, 1998) * Vinicius Cantuaria, ''Tucuma'' (Verve, 1998) * Don Cherry, '' Multikulti'' (A&M, 1990) * Lisle Ellis, ''Children in Peril'' (Music & Arts, 1997) *

Charlie Hunter Charlie Hunter (born May 23, 1967) is an American guitarist, composer, producer and bandleader. First coming to prominence in the early 1990s, Hunter plays custom-made seven- and eight-string guitars on which he simultaneously plays bass line ...

, ''Charlie Hunter'' (Blue Note, 2000) *

Valerie June Valerie June Hockett (born January 10, 1982),Hubbell, John (2009),, ''The Commercial Appeal'', May 28, 2009.(aged 27 in May 2009). is an American singer, songwriter, Grammy-nominated, multi-instrumentalist, and author.Barnett, Laura (2012),One to ...

, ''The Order of Time'' (Concord, 2017) *

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

, ''Kauai: the Arch of Heaven'' (Metastation, 2014) * Bill Laswell, ''Risurrezione Dubopera'' (ESP Disk, 2016) *

Master Musicians of Jajouka The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar (sometimes written as ...featuring Bachir Attar) are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition. The collective includes ...

featuring Material, ''Apocalypse Live'' (M.O.D., 2017) *

Barney McAll Barney McAll is a jazz pianist and composer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. McAll joined Gary Bartz's band in 1997, and has also played with the Josh Roseman Unit, Fred Wesley and the JB's, Groove Collective, and Kurt Rosenwinkel's "Hear ...

, ''Release the Day'' (Michael Watt, 2000) *

Lee "Scratch" Perry Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development ...

, ''Rise Again'' (M.O.D., 2011) *

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...

, '' A Live One'' (Electra, 1995) * Phish, ''Road to Vegas'' (Jemp, 2007) *

Roberto Juan Rodríguez Roberto Juan Rodríguez (Havana) is a Cuban-American jazz musician who is known for fusion of Latin music and Jewish Klezmer elements. Although not Jewish his father's Latin band regularly played at Jewish theatre, weddings and bar mitzvahs in Miam ...

, ''El Danzon De Moises'' (Tzadik, 2002) * Roberto Juan Rodríguez, ''The First Basket'' (Tzadik, 2009) * Josh Roseman, ''Treats for the Nightwalker'' (Enja, 2003) * Josh Roseman, ''New Constellations'' (Enja, 2007) * Adam Rudolph, ''Can You Imagine... the Sound of a Dream'' (Meta, 2011) *

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophistica ...

, ''Nearly Human'' (Warner Bros., 1989) * Sex Mob, ''Dime Grind Palace'' (Ropeadope, 2003) * Paul Shapiro, ''Midnight Minyan'' (Tzadik, 2003) * Paul Shapiro, ''It's in the Twilight'' (Tzadik, 2006) * Omar Sosa, ''Eggun'' (Ota, 2013) *

Cassandra Wilson Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. She is one of the most successful female jazz singers and has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed wit ...

, ''Vodou Pt. 1 & 2'' (Blue Note, 2002) *

Jah Wobble John Joseph Wardle (born 11 August 1958), known by the stage name Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; ...

& Bill Laswell, ''Realm of Spells'' (Jah Wobble 2019) *

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

, ''Voices in the Wilderness'' (Tzadik, 2003)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apfelbaum, Peter 1960 births Living people Musicians from Berkeley, California American jazz pianists American male jazz pianists Avant-garde jazz saxophonists Avant-garde jazz drummers Avant-garde jazz pianists Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from California 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Antilles Records artists ACT Music artists Gramavision Records artists