Ari Hoenig Trio

Thu, Apr 11

Ari Hoenig — drums Gadi Lehavi — piano Ben Tiberio — bass Jazz Vivace proudly presents the Ari Hoenig Trio as part of the Spring Jazz Series. Ari Hoenig is a jazz drummer, composer, and educator known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming, emphasizing complex rhythms in direct harmony with other group members. Ari is widely noted particularly for his drumming not being relegated to just keeping tempo or being a side issue to the music he plays in, but rather for elevating drumming as an indispensable part of the performance. Born on November 13, 1973, in Philadelphia, Ari Hoenig was exposed early to various musical experiences. His father is a conductor and classical singer, and his mother is a violinist and pianist. Accordingly, Ari began studying the violin and piano at four years of age. He began playing drums at age twelve, and by age fourteen, he was honing his skills with other young jazz musicians at Philly clubs such as Ortlieb’s JazzHaus. After attending the prestigious University of North Texas for three years, Ari transferred to William Patterson College in northern New Jersey. He soon played for legendary Philadelphia organist Shirley Scott and worked regularly in New York City. Shortly after that, Ari moved into Brooklyn and began playing extensively with a variety of groups, including Jean Michel Pilc Trio, Kenny Werner Trio, Chris Potter Underground, Kurt Rosenwinkel Group, Joshua Redman Elastic band, Jazz Mandolin Project, and bands led by Wayne Krantz, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, and Pat Martino. Both of Ari's self-produced solo drum CDs, "Time Travels" (2000) and "The Life Of A Day" (2002), document his exploratory nature, and they represent an ambitious tribute to the melodic possibilities of the drum set. Today, Ari continues to build on the concepts of these two records by playing largely improvised solo concerts using a simple four-piece drum kit without help from extraneous percussion instruments. The Ari Hoenig Quartet was formed at the end of 2002 while playing every Monday night at the New York Village jazz club Fat Cat. The band featured Jacques Schwarz-Bart on tenor sax, Jean Michel Pilc on piano, and Matt Penman on bass. They released two records on the Smalls Records label: "The Painter" (2004) and the DVD "Kinetic Hues" (2005) In 2006, Ari signed a multi-record deal with Dreyfus Records and released his first record for them called “Inversations" (2006) which features the trio of Jean Michel Pilc and Johannes Weidenmueller. “Bert’s Playground” (2008), Ari’s second record for Dreyfus, features Ari’s Punk Bop Band joined by Chris Potter. Highlights of this record include Chris’s solo on Moments Notice and Ari jumping around in red pants on the cover. Jonathan Kreisberg, Matt Penman, Will Vinson, Gilad Hekselman, and Orlando Le Fleming also represent this. Ari also co-leads a variety of projects. Pilc, Moutin, and Hoenig (The Three-headed Monster) released Threedom in 2011 on the Motema label. He has had various projects with partner Gael Horellou, including the jazz electronica project “Nasty Factorz” with a self-titled record released in 2016 and “Live” with the quartet featuring Horellou, released in 2019. Ari has also co-led various duos with Chris Potter, Edmar Casteneda, JD Walter, and Dan Weiss. His recordings as a side artist total around 120 to date. A $15 drink/food minimum is charged per person in the party, per set, if the total for beverages purchased by the party does not meet the minimum. Important Notices: If you do not check in by 15 minutes into the start of the set, we reserve the right to resale your seats with no refund. Refunds must be within 24 hours of the start of the performance.