Gregg Bendian is a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 percussionist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, primarily a vibraphonist

Vibraphonist

Notable players of the vibraphone include:* Peter Appleyard* Roy Ayers* Karl Berger* Jeff Berman* Jack Brokensha* Larry Bunker* Christian Burchard* Rusty Burge* Gary Burton* Joe Chambers* Teddy Charles* Salem Chiles* John Cocuzzi* Monte Croft...

. He was born on July 13, 1963 in Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...

.

Bendian studied under Noel DaCosta

Noel DaCosta

Noel G. DaCosta was a Nigerian-Jamaican composer, jazz violinist, and choral conductor.-Biography:...

. He has played and recorded with Nels Cline

Nels Cline

Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...

, Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny

Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...

, Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann

Peter Brötzmann

Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...

, Steve Hunt

Steve Hunt

Steve Hunt is an American jazz pianist and composer who was born in 1958. He has released two studio albums, recorded extensively, and toured the world. He is ranked #39 on the Digital Dream Door list of greatest fusion keyboardists.-Music Career:...

, Gary Lucas

Gary Lucas

Gary Lucas is an American guitarist, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, a soundtrack composer for film and television, and an international recording artist with over a dozen solo albums to date. He has been described as "one of the best and most original guitarists in America" ; a "legendary leftfield...

 and Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...

 amongst others. Records under his own name and that of his group Interzone incorporate elements of fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 and free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

.

Bendian is fond of recording tributes. With Interzone, he recorded Requiem for Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....

, a tribute to the great comic book artist. He has also recorded tributes to Octavia Butler and others. In 1999, he and Nels Cline released Interstellar Space Revisited, a critically acclaimed cover album of John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

's Interstellar Space

Interstellar Space

Interstellar Space was one of the final studio albums recorded by the saxophonist John Coltrane before his death in 1967, originally-released posthumously by Impulse! Records on LP in 1974.-Composition:...

, which Bendian described as "my love letter to Free Jazz drumming". The Penguin Guide to Jazz

The Penguin Guide to Jazz

The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which are currently available in Europe or the United States...

on CD said, "Hard to listen to this contemporary pairing without returning to the source material. Hard to revisit that without wanting to hear Bendian and Cline again."

External links

• Gregg Bendian's website
• Performance of Interstellar Space Revisited - Leo with Nels Cline 9/02 at SASSAS @ YouTube - Part One and Part Two