Jeff Pevar
Encyclopedia
Jeff Pevar is an American musician who has recorded and toured with hundreds of renowned artists and is a member of CPR with David Crosby
. Although primarily a guitarist, he is also a multi-instumentalist, also playing bass, mandolin, lap steel, dobro and more. Jeff records his own music, composes music for film scores also produces other artists.
Some of the musicians Jeff has recorded and/or toured with include Crosby, Stills and Nash, Donald Fagen's Rock & Soul, James Taylor
, Marc Cohn
, Ray Charles
, Joe Cocker
, Jimmy Webb
, Rickie Lee Jones
, Dr. John
, Carly Simon
, Kenny Loggins
, Wilson Pickett
, Jazz Is Dead
, Meat Loaf
, Phil Collins
, Aztec Two-Step
, Richie Havens
, Odetta
, Jonatha Brooke
, Willy Deville
and Peter Gallway.
. Jeff toured nationally with Rickie and her band which included Michael, and other world class musicians such as Reggie McBride and Tony Braunagle.
Around 1984 Jeff arranged an audition with Ray Charles and toured playing guitar with the Ray Charles Orchestra from 1984-1986 in the US, Asia and Europe. Jeff also performed with Ray in the Ray Charles Quartet. Ray Charles invited Jeff into the recording studio and Jeff played on the Ray Charles recording, "The Spirit Of Christmas".
In 1985 Jeff was invited to record with James Taylor on his "That's Why I'm Here" record. A few years later, James introduced Jeff to up and coming singer songwriter, Marc Cohn, when Marc moved to NYC in the early 1990s. In 1988 Jeff toured all over the world with Joe Cocker promoting his Unchain My Heart record.
Jeff toured as a duo with Marc Cohn all over the US and Europe around 1991-1992. While Jeff was touring with Marc Cohn, Jeff and Marc opened for Crosby, Stills and Nash. For many years, Jeff then toured with David Crosby & Graham Nash, as a trio. Performances included a trio performance at the world famous, Carnegie Hall, in NYC and a full band performance at Red Rocks in Colorado with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
Around the latter part of the 1990s Jeff was invited to be a partner in the band CPR, along with David Crosby and his son, James Raymond. The trio put out four records in the years that followed with other invited musicians including Steve DiStanislao on drums. The band played all over the US and Europe and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and various festivals and concert halls. Jeff co-wrote many of the band's songs with David and James.
Jeff was invited to tour with the Grateful Dead bassist, Phil Lesh and Friends in the spring of 2000 alongside guitarist, Jimmy Herring
. Some of the special guests during those performances were Warren Haynes
, Branford Marsalis
and Derek Trucks
.
Jeff joined in for the recording of the 2004 release of Crosby/Nash. This record features a beautiful song Jeff co-wrote with Graham Nash called "Jesus Of Rio" which also features James Taylor on vocals.
Jeff toured with Graham Nash for a solo tour in 2004 along with Dean Parks, Russ Kunkel, Larry Klein and James Raymond.
Jeff toured with Crosby, Stills and Nash in 2005 and 2006 in the US and Europe including another visit to the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Jeff toured with the jamband, Jazz Is Dead, for various tours, performing interpretive versions of Grateful Dead material with musicians including T Lavitz, Rod Morgenstein, Alphonso Johnson, Billy Cobham, Kenny Gradney, Dave Livolsi, Jeff Sipe, Jerry Goodman and others.
Jeff toured as a bassist during the 40th anniversary of Woodstock with Jefferson Starship
on the Heroes of Woodstock Tour
also featuring Ten Years After
, Big Brother & The Holding Co., Country Joe McDonald
, Canned Heat
and many other acts from the original Woodstock line up.
Jeff performs in the Oregon based band Bohemian Soul, with his partner Inger Jorgenson. The duo performed at Schildersweek, the Artist Festival in Domburg, Holland, in 2009 and 2010. The duet is also sometimes joined by singer Jaese Lecuyer and vocal instrumentalist, Cornflower.
In 2011 Jeff was invited to take part of a reunion tour with Rickie Lee Jones, featuring a big band, celebrating her first two records. Jeff opened for David Lindley at the Rogue Theatre in 2011.
In addition to his work as a session musician, film music composer, and hired touring musician, Pevar often performs with his own eponymous band in his home state of Connecticut and in the band Guitarness with his long time friend, guitarist extraordinaire, Scott Murawski
, of Max Creek.
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
. Although primarily a guitarist, he is also a multi-instumentalist, also playing bass, mandolin, lap steel, dobro and more. Jeff records his own music, composes music for film scores also produces other artists.
Some of the musicians Jeff has recorded and/or toured with include Crosby, Stills and Nash, Donald Fagen's Rock & Soul, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and musician.- Personal life :Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He then attended Oberlin College....
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
, Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He wrote numerous platinum selling classics, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "The Worst That Could Happen", "All I Know", and "MacArthur Park"...
, Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
, Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Jazz Is Dead
Jazz Is Dead
Jazz is Dead is an instrumental Grateful Dead cover band that interprets classic Dead songs with jazz influences. Although the group's composition has changed over time, with T Lavitz being the only constant member, the group is notable in featuring veterans of jazz and jazz fusion ensembles[]...
, Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
, Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, Aztec Two-Step
Aztec Two-Step
Aztec Two-Step is an American folk-rock band formed by Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman at a chance meeting on open stage at a Boston coffee house, the Stone Phoenix, in 1971. The band was named after a line from a poem that appeared in A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
, Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Illinois.Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies...
, Willy Deville
Willy DeVille
Willy DeVille was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five year career, first with his band Mink DeVille and later on his own, Deville created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles. He worked with collaborators from across the spectrum of contemporary...
and Peter Gallway.
Biography
Jeff's first major break was in 1983 when longtime friend, Michael Ruff, invited Jeff to audition for Rickie Lee JonesRickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
. Jeff toured nationally with Rickie and her band which included Michael, and other world class musicians such as Reggie McBride and Tony Braunagle.
Around 1984 Jeff arranged an audition with Ray Charles and toured playing guitar with the Ray Charles Orchestra from 1984-1986 in the US, Asia and Europe. Jeff also performed with Ray in the Ray Charles Quartet. Ray Charles invited Jeff into the recording studio and Jeff played on the Ray Charles recording, "The Spirit Of Christmas".
In 1985 Jeff was invited to record with James Taylor on his "That's Why I'm Here" record. A few years later, James introduced Jeff to up and coming singer songwriter, Marc Cohn, when Marc moved to NYC in the early 1990s. In 1988 Jeff toured all over the world with Joe Cocker promoting his Unchain My Heart record.
Jeff toured as a duo with Marc Cohn all over the US and Europe around 1991-1992. While Jeff was touring with Marc Cohn, Jeff and Marc opened for Crosby, Stills and Nash. For many years, Jeff then toured with David Crosby & Graham Nash, as a trio. Performances included a trio performance at the world famous, Carnegie Hall, in NYC and a full band performance at Red Rocks in Colorado with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
Around the latter part of the 1990s Jeff was invited to be a partner in the band CPR, along with David Crosby and his son, James Raymond. The trio put out four records in the years that followed with other invited musicians including Steve DiStanislao on drums. The band played all over the US and Europe and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and various festivals and concert halls. Jeff co-wrote many of the band's songs with David and James.
Jeff was invited to tour with the Grateful Dead bassist, Phil Lesh and Friends in the spring of 2000 alongside guitarist, Jimmy Herring
Jimmy Herring
Jimmy Herring is an American guitarist who is currently the lead guitarist in the band Widespread Panic. Herring is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz is Dead...
. Some of the special guests during those performances were Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
, Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
and Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks is a Grammy Award-winning, American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded The Derek Trucks Band and worked as a session musician when he was still in his early teens. Throughout those teenage years, he toured with The Allman Brothers Band primarily as a slide...
.
Jeff joined in for the recording of the 2004 release of Crosby/Nash. This record features a beautiful song Jeff co-wrote with Graham Nash called "Jesus Of Rio" which also features James Taylor on vocals.
Jeff toured with Graham Nash for a solo tour in 2004 along with Dean Parks, Russ Kunkel, Larry Klein and James Raymond.
Jeff toured with Crosby, Stills and Nash in 2005 and 2006 in the US and Europe including another visit to the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Jeff toured with the jamband, Jazz Is Dead, for various tours, performing interpretive versions of Grateful Dead material with musicians including T Lavitz, Rod Morgenstein, Alphonso Johnson, Billy Cobham, Kenny Gradney, Dave Livolsi, Jeff Sipe, Jerry Goodman and others.
Jeff toured as a bassist during the 40th anniversary of Woodstock with Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship
Jefferson Starship is an American rock band formed in the early 1970s. The group is a spin-off from the iconic 1960s psychedelic/folk group Jefferson Airplane. The band has undergone several major changes in personnel and genres through the years while retaining the same Jefferson Starship name...
on the Heroes of Woodstock Tour
Heroes of Woodstock Tour
The Heroes of Woodstock Tour was a North American concert tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The tour features several bands, most of which performed at the original Woodstock festival or feature members that performed at the festival...
also featuring Ten Years After
Ten Years After
Ten Years After is an English blues-rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart...
, Big Brother & The Holding Co., Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.-Personal life:...
, Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
and many other acts from the original Woodstock line up.
Jeff performs in the Oregon based band Bohemian Soul, with his partner Inger Jorgenson. The duo performed at Schildersweek, the Artist Festival in Domburg, Holland, in 2009 and 2010. The duet is also sometimes joined by singer Jaese Lecuyer and vocal instrumentalist, Cornflower.
In 2011 Jeff was invited to take part of a reunion tour with Rickie Lee Jones, featuring a big band, celebrating her first two records. Jeff opened for David Lindley at the Rogue Theatre in 2011.
In addition to his work as a session musician, film music composer, and hired touring musician, Pevar often performs with his own eponymous band in his home state of Connecticut and in the band Guitarness with his long time friend, guitarist extraordinaire, Scott Murawski
Scott Murawski
Scott Murawski is an American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the electric guitar. He has achieved fame primarily on guitar with the American rock band Max Creek. He is a member of Phish bassist Mike Gordon's solo band, and BK3, a trio led by Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann.-External...
, of Max Creek.