Jeremy Steig, (September 23, 1942), the son of
New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications...
cartoonist
William SteigWilliam Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
, is notable as one of the few
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
flutistsThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
playing flute exclusively, as opposed to doubling from other woodwinds.
At age 19 Steig was involved in a
motorcycleA 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 the most affordable form of...
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 EvansWilliam John 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 Herbie Hancock, John Taylor, Steve Kuhn, Don...
and
Denny ZeitlinDenny 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 with the short lived band Jeremy and the Satyrs..
Jeremy Steig, (September 23, 1942), the son of
New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications...
cartoonist
William SteigWilliam Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
, is notable as one of the few
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
flutistsThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
playing flute exclusively, as opposed to doubling from other woodwinds.
Life and career
At age 19 Steig was involved in a
motorcycleA 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 the most affordable form of...
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 EvansWilliam John 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 Herbie Hancock, John Taylor, Steve Kuhn, Don...
and
Denny ZeitlinDenny 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 with the short lived band Jeremy and the Satyrs.. His album
Energy, later re-released with additional material, under different titles, featured
keyboardA keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
player
Jan HammerJan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He is probably best known for playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 70s, as well as his "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s US television program, Miami Vice.Hammer has collaborated with some...
and
bassistThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
Eddie GomezEdgar "Eddie" Gomez 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 StudiosElectric 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 HendrixJames Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter...
engineer Eddie Kramer. Additionally, Steig played flute on the seminal
Peter WalkerPeter Walker may refer to:* Peter Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester, British politician* Peter Walker , American landscape architect* Peter Walker , British racing driver* Peter Walker , Australian rules football player...
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"
acousticAcoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of sound, ultrasound and infrasound . A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician. The application of acoustics in technology is called acoustical engineering...
techniques (voice multiphonics and overtones similar to
Rahsaan Roland KirkRahsaan Roland Kirk was a blind American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
, key
percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
) electronic effects, and by using the entire battery of flute-family instruments, from
piccoloThe 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 flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
to
bass fluteThe 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 source of the main sample in the 1994
Beastie BoysBeastie Boys is an American hip hop group from New York City. The group comprises Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "MCA" Yauch, and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz...
' single "
Sure Shot"Sure Shot" is a single from the Beastie Boys' 1994 album Ill Communication. The single was released a few days after the release of the album, on May 31st, 1994...
".
Selected recordings
- Energy (1971) re-released wholly or partially on CD, with different combinations of extra tracks, as Fusion and Something Else
- Firefly (1977) CTI Records
CTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 by Creed Taylor, initially as a subsidiary of A&M Records....