Recorded Music
 | Jeff Peretz
Instructor, Recorded Music
Office: 194 Mercer Street, 5th Floor |
Courses
Music Theory for Producers
Advanced Music Theory for Producers
Biography
Jeff Peretz,
a guitarist / udist /composer/ producer, is the Author of Zen and the Art of Guitar and Guitar Atlas: The Middle East (Alfred Publishing). He is also the founder of and composer for the Arabic/Jazz group Abu Gara. The group appears regularly in NYC. They were chosen to perform for the Seeds of Peace as part of Daniel Pearl Music Day as well as part of the Abe Lebewol Park Concert Series and Citibank's summer concert series. Abu Gara received rave reviews for their contribution to the mystical poetry/music festivals Rumi: Soaring to Ecstasy and Yunus Emre: Turkish Medieval Humanist Mystic Poetry, for which Jeff composed all original music. The celebrations both featured the Republic of Turkey's first Minister of Culture, Prof. Talat Halman, and actress Defne Halman reciting the classic works of these transcendent mystics to Abu Gara's exotic rhythms, harmonies, and melodies. Jeff is a contributing columnist for Guitar Teacher Quarterly and has been interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine. He has composed music for Off-Broadway hit Why We Don't Bomb the Amish and performed or recorded as a side man with a varied group of artists including the Grammy nominated Latin Funk group Yerba Buena, Eric Alexander, Jay-Z, Stanley Clarke and Simon (Bad Company) Kirke. His other group, the Jeff Peretz Group has shared the stage with The Fugees, Groove Collective, and Brooklyn Funk Essentials. Jeff is also the Founder and Director of the Electric Guitar Performance Program at Third Street Music School Settlement and a faculty member of the New School University jazz Program as well as the National Guitar Workshop where he teaches the World Guitar Styles Seminar. Jeff attended Berklee College of Music before finishing his studies in Jazz Performance at William Paterson University. Jeff has just finished producing the debut recording for the rock band Hysterics that will be released on V2-Artemis records in the fall of 2006 as well as tracks for the soundtrack for the upcoming Edward Burns film Purple Violets.
