The Same River Steven Feifke

• 1 The Same River 07:49
• 2 No Doubt 07:01
• 3 Doctor Trouble 09:54
• 4 You and Me 06:48
• 5 Goulden Ratio 09:13
• 6 Orama (Almost Empty) 09:47
• 7 Save Your Love For Me 07:13
• 8 Bounce 07:36
• 9 ...Which Is It? 10:55
• Total Runtime 01:16:16

Info for The Same River

GRAMMY-winning pianist, composer, and arranger Steven Feifke releases "The Same River", his tenth album as a bandleader.

Steven Feifke will release The Same River with his big band plus an extensive slate of featured artists including Braxton Cook, Sherman Irby, Blue Lou Marini, Alita Moses, and many more.

The Same River is a sweeping, powerhouse album that celebrates the rich community Feifke has built across fourteen years leading his ensemble. “The cornerstone of my big band has always been the incredible musicians who are a part of it,” he says. The Same River puts those musicians front and center: bringing back players from the band’s very first incarnation and calling on luminaries from across the music industry.

Among them is trailblazer Braxton Cook, an original member of the big band who returns to perform his own composition “No Doubt,” arranged specially by Feifke for the occasion. “I’ve never heard my music in this way… extrapolated in the big band format, and I love it. It literally gives me chills,” says Cook.

Also featured is legendary multi-instrumentalist Blue Lou Marini, with whom Feifke released the album Point of View in 2025. Feifke takes two of his own originals from that project, “Orama” and “...Which Is It?” and rearranges them brilliantly for big band. “I’ve learned a lot of lessons from Lou over the past ten years, one of which is that every time you put the horn to your lips and play is an absolute blessing,” Feifke reflects. “What we [musicians] do is a gift, and we must make the most of it every time we play.”

The Same River also spotlights the worldwide community Feifke has cultivated as an educator. The album’s third track, the thrilling “Doctor Trouble,” began as a commission for a member of his studio. “Talk about a full circle moment: Recording a composition commissioned by one of my former students while ten of my current students—from four different countries around the world - sat in the control room while we tracked it live…Pretty cool.”

The bonds of musical kinship on The Same River extend as far back as Feifke’s childhood: he was just four years old when he befriended Raviv Markovitz, now the big band’s resident bassist. Markovitz penned the album’s original arrangement of “Save Your Love For Me” (which Feifke co-arranged and orchestrated for The Same River), featuring a showstopping vocal performance by Alita Moses.

All of this, and more, is why The Same River represents a full circle moment for Feifke: a chance to reflect on the friendships and creative partnerships forged over the last 14 years, and the music that has blossomed as a direct result of his big band’s very existence. Feifke drew the album’s title from a dictum by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus - “a man cannot step in the same river twice, for he is not the same man, nor is the river the same river.” He found the quote while preparing to write the album’s opener and title-track “The Same River,” which was originally commissioned by Wynton Marsalis for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and premiered in April 2025 as part of the concert Contemporary Masterpieces.

To kick off the commission, Feifke and Marsalis first met in Brussels, taking a long walk around the heart of the city, trying to unpack what the yet-to-be-written piece ought to represent. Near the end of their talk, Marsalis posed a question: “What do we do when we get lost?” “We look at a map,” Feifke quipped. “No,” Marsalis replied, “we go in a circle.” Feifke looked up, and suddenly realized their walk had taken them in a giant loop, right back to their hotel.

So it is with The Same River. Feifke’s journey as a bandleader has led him back to some of his longtime collaborators and his oldest friends. His big band continues to evolve and grow. And their music is richer than ever.

Steven Feifke, piano, bandleader
Alex Wintz, guitar
Raviv Markovitz, double bass
Jimmy Macbride, drums
Alita Moses, vocals
Andrew Gould, alto saxophone
Veronica Leahy, alto saxophone
Alexa Tarantino, alto saxophone
Lucas Pino, tenor saxophone
Sam Dillon, tenor saxophone
Andrew Gutauskas, baritone saxophone
Carl Maraghi, baritone saxophone
Sam Hoyt, trumpet
John Lake, trumpet
Benny Benack III, trumpet
Gabriel (Gabe) Medd, trumpet
Robert Edwards, trombone
James Burton III, trombone
Grace Rock, trombone
Jennifer Wharton, bass trombone
Guests:
Sherman Irby, saxophone
Jake Goldbas, drums
Christian Wiggs, vocals

Steven Feifke
Recognized by GRAMMY.com as one of six big band composers pushing the format forwards and heralded a “masterful pianist” by JAZZIZ Magazine, award-winning Yamaha Performing Artist, bandleader and composer Steven Feifke is one of the most in-demand artists of his generation. A two-time semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition, Feifke has been featured on stages around the world alongside premiere artists including Steve Tyrell, Randy Brecker, Chad LB and Veronica Swift, with an impressive performance history at recognized venues like the Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Times Square and Rockefeller Center. International tours across Europe, Africa and Asia along with an extensive discography of over 30 albums all before turning 30 have established Feifke’s name as a global presence in jazz.

Feifke is an internationally recognized arranger and orchestrator, and has written commissioned works for notables like the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra featuring Sean Jones and John Faddis, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with Ken Peplowski, the Malmo Big Band with Katie Thiroux, and the New Generation Festival with Orchestra Senzaspine and Dominick Farinacci. He is the recipient of the 2020 David Baker Prize in composition from the Ravinia Festival and serves as musical director for the Tony Award Winning actor and singer Santino Fontana.

His writing work also branches into film and television, where Feifke’s compositions and orchestrations have been prominently featured on such hit TV shows as Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix, Impractical Jokers on TruTV, Animaniacs on Hulu, and the 2016 award-winning animated short Solo. His 2020 big band album “KINETIC” on Outside in Music marks Feifke’s studio big band debut, featuring an 18-piece ensemble made up of players from the frontline of the contemporary jazz scene like Ulysses Owens Jr, Veronica Swift, and Lucas Pino.

A respected educator, Feifke sits on faculty at The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and has appeared as a guest lecturer and guest artist at educational institutions around the US like New York University, Yale University, Williams College, Moravian College, Northern Illinois University, and more. Additionally, he has been a dedicated participant of educational programs like Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People, the Catskill Jazz Factory, and Rockport Jazz Workshop. Feifke is the Co-Founder of A Step Ahead Jazz, an online music education platform offering comprehensive programs and tailored instruction to musicians of all ages and abilities, alongside alto saxophonist Alexa Tarantino. Feifke holds a Bachelor's Degree from New York University and a Master’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with true luminaries of composition and orchestration, Gil Goldstein and Jim McNeely.

This album contains no booklet.