Jeff DeHerdt on piano/vocals and various assortments of
sociopaths who happen to also play musical instruments.
Influences
Steely Dan, Peter Gabriel, Billy Joel, Sting, Ben Folds...
Anybody who I've heard play a piano or keyboard has influenced me..one way or another.
Sounds Like
A meeting between Theolonious Monk and Steely Dan, Bill Withers and Bill Evans, Ben Folds and McCoy Tyner: in a jacuzzi...with a piano. Better yet listen to or buy the recent CD:
As a child of the 70s and a teenager of the 80s, Jeff DeHerdt was pretty much a rock-n-pop junkie. The music of the Beatles, Billy Joel, Steely Dan and the Police were his drugs of choice. But, in the late 1980s, jazz became his nicotine patch. Influenced by pianists Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, he began his composition studies and pop detox at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. Eventually, he became re-addicted, this time to a certain blend of jazz and pop. He doesn’t know whether to call it Jop, Pazz or Jpaozpz. But, somebody should really stop him before he does.
Since the Jeff DeHerdt group came together in 2000, they have played Indy Jazz Fest and opened for acts as diverse as Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker to celebrity/speaker Roy Firestone. The single "I'm All The Friends That I Got" and the album "Club Bordeaux" were nominated in the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards. They placed 3rd and 4th in their respective categories out of 350,000+ songs and 25,500+ albums. Jeff was the very first Artist of the Week from NUVO Newsweekly and Indianapolismusic.net and has appeared on weekly television nationwide several times as a favorite guest on "The Piano Guy" with host Scott Houston.
As with the first collection "Club Bordeaux", the new CD "The Autumn House" features a blend of disparate influences: Peter Gabriel and Pat Metheny, Billy Joel and Gene Harris, Steely Dan and Charlie Parker. The new collection contains 11 songs about being in the middle-end of things, the "Autumn" part of any situation, where what's done is mostly done. The time when you look back and go "good job, let’s keep going" or "oh, crap, we gotta fix this". Once again, the current CD features Mike Stricklin, Jack Helsley, Harry Goodloe and Peter Kienle. The newest additions of Tom Clark on saxophone and Toni Bosten on vocals enlarge the already broad textural palette of the group "The Autumn House". The two CDs are available online at various outlets as shown on the left side of this page.
Jeff...haha, yeah, I don't know what the hell I was doing or why I was doing it, but, it was a fun time. We need to play together soon or record. I should probably just stick to the drums though... :)
The boys are playing at Uncle Fester's House of Booze this Friday, 6/6, with Impure Jazz and Yeti Guru. If you're into Redux, you're sure to like these guys. Show starts at 10. $5 cover. See you there!!!!
Man! I'm loving 'The Autumn House.' The things that stick out to me are the beautiful horn arrangement on 'Maybe It's Time' and the CHORD CHANGES on 'Second Time Mistake' are killing me!!!! Great album dude. And the stuff you said to me before about how drummers play the hi-hat/ride cymbal is totally sticking w/ me...I can hear some of the benefits on some of these songs. Anyway, I'm loving this record man...the last one was GREAT too, but, this one is really a pleasure to listen to as well. There's much more for me to absorb...
JD. I'm gonna record soon. I'm hiring musicians that I want to play w/ that I never get to play with. I have a few things in mind, but, I definitely NEED you to play on it. Shoot me a message and let me know what you charge for recording sessions.
hey Jeff DeHerdt! hope all is well with you and yours...let us know if you're planning any shows in NY (or if you need an opening act in Indy)! peace and blessings, heatherb
don't know if you remember chatting with me at local's only w/esw. anyways, just wanted to say that i dig your tunes...great writing, musically/lyrically. the horn sections sound especially great.
