About Mordy
Born in a small town in northern Israel, Mordy Ferber began his musical journey as a singer at the age of 10. He formed a trio and performed at school events and small concerts in his hometown. At the age of 12, after picking up a guitar at the home of a family friend, he decided to take some formal guitar lessons; that lasted almost a year. The only teacher available to him in the area taught classical music, not his first choice of at that time.
"Actually, I was heavily into rock and roll and was part of a band until I was about 17. We toured the country and did cover songs by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Beatles, Santana and others, before I even knew about jazz. It was a lot of fun and I think of those days often. Then I heard the great gypsy jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt, on the radio; that had a tremendous effect on me. He had great technique (using only two fingers!), humour and soul in his playing; I couldn’t understand where it came from. I was determined to study him as much as I could. Being self-taught, I sat for hours every day transcribing his music and solos. Later, I did the same thing with other jazz guitar greats like Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall."
At the age of 18, Mordy joined the Israeli army, a three-year obligation of every Israeli citizen. The first two months were spent in combat training. He soon realized that if he wanted to play the guitar again, he would have to join an army band, regardless of the music, as long as it was a guitar and not a gun. For the rest of the two years and 10 months, he toured the country as part of the military’s entertainment unit giving concerts to other soldiers in remote areas both inside and out of the country. After the army, Mordy quickly became one of Israel’s top musicians, performing on numerous records for CBS (Sony) with singers like Arik Ainstain, Shlomo Artzi, Shem Tov Levi, Shlomo Gronich, Miki Gavrielov And Norit Galron and appearing regularly on radio and television shows.
"It was great training for me, getting so much experience playing in many different styles. I even had the privilege of performing with the legendary Jerry Lewis. At the same time, I continued to work on jazz and developed as an improviser by myself during this period."
At 23, Mordy received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston and immigrated to the United States. He graduated in 1987 with full honours and received the prestigious Jim Hall award for outstanding musicianship.
Mordy Ferber has performed and recorded with artists including Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Eddie Gomez, Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer, Dave Liebman, Miroslav Vitous, Jeff Berlin, Bob Moses, Richie Beirach, Richard Bona, George Garzone, Will Lee, Larry Coryell, Adam Nussbaum and Billy Hart. he has recorded 3 albums as a leader on the Enja, Half Note and CBS Europe Record labels. His highly anticipated DVD for Mel Bay Publications entitled "Make The Tune Your Best Friend" is available now in stores.
Mordy is currently a professor at New York University And the New School, his twenty six years of teaching experience includes private instruction and master classes in improvisation technique, harmony and composition worldwide. He taught at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the New School University, American Institute for Guitar and the Sam Ash Institute in New York City. For the summer of 2007 he will be composing 12 new tunes for Nylon-string guitar to be recorded with the London String Orchestra. Mordy does commission work for television shows, promos, and movies. His work has been used in the United States on many television shows such as the Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Jack Ass, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Guilty on HBO, Fresh Prince, Bay Watch, Felicity, Chris Rock Special on HBO, Everybody Loves Raymond, Veronica’s Closet, the VH1 Fashion Award Show, the 1996-98 Grammy Awards promo, and on many other prime time television shows and movies in France, Australia, Spain, Argentina, Israel, Panama, Canada and Japan.
Ferber’s endorsements include: D’Addario strings/cables, Godin Multiac Nylon/Steel Guitar & Montreal Electric, Framus AZ 10 & Red Roque Combo, Cort Alto guitar And Ibanez S540. for more info/Bio go to www.mordyferber.com
"On Being There, Mordy Ferber provides reason to make sure he’s included in the lists of jazz guitarists who not only have developed sounds of their own through deep personal experience and technical mastery, but also who have shown sufficient compositional imagination to make their own statement."
(jazzreview.com)
"Add Mordy Ferber to the list of notable guitarists in the jazz world today. This Israeli-born sensation displays readily apparent technical fortitude and, more importantly,a confident sense of when and how to flex his talent. Ferber is a player of considerable promise who blends irreverent energies and an angular, dare we say European?, harmonic sense into an overall jazz sans frontiers."
(Jazziz)
"New York guitarist-composer, Mordy Ferber, is a powerful, contemporary guitarist with an attitude, energy, and a pluck all his own. And with a batch of riveting originals and plenty of zing per string,Ferber is clearly his own man."
(Jazz Times)
"Ferber’s Mr. X makes manifest his deep commitment and his firm attitudes towards his music. The compositional lines are strong; the ballads are fresh; and, the guitar work throughout is outstanding."
(The Jerusalem Post)
"I love his sound and his feeling. He writes beautiful compositions. Mordy is committed to the highest level of quality and creativity. He’s not afraid to take risks."
(Jack DeJohnette)
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