Jeff Marx: Treading Air…Breathing Fire
Born and raised in Detroit, tenor saxophonist Jeff Marx began playing the tenor in 1973. He credits his early influences as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson. In the ’70’s Marx moved to Berkeley California to study with Hal Stein. He played sessions and gigs in Oakland and San Francisco with Eddie Henderson and Mark Levine among others.
Marx subsequently resided for 14 years in New York City for where he played with Reggie Workman, Steve Slagle, Kevin McNeil, Donald Byrd, Ed Schuler, Jim Pepper, Gene Jackson, Ira Coleman, Santi DeBriano and Dave Stryker among others.
For five years, he played in and composed for Second Sight with John Esposito, Jeff Siegel and Dave Douglas, appearing on two CDs, Flying With The Comet and Tiger Tracks, both on Sunjump Records. He appeared at various colleges, NYC clubs, the Greenwich Village Jazz Festival and live on Columbia University’s WKCR. He played in the Cascais Portugal Jazz Fest and throughout Europe as a soloist. He was chosen to play for the National Public Radio memorial program for his colleague Jim Pepper.
Moving to Chicago in 1993 Chicago, Marx continued to work in New York, while establishing himself on the Midwest Jazz scene, appearing in Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Little Rock, Milwaukee and Ann Arbor playing clubs, concert venues and festivals including Ravinia, and the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival in 2002 and 2003. He worked with Fred Anderson, Harrison Bankhead, Reuben Hoch’s Chassidic Jazz Project, and Elbio Barilari, and performed at Chicago venues including, Millenium Park, the Velvet Lounge, Pete Miller’s, the Green Mill and at Satalla, NYC. In 1999 Jeff recorded on Reaching For A Star by Don Bennett, which featured Malachi Thompson, Jesse Davis, and Harrison Bankhead.
In 2000 he organized a band with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Jeff Siegel for his first outing as a leader, Great Unknown on his own Naugual label. He recorded his second CD as a leader: Treading Air… Breathing Fire (2003 Soluna Records) with John Esposito, piano, Ira Coleman, bass and Peter O’Brien, drums. It features five Marx compositions.
In 2006 Jeff recorded a duo CD with drummer Jeff “Siege” Siegel entitled Dreamstuff followed by a 2008 tour of Germany and the Czech Republic with Siegel and bassist Jaromir Honzak.
Marx returned to Chicago in November 2008 to perform the music of Kahil El’zabar and Elbio Barilari at the Morse Theater on Presidential Inauguration evening, with an all star group of Chicago’s best musicians.
A continuation of his work with drummer Jeff Siegel with the addition of pianist John Esposito resulted in the release of Inyo (2009 Sunjump). In 2011 Marx returned to Detroit as his base of operations. He visited New York to play concerts at Bard College, the Community Music Space in Red Hook, NY and the Stone, NYC.
He completed another CD recording with Esposito and Siegel titled Tahrir (Sunjump 2012) and followed that with a Spring 2012 seven concert tour of Germany and Austria with Siegel and Esposito. Marx, age 62, died of cancer on December 16, 2013, at his home in the suburbs of Detroit.
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After he moved to Chicago in 1993, Jeff and I maintained a good working relationship. I flew out to Chicago several times a year to play gigs with him. He returned to New York to play club gigs and some concerts for the FM Artists Coalition in Woodstock. He also played saxophone and acted in a Pirandello play I had written music for in a production by the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. We also did several studio sessions in Brooklyn which remain unreleased at the moment.
The original CD release of Treading Air…Breathing Fire came about as a result of a collaborative effort by a group of former Bard students and their associates who had started a record label, Soluna Records, one of many creative projects run by their company Evolving Media Network. Jeff Marx had made their acquaintance through some performances at Bard College, his work with Sunjump Records and through his brief time living near Woodstock, NY. He was very happy about their energy and interest in his work.
Jeff proposed the record date and asked me to contribute a few tunes. His five songs are, in my opinion, some of his best writing. We did a brief read through of the music at my place and then played a concert that night at a very sonically beautiful space in Tivoli, NY called Milagros.
The gig gave us the opportunity to really stretch out and explore the tunes and arrive at an ensemble sound since this was Jeff’s first time playing with this trio. During the next two days, we did the studio session at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY.
The original Soluna Records release included seven tracks from the studio session and one from the Milagros concert. The current Sunjump CD 1 includes the remaining two studio tracks which did not appear on the Soluna CD: Scare ‘Em Stupid and A Blues which features an early and strong performance by trumpeter Greg Glassman. Sunjump CD 2 includes the live version of Scare ‘Em Stupid which was heard on the Soluna CD and four previously unreleased tracks from the Milagros concert.
American music is full of great unrecorded and under recorded musicians. One wishes that there were more recordings of Booker Little, Jayna Nelson, Arthur Rhames, Tina Brooks, Mary Lou Williams ( and a hundred other women players), Clyde Criner etc. I plan to premier a few more Jeff Marx recordings and make his currently unavailable music available again. His friendship and creative collaboration were very essential to my growth as an artist and I’m proud to present this offering of his music.
– John Esposito 2024