Michael Jefry Stevens Trio
The trio format has been one of my most important vehicles for musical expression throughout the course of my five decades long career. This is probably in no small part due to my love of the music of the Bill Evans Trio and also the Keith Jarrett “Standards” Trio. My first important working trio was with “Stevens, Siegel & Ferguson”. In the course of twenty years (1990 – 2010), we released six CDs and toured Europe and the United States numerous times. During that same time period, I was also involved in the Sorgen-Rust-Stevens Trio. This group was primarily an improvised recording project. We released 3 CDs as a trio and a fourth CD entitled “Aercine” with the addition of Herb Robertson on trumpet and Mark Feldman on violin. There have been other trio experiences, but these two were the primary early trio experiences that helped form much of who I now am as a musician.
The above-mentioned groups were active while I was living in New York City. In 2003 I left the New York and moved to Memphis, TN, where I met several musicians who have become an important part of my current musical life (Joyce Cobb, Brian “Breeze” Cayolle, Renardo Ward, Jonathan Wires and Don Aliquo come immediately to mind).
The current chapter of my life begins with the move from Memphis to Black Mountain, NC. When I moved to western North Carolina I had no idea how high the level of musicianship was in this area! My current trio features Rick Dilling on drums and Zack Page on bass. We have been playing together for the past 10 years and perform a repertoire of both standard jazz tunes and my original compositions. Look for an upcoming trio CD release featuring these talented musicians.