“Jazz flutist has his own formula” by Daniel Gewertz
At one time, jazz flutist Jeremy Steig seemed to pop up everywhere. Then he disappeared. “Jigsaw,” his new album on Triloka Records, is his first release as a leader in 15 years.
“I never stopped playing,” says Steig. “It’s just that the music industry has been busy selling formulaic albums and recording 20-year-old jazz musicians who imitated older guys.”
Imitation has never been part of the Steig persona. Though he was just 18 when he began playing flute with such jazz vets as Jim Hall, Steig refused to emulate previous styles. He was one of those musical mavericks who defined the freedom-loving era of the ’60s. With his band Jeremy and the Satyrs, he helped inaugurate the concept of jazz/rock.
During the ’60s, you never know where Steig would be heard next. He jammed with rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix and Tommy Bolin, recorded with jazz greats Bill Evans and Art Blakey, bluesman Junior Wells and James Cotton, folk-singers Tim Hardin and Richie Havens.
“I was lucky,” he says. “I liked to draw from everything, playing free, and funk, and straight-ahead jazz, and there weren’t tight controls in the music industry back then saying you couldn’t do that.”
Steig brings his current quartet into Scullers tomorrow for a rare Boston gig…