About Alan

Multiple GRAMMY-nominated/winning trombonist-composer-arranger Alan Ferber has been called “one of the jazz world’s premier composers and arrangers for larger groups” by All About Jazz NY.  Jazz Times magazine describes Ferber’s compositions as “inspired and meticulous” and the L.A. Weekly deems him “one of the premier modern jazz arrangers of our time.”  In 2022, he was deemed the top “Rising Star Trombonist” in Down Beat magazine’s International Critic’s Poll.  Ferber has been the recipient of a 2013 & 2023 New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America, funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.  He currently serves as the Associate Director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and has been an Adjunct Professor of jazz studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School since 2011. 

Ferber’s aesthetic prescribes a deep knowledge of the jazz tradition as a means toward meaningful innovation.  Appropriately, the Wall Street Journal describes his music as “somehow both old school and cutting edge.”  He recently released his ninth album as a bandleader in July of 2023 titled Alan Ferber Nonet: Up High, Down Low on Sunnyside Records. In a review, Stereophile magazine describes Alan as being “born to the (nonet) format” and continues with, “Ferber the bandleader has one of the world's best trombonists in his nonet: himself.”

Prior to this album, he released the album Jigsaw featuring his 17-piece big band on Sunnyside Records, which was nominated for a 2018 GRAMMY award for ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.’ Down Beat magazine listed it as one of the best CDs of 2017 and stated, “Ferber…demonstrates full mastery.  His big band belongs in the idiom’s current top tier.” In 2016, Ferber released “Roots & Transitions,” an eight-movement original piece for his working nonet, from which his composition Flow was nominated for a 2017 GRAMMY award for ‘Best Instrumental Composition.’   Ferber’s 2013 release for his big band on the Sunnyside label,  March Sublime,  features original compositions and arrangements and was nominated for a 2014 GRAMMY award in the ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album’ category.  In 2010, Ferber released “Chamber Songs-Music For Nonet & Strings” (Sunnyside) which received a coveted 4 star review in Down Beat and was named one the magazine’s “Best CDs of the Year.”

Ferber’s music draws from a broad stylistic base informed by the array of artists with whom he has closely worked.  In the jazz world, he has performed and/or recorded with Best New Artist GRAMMY-winner Esperanza Spalding’s Radio Music Society, the Dr. Lonnie Smith Octet, the Ted Nash Big Band, Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors, MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenon’s Identities Big Band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, the Charlie Hunter Quintet, Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus, the David Binney/Edward Simon Group, the Lee Konitz Nonet, John Ellis’s Double Wide, the Dafnis Prieto Big Band, the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and Don Byron’s Mickey Katz Project. 

He has worked extensively in other genres as well with artists including Peter Gabriel (Live at the Ed Sullivan Theater), Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens (Age of Adz & All Delighted People), The National (on Grammy-nominated Trouble Will Find Me), Dr. Dre, Harry Connick Jr, Michael Buble, and Beirut.  His discography lists over 150 CDs on which he has played trombone and/or composed and arranged music.    

Ferber’s accomplishments as a writer and collaborator are equally diverse.  He has composed multiple pieces for the popular video game, Valorant. He composed several arrangements for vocalist Sara Gazarek’s GRAMMY-nominated album, Thirsty Ghost as well as for her most recent EP, Vanity.  He wrote all of the big band arrangements for Broadway star Shoshana Bean‘s album, Spectrum; Two big band arrangements of Joni Mitchell compositions featuring vocalist Tutu Puoane with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra on their album, We Have A Dream. Two commissions ~ Kopi Luwak and Luteous Pangolin (Ben Monder) ~ written for the Atlantic Brass Quintet (and released on their 2014 album Crossover on Summit Records);  Hyperballad (Bjork), arranged for the avant-classical music outfit Bang On A Can’s Asphalt Orchestra;  Farewell (Nelson Foltz) arranged for a recording with 8 trombones joined by acclaimed vocalist Rebecca Martin; nine arrangements for Korean Sony recording artist Youngjoo Song’s 2015 release, Reflection, nominated for Jazz Album of the Year at the 2015 Korean Music Awards; and worked as a producer on two GRAMMY-nominated albums (Real Enemies & Dynamic Maximum Tension) for celebrated jazz composer, Darcy James Argue.

Alan currently serves as the Associate Director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in New York City, a reputable incubator for emerging big band composers. Since 2011, he has been an Adjunct Professor of jazz studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School. Ferber also serves on the faculty at the John J Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and has been a faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, the Eastman School of Music, and the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music.  He has worked regularly on the faculties of several summer jazz programs including the Taipei International Summer Jazz Academy, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Lafayette Summer Music Jazz Workshop, Cal State University’s Summer Arts Perspectives In Jazz program, and the Maine Jazz Camp.  He is currently the coordinator of New England Music Camp’s Jazz Intensive, held every summer in Maine.  He has appeared as a clinician and soloist with numerous universities including the Eastman School of Music, Stanford University, the University of Oregon, Cal State Northridge, Kansas University, the University of Miami, the Lawrence Conservatory, Middle Tennessee State University, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.