Jamie Saft

Jamie Saft
Saft at the Newport Jazz Festival, 2014
Background information
Born	1971 (age 52–53)
Genres	Avant-garde
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instrument(s)	Keyboards, organ
Labels	Avant, Tzadik, Veal
Website	Official website

Jamie Saft is an American keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist and composer.^[1] He was born in New York City and raised a Conservative Jew,^[2] and studied at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music.^[1]

Saft moved from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley around 2007, and lived near Roswell Rudd.^[3] The two often played together, and Rudd passed on knowledge of some of his own music and that of Herbie Nichols.^[3]

He has performed and recorded with an eclectic variety of artists including John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Iggy Pop, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte, and Marc Ribot.^[1] He has also written several original film scores including Murderball and God Grew Tired of Us; selections from these were released by Tzadik Records as A Bag of Shells.^[1] The same label has released several of Saft's recordings.^[1]

Discography

• Ragged Jack with Cuong Vu (Avant, 1996)
• Sovlanut (Tzadik, 2000)
• Breadcrumb Sins (Tzadik, 2002)
• Merzdub (Caminante, 2006)
• Trouble: The Jamie Saft Trio Plays Bob Dylan (Tzadik, 2006)
• Black Shabbis (Tzadik, 2009)
• A Bag of Shells (Tzadik, 2010)
• Borscht Belt Studies (Tzadik, 2011)
• Fight Against Babylon with New Zion Trio (Veal, 2011)
• Chaliwa with New Zion Trio (Veal, 2013)
• The New Standard (RareNoise, 2014)
• Sunshine Seas with New Zion Trio (RareNoise, 2016)
• Loneliness Road (RareNoise, 2017)
• Blue Dream (RareNoise, 2018)
• Solo a Genova (RareNoise, 2018)
• You Don't Know the Life (RareNoise, 2019)
• Hidden Corners (RareNoise, 2019)

As sideman

With Jerry Granelli

• Enter, A Dragon (Songlines, 1998)
• Crowd Theory (Songlines, 1999)
• Music Has Its Way with Me (Perimeter, 1999)
• El oh el ay (Love Slave, 2001)
• The Only Juan (Love Slave, 2001)
• Gigantic (Love Slave, 2003)
• The Jerry Granelli Trio Plays Vince Guaraldi & Mose Allison (RareNoise, 2020)

With Bobby Previte

• Too Close to the Pole (Enja, 1996)
• My Man in Sydney (Enja, 1997)
• Dangerous Rip (Enja, 1998)
• The 23 Constellations of Joan Miro (Tzadik, 2001)
• The Coalition of the Willing (P-Vine, 2006)
• Mass (RareNoise, 2016)
• Music from the Early 21st Century (RareNoise, 2020)

With John Zorn

• Taboo & Exile (Tzadik, 1999)
• Filmworks IX: Trembling Before G-d (Tzadik, 2000)
• The Gift (Tzadik, 2001)
• Filmworks X: In the Mirror of Maya Deren (Tzadik, 2001)
• Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2 (Tzadik, 2002)
• Filmworks XI: Secret Lives (Tzadik, 2002)
• Filmworks XII: Three Documentaries (Tzadik 2002)
• IAO (Tzadik, 2002)
• Voices in the Wilderness (Tzadik, 2003)
• The Unknown Masada (Tzadik, 2003)
• 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 4 (Tzadik, 2004)
• Astaroth: Book of Angels Volume 1 (Tzadik, 2005)
• Filmworks XVI: Workingman's Death (Tzadik, 2005)
• Electric Masada: At the Mountains of Madness (Tzadik, 2005)
• The Dreamers (Tzadik, 2008)
• O'o (Tzadik, 2009)
• Ipos: Book of Angels Volume 14 (Tzadik, 2010)
• Baal: Book of Angels Volume 15 (Tzadik, 2010)
• A Dreamers Christmas (Tzadik, 2011)
• Pellucidar: A Dreamers Fantabula (Tzadik, 2015)
• Six Litanies for Heliogabalus (Tzadik, 2007)
• The Big Gundown (Tzadik, 2000)

With others

• Marshall Allen, Ceremonial Healing (RareNoise, 2019)
• Bad Brains, Build a Nation (Oscilloscope/Megaforce, 2007)
• Cyro Baptista, Beat the Donkey (Tzadik, 2002)
• Cyro Baptista, Love the Donkey (Tzadik, 2005)
• Jane Ira Bloom, Like Silver, Like Song (ArtistShare, 2005)
• Oren Bloedow & Jennifer Charles, La Mar Enfortuna (Tzadik, 2001)
• Sasha Dobson, Aquarius (Creek Valley, 2013)
• Dave Douglas, Freak In (Bluebird, 2002)
• Dave Douglas, Keystone (Greenleaf Music, 2005)
• Peter Epstein, Staring at the Sun (MA, 1997)
• Gaudi, Magnetic (RareNoise, 2017)
• Chuck Hammer, Blind On Blind (AVA, 2016)
• Hasidic New Wave, From the Belly of Abraham (Knitting Factory, 2001)
• Frank London, Scientist at Work (Tzadik, 2002)
• Mat Maneri, Pentagon (Thirsty Ear, 2005)
• Joe McPhee, Ticonderoga (Clean Feed, 2015)
• Youn Sun Nah, She Moves On (ACT, 2017)
• Orange Then Blue, Hold the Elevator (GM, 1999)
• Ruper Ordorika, Memoriaren Mapan (Elkar, 2006)
• Ruper Ordorika, Guria Ostatuan (Elkar, 2016)
• Roswell Rudd, Strength & Power (RareNoise, 2016)
• Wadada Leo Smith, Lake Biwa (Tzadik, 2004)
• Wadada Leo Smith, Red Hill (RareNoise, 2014)
• Chris Speed, Iffy (Knitting Factory, 2000)
• Cuong Vu, Bound (OmniTone, 2000)

References