Ari Hoenig is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator.
Biography
Hoenig was born in Philadelphia to a vocalist father and violinist mother. He was exposed to classical and other music at an early age. He played both piano and violin, then rock and metal drums as a teen before settling into jazz. He attended Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts in 1990 and the University of North Texas College of Music in 1992 for three years and was a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band. In 1995 he transferred to William Paterson College in New Jersey and moved to New York a year later. In 2000, he produced his first solo album, Time Travels, and his second, The Life of a Day, on which he explored the melodic possibilities of the drum set. The Ari Hoenig Quartet was formed at the end of 2002 with Jacques Schwarz-Bart on tenor saxophone, Jean-Michel Pilc on piano, and Matt Penman on bass. They released The Painter and the DVD Kinetic Hues. In 2006 Hoenig signed a contract with Dreyfus, which released his album Inversations with Pilc and Johannes Weidenmueller. Bert's Playground, his second album for Dreyfus, features Ari's Punk Bop Band with Chris Potter. Hoenig chose his Punk Bop Band to make the live record Punk Bop Live at Smalls that was released by Smalls Live in 2010 and features Will Vinson on alto saxophone, Danton Boller on bass, and Tigran Hamasyan as a special guest. Hoenig's quartet with Hamasyan, Gilad Hekselman, Orlando le Fleming, and Chris Tordini released Lines of Oppression for Naive. In 2016, AH-HA Records released The Pauper and the Magician by his quintet with Shai Maestro on piano, Gilad Hekselman on guitar, Tivon Pennicott on saxophone, and Orlando le Fleming on bass. He also leads the Ari Hoenig Nonet and Trio. The Nonet performs original compositions arranged by Noam Wiesenberg and features musicians from the New York area. The trio with Hekselman and Fleming has toured in Europe, Japan, and South America. He co-leads Pilc, Moutin, Hoenig; Nasty Factorz with Gaël Horellou, and duo with Chris Potter, Edmar Castañeda, and Dan Weiss.
Educational materials
Hoenig has taught and is on the faculty at New York University and The New School in New York. He gives clinics and lectures at music schools and universities worldwide. Wth bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, he released Intro to Polyrhythms Vol 1, and Metric Modulations, Expanding and Contracting Time within Form Vol 2. In 2011, he Systems Book 1, Drumming Technique and Melodic Jazz Independence and the DVD Melodic Drumming. In 2014, Ari he released the video Rhythm Training about time and rhythmic vocabulary. In 2017, he released two videos: Mastering Odd Times and Drums: Jazz Coordination.
Awards
In 2013 Hoenig won the BMW Welt award in Munich, an international competition for best band led by a drummer.
