ANDY JAFFE
Genres: Third Stream, Progressive Big Band, Post Bop, Latin Jazz, Hard Bop • United States

Jaffe, Andy (Andrew William), jazz composer and educator; b. Washington D.C., 16 November 1951. He grew up in D.C., Monroe, N.Y., and Amherst, MA.  His father, Howard Jaffe (1919-2002), later to become a professional mineralogist, played piano and wrote musicals with Oscar Brand while at Brooklyn College.  His great uncle, Archie Gottler (1896-1959), was a successful Tin Pan Alley composer whose music was performed on Broadway by the likes of Sophie Tucker.  His greatest hit was "America, I Love You," originally composed during WWI (ca. 1915), then revived in WWII by the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, as arranged by Gil Evans. His brother, Stephen (b. 1954), teaches at Duke University and is a well-known composer of new music.  His sister, Marina, studied oboe at Oberlin College and currently works teaching music and as a freelance performer. Andy Jaffe began playing the piano at age 8, and then clarinet read more...