Album Notes

Gary Fogel is active in the New York City area as a percussionist, composer, educator, and recording engineer. He has recorded three CDs of his own compositions: “Proceed With Caution”, “Particles”, and his latest release “Sensory Perception”. He has recorded with Ron Smith, Don Minasi, Bill Stevens and Standard Time. Performance credits include work with Billy Bang, Robert Silverman, Bill Stevens, Jack Sheedy and many other New York musicians.

After attending the High School of Art and Design, Gary attended the Five Towns College and Queens College as a music major. His teachers included Charles Perry, Barry Altschul, Andrew Cyrille, Karl Berger, Ray Alexander and Mark Josefsberg.

On “Sensory Perception”, Gary leads a trio which includes pianist David Bryant and bassist Tim Ferguson. The CD contains 12 of his compositions which reflect the profound influences of musicians such as Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Herbie Nichols, Bud Powell, Paul Bley, Han Bennink, Paul Motian, and Gary Peacock.

The music on the album contains the standard jazz form of soloing where the original chord structure is maintained while the soloist departs from the melody completely. In some instances the trio takes liberties with this form.
In some tunes, the solo contains traces of the original melody throughout the improvisation. In others, the soloist departs from the rhythmic and harmonic chord structure to create a freer improvisation. Even in these cases, however, some relationship between the improvisation and the tune is always preserved.

Gary has been on the faculty at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts for eleven years where he teaches percussion, music theory and recording engineering. He strives to inspire students to explore their own creative potential by having them compose, improvise and listen to all types of music, especially that which reaches beyond standard styles and conventional repertoire.

Gary currently resides in Valley Stream, New York with his wife Rachel and their son Andrew.