Jeff Siegel

Drummer and composer Jeff "Siege" Siegel is a veteran of the New York jazz scene, best known for a longstanding quartet with tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay, pianist Francesca Tanksley and bassist Rich Syracuse. His playing sits in a high-energy, straight-ahead post-bop tradition, while his writing has pulled the band toward South African and spiritual jazz territory, most clearly on King of Xhosa (2017), which added South African trumpeter Feya Faku. Siegel came up in Arthur Rhames' quartet in the early 1980s, played in Second Sight with trumpeter Dave Douglas, and held the drum chair in the Sir Roland Hanna Trio from 1994 to 1999. He has also worked with Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Benny Golson, Frank Foster, Sheila Jordan and Mose Allison. Siegel holds a master's degree in jazz from Queens College, studied composition with Jimmy Heath, and teaches jazz drumming at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and at Western Connecticut State University.