Cadences Gabriel Zucker & Attila Gyarfas

• 1 Part 1: then 28:34
• 2 Part 2: now 22:21
• Total Runtime 50:55

Info for Cadences

When the duo met up in February 2023 for a planned two-week tour from Budapest to Izmir, Zucker brought material for a second record, built on fragments written in the New Mexican desert during the pandemic, a theme from a stint in Mexico City in 2022, and stitched together in the wake of turbulent life changes around the new year. Rather than forming a single, closed narrative arc, the composition is written in two halves, each half containing a different version of the same five pieces. The appearance, most of the way through the second half, of Turbulence II — a peaceful reflection of the aggressive Turbulence I that opens the composition — suggests an arch form, a final mirrored closing of the opening. But instead the second half closes like the first, with Cadences II, a notably non-cadential composition that suggests rather the lack of conclusions — as if the music might just rotate endlessly into the future.

Gyárfás and Zucker developed the new music in February on a tour interrupted by the earthquake in Turkiye, before audiences in Budapest, Szeged, Belgrade, Sofia, Plovdiv, and Istanbul, rehearsed at sound checks and on trains and buses. The music was recorded finally in August 2023, both halves in single epic live takes, in a single-day recording session in Budapest.

Gabriel Zucker, piano, synthesizer, voice
Attila Gyárfás, drum set, gong synthesizer

Gabriel Zucker
“Piano firebrand” (Brooklyn Rail) Gabriel Zucker is a pianist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist from New York, whose work combines maximalist compositions with the progressive improvisation of New York’s creative music scene. His music has received two ASCAP composition awards, and has been praised in Downbeat (4.5 stars), All About Jazz (4.5 stars), Stereogum, Jazzwise, and the New York City Jazz Record. A Yale graduate and Rhodes Scholar, Zucker has performed throughout New York at such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Stone, Roulette, and the Jazz Gallery, as well as in 22 countries around the world.

Zucker’s groundbreaking large ensemble, the indie jazz orchestra The Delegation, was born at the Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop. The group’s debut record, a twelve-movement composition titled Evergreen (Canceled World), was supported by an American Composers Forum JFund grant and released in October 2016 on ESP-Disk' to critical acclaim. The ensemble’s sophomore release, Leftover Beats From The Edges Of Time, was released in September 2021 on ESP-Disk'. Zucker’s small-ensemble touring incarnations of The Delegation have performed in over a dozen countries.

Zucker maintains a prolific activity with a range of other projects. In November 2018, ESP-Disk' released Zucker’s third studio record, Weighting, an extended composition inspired by Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers, featuring Tyshawn Sorey, Adam O’Farrill, and Eric Trudel. The record was widely praised, recognized as a Debut of the Year by the New York City Jazz Record, listed among the Best of 2018 by All About Jazz, and featured as a runner-up in Stereogum’s Best Jazz of 2018 list. Zucker and Sorey collaborated again in 2018 with the premiere of Zucker’s new duo New York, USA, 2018 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall. Zucker’s avant indie band underorder released its critically acclaimed sophomore record, Other Ways To Be Apart in parts over the course of 2019 and 2020. He also performs regularly as a concert pianist focusing on twentieth century repertoire. His 2018 performance of Frederic Rzewski’s Squares was listed among the New York Classical Review’s best concerts of the year, and his 2019 performance of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant Jesus also drew praise. Before the pandemic, Zucker was a manager and curator of the prominent experimental music venue Spectrum.

A committed social activist in addition to a musician, Zucker is currently Associate Policy Director for the tax benefits program at Code for America. He previously served as Director of Research at the progressive turnout organization VoteTripling.org; worked on homelessness and healthcare policy as a member of the U.S. Digital Service; and co-led the successful campaign to end veteran homelessness in Connecticut. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale in 2012, where he double majored in Ethics, Politics, & Economics and Music, and he holds a Masters in Applied Statistics from Oxford, where his research focused on applications of machine learning to social policy administration.

“pianist Zucker creates a compelling, mysterious world that is as beautiful as it is elusive... A captivating album that reveals more of its charms with each encounter.” — All About Jazz

“Zucker’s advanced compositional work is knotty, unpredictable, and utterly satisfying. Spinning with freshness and maturity, Weighting is put forward with a sterling avant-garde posture that reflects the artistry and commitment of the musicians involved.” — Jazz Trail

Booklet for Cadences