Press

Combines superb technique with a complex set of impulses: he's a deeply rational improviser drawn to the unknown.

One of the moment's most adventurous and relevant musicians.

Ravishing... Dan Tepfer is a pianist of extraordinary technique and fearless harmonic sensibility.

A pianist of exceptional poise who is drawn to the deeper currents of melody.

A tremendously gifted pianist.

A wide-open sensibility, about as tuned in to Bach and Björk as to Monk and Shorter.

A pianist who is charting the course for the keyboard in the 21st century.

Mr. Tepfer has the ability to disappear into the music as he's making it. ★★★★

A remarkable musician.

A formidable and flamboyant pianist who combines rhythmic incisiveness with a penchant for the baroque flourish... An exceptional young player who has made an indelible impact on the scene.

A brilliant young pianist.

New York-based pianist Tepfer is among the most accomplished and imaginative of the new wave of players emerging across the pond. He specializes in a rippling, lyrical style that builds complex melodic layers of ideas... A piano star.

One of the most forcefully creative musicians in today's jazz scene.

A jazz musician who refuses to set himself limits.

It's hard not to be swept away by Tepfer’s vision and compelling realizations. With disarming seriousness and extraordinary musicianship, he is honoring Bach by creating a conversation with him that is true to both artists.

Effortlessly at home in both worlds, Dan Tepfer takes up the three-act structure of the short compositions once intended for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and continues them in his own language. A huge success, both in its seamlessness and in its strong contrasts.

Pervasively elegant, with a smart choice of tempi and a touch that’s impeccably profound, Dan Tepfer reminds us that Bach’s music is not 300 years old — it’s current, that is to say immortal.

An exhilarating album. With deep creativity, outstanding technique, and a sensitivity open to all winds, Dan Tepfer offers a radically different exploration of the work of the master.

One is struck by the playfulness Tepfer contrasts with Bach's austerity in his pieces — the improvised Inventions are performed with tremendous ease. Tepfer's work is the result of deepest engagement with and at the same time a bow to Grandmaster Bach.

In “Inventions/Reinventions,” Tepfer boldly — even audaciously — supplies the “missing” nine inventions in the form of his own free improvisations. At Bargemusic, as in Paris, Tepfer played with transparent, articulate touch; a jazz musician’s feel for lithe, bouncy rhythms; and tastefully expressive lyrical freedom.

Tepfer’s an exceptional musician, equally able to climb the highest peaks of classical music and to improvise with extraordinary fluidity and grace. All in all the improvisations are inspired contemporary reflections on the originals, and one suspects that Bach himself would have been impressed.

When musician Dan Tepfer was a kid, he taught himself to code on an early Macintosh computer that his dad brought home one day. That little kid grew up to be a world-renowned jazz pianist. And now, he has programmed another machine: his piano. For the past five years, Tepfer has been writing algorithms that direct a specially modified Yamaha piano to play along with him. Amazing — a duet with phantom hands.—NPR All Things Considered

Fascinating... Ingenious. Jazz pianist Dan Tepfer is known for forging deep musical relationships. The 2018 album Decade featured highly attuned duets between the 37-year-old and legendary 91-year-old alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, his collaborator for 10 years. Tepfer’s new album features a similar kind of intense communication — the only difference is that this time, his partner is an algorithm.—Rolling Stone

Jaggedly hypnotic... Tepfer’s work is a modern update of what Brian Eno dubbed "generative music".—The New Yorker

What’s most striking — along with the stunning visuals — is how human it all sounds, as if Tepfer were engaged in a deep conversation with another musician. It’s impossible to tell where Tepfer ends and the machine begins.—Jazziz (UK)

Experimental and highly innovative... Pianist Dan Tepfer has created a futuristic version of the player piano.—Gothamist

With his eleven takes, the one-time astrophysics student and pianist — trained by Danilo Perez at the New England Conservatory — engages in spellbinding dialogues with computer algorithms he has programmed. The result sounds superhumanly powerful, and yet incredibly natural.

More than a solo piano album... a multimedia piece of contemporary art so well made in its process and components and expressed by such a thoughtful, talented, evocative pianist... [that it becomes] a complete experience.—NextBop.com

Thrilling, fresh, and always smart.

One of the very best essays in contemporary piano trio jazz you'll hear all year.

CHOC. An entirely personal vision of the art of trio.

In the top tier of trio albums you need to hear this year. Innovative, interesting, and takes the trio format places where it has been yearning to go for a little while now.

Arresting and compelling, adventurous and unpredictable, Eleven Cages jumps right out of the gate with energy and focus.

Among the most inventive and deeply considered works in recent memory. Dan Tepfer's imprint is fully personal.

Vital, enthralling, diverse, virtuosic and even humorous. On Eleven Cages, everything has its meaning and purpose.

Riveting and inspired... A brilliant performance... This is no stunt, but a fresh musical exploration. Mr. Tepfer invites you to hear this masterpiece through his ears. I bet Bach would recognize a kindred spirit in Mr. Tepfer.

On his new CD, Goldberg Variations/Variations, Mr. Tepfer not only enters what to many pianists is hallowed ground — he leaves his self-assured footprints all over. His jazz roots show through in the crisp articulation and rhythmic clarity of his counterpoint, in his glass-sharp attack and, above all, in his supple approach to time... He builds a bridge across centuries and genres to spark a dialogue with Johann Sebastian Bach.

CRITIC'S PICK: On his latest album, the 29-year-old pianist not only had the audacity to play Bach's Goldberg Variations — he improvised on them. The results are elegant, thoughtful, and thrilling.

In a ballsy move that resounds with an unabashed yen for balance, the insightful pianist concocts a freeprov ditty for each of Bach's most famous miniatures on the new Goldberg Variations/Variations. On the classical side, the 60 tracks are a blend of grace and power. On the jazz side, they're built with daring and elan. It's easy to respect both.

One of the more audacious, accomplished recordings of 2011.

Impressive... A very original take on Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Fantastic... An ingenious, thoroughly modern adaptation... I've spent weeks going back to this album, and it's provided renewable pleasures and fresh discoveries each time.

A fascinating and engrossing listen... [Tepfer] meets exhilaration with exhilaration... A huge and unique success.

There aren't many pianists who could pull this off quite so well. An extraordinary project.