JEF LABES
Since 1967 Jef has been a keyboardist, music director, composer, and producer. Before coming to Marin County he lived in Los Angeles, where he was a studio musician. Before that he lived in New York City. His long list of credits include composing and arranging for the Saturday Night Live band, being a member of the house-band at Catch a Rising Star, and accompanying/recording with a number of internationally-known song-writers and vocalists—luminaries such as Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt. He travelled extensively with both of them [it is Jef’s piano playing on Morrison’s Moondance, Jef’s arranging on You Don’t Pull No Punches, You Don’t Push the River. Jef’s is the guy wearing the cowboy hat you see on the album cover of Bonnie Raitt’s Sweet Forgiveness]. He has also worked with Elvin Bishop, Jesse Colin Young, Jonathan Edwards, The Apple Pie Motherhood Band and Heathcliff The Cat. He confesses that as a professional musician his greatest joy is writing songs for musical theater. It is not surprising therefore that since the 1970s he has been musical director for four or five shows each year—some of which he has either written or co-written. In addition to all of that, since 1991 he’s taught music in an elementary school, written hundreds of songs as a teaching and performance tool for his students, and plans to release a series of books containing the best of these songs. It’s a wonder Jef has much ‘free’ time to spend with his wife, Eva (the ‘angel’ of the family), eldest son Jon, 26 (pursuing a film career in NYC), Ziggy, 18 (a strong guitar player), Theo, 6, Sofie Anna, 4, and the baby, Sarah. To contact Jef visit his website at www.jeflabes.com