rivers in the desert
new album from dave meder arriving this fall
pre-order now for exclusive benefits that will be unavailable after the release
Dave Meder (piano/synth/voice)
Philip Dizack (trumpet)
Marty Jaffe (bass)
Michael Piolet (drums/congas)
with additional sound design and electronics
by Jon Christopher Nelson
PRE-ORDER TIERS
…pre-orders start at $15 for the digital album (plus exclusive benefits)…and go up to $500, which includes a lesson, personalized recording, album credit, and more…
“…I am about to do something new; even now it is coming…I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert…”
Rivers in the Desert is an extended work by Dave Meder, first commissioned by the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works program. Drawing its name from Isaiah 43:19, the album’s first half is inspired by the delicate ecological dance among soil, water, and life - one that has sustained the planet since its inception. The second half laments the rupture of this balance via human-induced climate change and failing resource stewardship. The final title track unifies these two halves, offering a path forward: an affirmation of regenerative environmental practices and their ability to heal what we have so brazenly made barren.
The album showcases a working quartet in peak form: trumpeter Philip Dizack (internationally acclaimed collaborator and one of DownBeat’s “Top 25 Trumpet Players to Watch”), bassist Marty Jaffe (Marcus Roberts Trio, Karrin Allyson), and drummer Michael Piolet (past work with Eric Lewis, Leon Foster Thomas, and current percussionist for Hamilton on Broadway). The quartet, formed in 2021, has the wind in its sails as a finalist band in the international 2025 DC Jazz Prix, a selectee for the 2024 Texas Arts Touring Roster, a grantee in the 2023 South Arts Jazz Road Tours program, and a recipient of the 2022 CMA New Jazz Works Commission. Now with three albums together, their synergy suggests a collective voice, fully elucidating Dave Meder’s intricate tone poems and expansive narrative vision. Select movements of Rivers in the Desert are augmented with custom effects and electronics designed by noted sound artist Jon Christopher Nelson.
Dave Meder is one of the prominent artists of his generation, known for a broad musical palette recognized in the Herbie Hancock International Jazz Piano Competition and the American Piano Awards. His music is described as “a vibrant hybrid of the whole American spectrum” (All About Jazz), skillfully balancing “post-bop harmonies with soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical sophistication” (All Music Guide). He has headlined stages or conducted educational residencies at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, as well as internationally in Beijing, Tokyo, São Paulo, and most recently Egypt as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. A Juilliard graduate formerly based in NYC, Dave has been Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of North Texas since 2018.
Rivers in the Desert is highly personal to Dave, as a lifelong gardener and horticultural hobbyist, and now as the father of a young girl. “It’s one thing to watch climate denialism and senseless environmental policy as a kind of abstract political phenomenon… it’s an entirely different feeling when you have children whose generation stands to be fundamentally jeopardized by these attitudes.” Since the birth of his daughter two years ago, Dave has acted on a small scale by slowly transforming the infertile clay in his North Texas backyard into a more sustainable ecosystem that now supports fruit trees, vegetables, and native Texas prairie grasses and perennials. He draws inspiration from transformative land and water management success stories from around the world, such as the Greening the Desert project in Jordan, the Loess Plateau restoration in China, and the switch from conventional to regenerative agriculture in pockets of the United States.
“Since moving to Texas, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to try out parts of all these innovative water and soil practices I had read about over the years. At first it was just a passion project, but now with a young daughter, and a new administration that seems to openly welcome climate denialism, suddenly this far-fetched backyard experiment took on a deeper meaning. It’s a way to prove to my community that this stuff can work, and that thinking about the earth in a regenerative way is not just the best way forward, but the only way forward. I got so invested that I found these ideas creeping into my artistic work. This album is a personal reflection of my own environmental journey, and it’s a love letter to my daughter in a roundabout way… a vision of what I hope her future can become.”
