Fernando Benadon (b. 1972) is a composer and scholar who thrives on the exploration and integration of diverse paths. The New York Times has praised his music as "engagingly forward" (2001), a "perfect curtainraiser" of "ear-grabbing invention" (2006). He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Fromm Commission at Tanglewood, Copland House's Aaron Copland Award, winner of the International Society for Contemporary Music composition competition, and UC-Berkeley's Ladd Prize, which funds a two-year residency in Paris. His music for film was featured at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and at many other film festivals around the world. As a scholar of jazz theory and rhythm perception, he publishes in leading journals and presents research at professional conferences. A native of Buenos Aires, Fernando studied jazz at Berklee and composition at UC-Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in 2004. He is assistant professor of music at American University.
Blues historians have described John Lee Hooker's boogie as a "rhythmic drone, twisting and turning the sound," a "jumping, polyrhythmic groove" that can "rattle your bones." Hooker himself had difficulty in describing the origins of his boogie: "It’s just there. I can’t explain it. And it just comes out." This paper seeks to unravel some of the boogie's visceral and hypnotic aspects by focusing on its rhythmic properties.
Forthcoming in Popular Music. Co-authored with Ted Gioia.
"Time Warps in Early Jazz" accepted for publication in Music Theory Spectrum.
"Slicing the Beat" awarded the Society for Ethnomusicology's Jaap Kunst Prize for the most significant article published in 2006.
Composing "Improfission," a CD-length collage of improvisations by Courtney Orlando, Evan Price, Kurt Rohde, Michael Formanek, Marco Antonio Mazzini, Nasar Abadey, Fred Irby III, and Chris Froh.
Release of "Song 72" on Albany Records CD by Noah Getz.