Mr. Pfiffner has worked on the jazz scene in Chicago for 25 years. He has performed with Truck Parham, John Wright, Marshall Thompson, Eldee Young, Earma Thompson, Willie Pickens, Sonny Seals, John Watson Sr, Tim Daisy, and Keefe Jackson, among others.

For five years Pfiffner played lead tenor with Alan Gresik’s Swing Shift Orchestra, specializing in authentic big band music of the 1930s and ‘40s. Pfiffner was the musical director and resident composer of The 58 Group, an interdisciplinary ensemble led by choreographer and former Hubbard Street dancer Ginger Farley, which was dedicated to creating new works of dance accompanied by live music. For the past twenty years Pfiffner, with fellow saxist Pat Mallinger, has led the band Sabertooth late night Saturdays at Chicago’s famous Green Mill Lounge. Pfiffner currently leads the 11-piece ensemble Marco Polo, which performs his own original compositions as well as his arrangements of music from many different places and time periods, focused through the idiom of jazz. A current project is the saxophone ensemble Adolphe’S Ax, which pays tribute to the musician and instrument designer Adolphe Sax, inventor of the the saxophone.