CHASE BAIRD has been described as “… a strong new talent…” (All About Jazz), as "… one of the best contemporary saxophonists ever" (composer/arranger Tom Kubis) and as a musician of remarkable "…clarity and logic..." (Downbeat Magazine).

An ever-surprising and evocative contributor to New York's creative music scene, jazz saxophonist Chase Baird has rapidly developed a reputation as an artist of "...boundless energy and imagination" (jazz journalist Chip Deffaa). He has performed throughout North America and Asia at venues including the Jazz Standard, Small's Jazz Club, Blue Note New York, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, and the Monterey, Montreal and Tomisato Jazz Festivals with artists including the Grammy Award-Winning Mingus Big Band. His debut album Crosscurrent was included as one of the Huffington Post's Best Jazz Albums of 2011. However, acknowledgement of his musical talent is certainly not a recent development; the late great Michael Brecker discovered and mentored the precocious saxophonist at the age of fourteen.

Of Mr. Brecker, Baird comments "Michael’s playing was so innovative, so compelling and modern: I listened to him and it always brought to mind angular beams of light...” Artists often start by emulating others, before finding their own voices; that’s the natural way of things. By 14, Baird could replicate technically daunting Brecker solos--spending months totranscribe and master them--and got his parents to mail a tape of his playing to Mr. Brecker. To his surprise, the phone soon rang in his home, and it was Brecker, who said he’d listened to the tape and felt he should call. He suggested they meet in person next time that he was in Salt Lake City, where Baird lived. Before too long, they did just that. Baird notes: “We hung out at the hotel where he was staying. I ordered a Coke, he ordered a Perrier. He asked me who I listened to. I told him: ‘I listen to Gato and Coltrane and Joe Henderson and you’–it felt odd for me to be telling him I listen to his music, it was weird to even be chatting with him; I was so deep into his music. He recommended books for me to read. He was so altruistic.”



Born in Seattle (March 1988), Chase's early exposure to music came from his father, a trumpet player who dabbled in rock and jazz bands and owned an eclectic collection of instruments. His family later relocated to Salt Lake City where Chase eventually picked up the alto saxophone around the age of ten. He soon switched to the tenor and began taking lessons with New York ex-patriot Alan Michael who helped the saxophonist progress at a rapid rate and urged him to begin to sit in at local clubs and to perform publicly.

While in high school, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA) selected Chase to be part of its prestigious Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship and featured him in its Academy Award-nominated documentary, "Rehearsing a Dream." He later began formal study of both music and psychology at California State University Long Beach. He eventually opted to continue his studies at the Juilliard School in New York City, where he currently studies with Joe Temperley, Rodney Jones, Ben Wolfe, Ray Drummond, Kenny Washington, among others.

Chase's debut album CROSSCURRENT has garnered great critical and popular acclaim in publications including Downbeat Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and All About Jazz. The Huffington Post included CROSSCURRENT among its list of the Best Jazz Albums of 2011. The album features seven Baird originals alongside Burke & Haggart's "What's New" and Cole Porter's "All of You."

Chase's latest musical project encompasses his interest in truly spontaneous improvisation and creative risk-taking. "Improvisation is one of the few art forms in which the audience gets to witness the artists in the midst of their creative process. It's inherently dramatic and exciting. I'm looking to push the envelope as far as I can in that way." The new music allows for greater creative flexibility from band members, who have included pianists Julian Pollack and Dan Tepfer, among others. It also aims to express a highly personal and contemporary musical statement. "The way I'm writing now definitely has a strong classical influence--I think mostly from Mahler, and some have noted that elements of the new tunes remind them of Chopin or even influences as eclectic as Cuban folk music. I've also felt the indirect influence of Radiohead [the innovative British alternative-rock band]--whose music I got really into in the past year--with regards to voice-leading and overall vibe and concept."

Chase has developed an original approach to chromatic and polytonal melodic construction known as Harmonic Grounding that radically connects modern musical elements with foundations in the overtone series. Downbeat Magazine featured his work in its December 2010 Woodshed Column and he subsequently received outstanding feedback from performers and composers in both the realms of jazz and classical music.


RECENT RECORDINGS

His debut CD CROSSCURRENT (Junebeat Records, 2010) features pianist Julian Pollack, guitarist John Storie, percussionist James Yoshizawa, bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Steve Lyman. Released to great critical acclaim, Crosscurrent contains seven originals alongside Burke & Haggart's "What's New" and Cole Porter's "All of You." The music represents the saxophonist's personal and creative growth during the past several years: "I wrote some of the music as early as 2005, although it was modified a bit for this recording. I feel that the music came from three distinct periods of time throughout the past several years, each lending itself to a unique aesthetic based on the growth and perspective changes I was experiencing in my life."



Crosscurrent features memorable melodies developed amidst often subtle, yet complex, compositional intricacies. As noted by jazz critic and author Chip Deffaa, "Baird's numbers often start in one place, and then seem to naturally grow in power. I listen to his ever-surprising originals, struck both by the great confidence he projects, and the way his works can keep shifting and changing while still proceeding with a sense of inevitability. Now this meter, now that meter; now he takes the lead, now the pianist. Quirky, off-center, bristling with energy. Going in unexpected directions. Yet following its own kind of logic. So the music all feels satisfyingly organic, whole. He creates highly structured jazz, writing carefully for all members of his band. Yet everything feels free, spontaneous. No small feat."