The Jamie Baum Septet+
NYC jazz flutist/composer, Sunnyside Records artist and 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, Jamie Baum, has just finished her 6th CD, Bridges with The Jamie Baum Septet+, due out in May ‘18. Jamie has toured in over 30 countries, and worked/recorded with a long list of renowned and diverse jazz artists including Randy Brecker, Donald Brown, Mick Goodrick, Tom Harrell and Kenny Barron to Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Ralph Alessi, Leni Stern, Jane Bunnett, David Binney, Anthony Braxton and Wadada Leo Smith. Her many awards and honors include being nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for “Flutist of Year“ 8 times and placing in DownBeat polls annually since 1998.
Here’s a brief backstory...
Our last CD, In This Life, came out on Sunnyside Records (my second for that label) and was met with much positive attention. So many wonderful things came from that recording that I could not have anticipated. Not only was I nominated in 2014 by the Jazz Journalists Association for “Flutist of the Year“, but my band, The Jamie Baum Septet+, was also nominated as "Best Midsize Ensemble of the Year" - in the same list with only two other bands, The Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve Coleman’s Five Elements!
Media attention for In This Life brought features on WBGO’s RADAR and NPR’s All Things Considered, reviews in The New York Times, DownBeat, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, etc., and made many of the "Best CDs of 2013" lists including The Boston Globe, ITunes, EMusic,com and Francis Davis' NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Composition awards included the 2014 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the 2014-15 Norman Stevens Fellowship as part of a MacDowell Colony residency.
A little bit about the new recording:
Back in 2013 after In This Life came out, long before there was any mention of the “Trump Wall”, I had been asked so many times how a “Jewish girl/jazz musician” became so enamored with the Muslim/Qawwali music of Pakistani vocalist Nusfrat Fateh Ali Kahn…certainly enough to compose music for an entire CD based on his influence. I had to really think about it and, in a nutshell, I found there to be very deep connections between certain types of Jewish music (my earliest musical influences) and Arabic, Middle Eastern and even South Asian music. To make a long story short, researching these musical connections and composing music based on them became the focus of my project, Bridges, for my Guggenheim Fellowship. Kind of timely now, isn’t it? Who knew we would be where we are today (politically and socially)...certainly I didn’t when I started on this path. The music and concept feel more relevant today than I could have anticipated!
The JAMIE BAUM Septet +
Jamie Baum- flutes, singing bowl, Amir ElSaffar – trumpet, vocals, Sam Sadigursky – alto sax/bass clarinet, Chris Komer - French horn, Brad Shepik - guitar, John Escreet – piano, Zack Lober – bass, singing bowl, Jeff Hirshfield – drums
Special Guests on the recording: Jamey Haddad - percussion, Navin Chettri - percussion, vocals
Produced by Jamie Baum and Richie Beirach
"Jamie Baum exhibits remarkable artistic facility as composer/arranger/bandleader/
flutist. .” - Dan Ouellette, DownBeat
"Ms. Baum brings a remarkable balance of fluidity and restless creativity to her work as a post-bop flutist and composer.” - Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times
Learn More: http://jamiebaum.com/projects/septet-plus/