Chase Baird

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For more info, visit: www.chasebaird.com

Part experimental rocker, part classical romantic and part hard-bop devotee, saxophonist and composer CHASE BAIRD has been described as "... the future of jazz music and the saxophone" by Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Randy Brecker.

His latest album, A Life Between, covers a vast emotional terrain with a band comprised of modern jazz’s most revered innovators. Pianist Brad Mehldau and drummer Antonio Sánchez are veteran companions alongside new-generation talents Nir Felder, guitar, and Dan Chmielinski, bass. Critics have declared the album “…a truly inspired, dare we say, epic recording complete with progressive singularities and sonic cosmicalities.”

Chase has worked as a sideman with pop icon Chaka Khan, legendary Chicago vocalist Bill Champlin as well as indie-rocker Jakob Dylan. In the jazz realm, he has performed or recorded with Chris Botti, Brad Mehldau, Antonio Sánchez, Mike Stern, Antonio Faraò, Mike Clark, Victor Wooten, Thana Alexa, Dennis Chambers, John Escreet, Julian Pollack, Dan Tepfer, Thomas Dawson, Steve Lyman and others.

Born in Seattle and raised in Salt Lake City and later California, Chase picked up the saxophone at age ten.  He was discovered and mentored by tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker in 2003. He received his first major press recognition when the British jazz magazine Crescendo observed him holding his own in jam sessions with the seasoned stars at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. As a high school student, he participated in prestigious youth jazz programs via the Monterey Jazz Festival and National Foundation for the Arts.

Chase initially attended California State University Long Beach and studied with saxophonist Eric Marienthal. He later graduated from The Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied jazz with Ron Blake, Joe Temperley and Frank Kimbrough and classical counterpoint with Kendall Briggs.

In January 2017, he performed a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert celebrating the life and music of Michael Brecker, playing his own original, “Ripcord”–with former President (and sax player) Bill Clinton sitting in the front row.

Chase toured as an active member of drummer Antonio Sánchez’s band Migration, from 2017 - 2020, recording both saxophone and EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) on the groups’ acclaimed album Lines In The Sand. He has collaborated with multi-generational jazz quartet Venture, featuring drum legend Mike Clark, multi-instrumentalist Mark Sherman and electric bassist Felix Pastorius.

Chase plays exclusively EWI with all-synthesizer band Circuit Kisser, created by bassist Dan “Chimy“ Chmielinski. The band’s most recent album, First Kiss, released on La Reserve Records in 2023.

Chase additionally plays guitars, acoustic and electric, with his talented singer/songwriter sister Christine Baird and her band Rocky Mountain Soul.

As a music educator, Chase has penned two innovative jazz method books, including the highly-celebrated Basics to Bebop. He also publishes a weekly podcast-style lesson series, Modern Jazz Pathways, which helps musicians globally to learn the more eclectic techniques found in post-bop and fusion jazz styles.

When not touring, Chase makes his home in Austin, Texas.