NYC flutist/composer/recording artist/clinician, Jamie Baum, has toured the US, and over 28 countries performing at major festivals and concert halls including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Sedutirol, Braga, Oeiras, Bermuda, Edinburgh, Friehoffer, Winter JazzFest and JVC Festivals. She has performed with artists as renown and diverse as George Russell, Randy Brecker, Donald Brown, Mick Goodrick, Tom Harrell and Kenny Barron to Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Ralph Alessi, Leni Stern, David Binney, V.M Bhatt, Anthony Braxton and Wadada Leo Smith.
Though focusing primarily on jazz, she has been involved in several projects, performances and tours performing classical, new music, Brazilian and Latin music. Receiving critical praise for five CD's as a leader, Sight Unheard (w/Dave Douglas, Kenny Werner), Moving Forward, Standing Still (w/Ralph Alessi, George Colligan) and her recent Sunnyside Records release In This Life (w/Amir ElSaffar, John Escreet) all received four stars from DownBeat and made several "Best CDs of the Year" lists. Inch By Inch, by the cooperative band Yard Byard: The Jaki Byard Project (w/Jerome Harris, George Schuller), out May 2014 (GM Recordings) also received four stars from DownBeat. Recordings as sidewoman include those by Dave Binney, George Colligan, Ursel Schlicht, Glenn White, Frank Carlberg, Patrizia Scascitelli, Taylor Haskins, Ken Hatfield, etc.
Ms. Baum has been in the DownBeat Critics Polls annually since 1998, winning #3 in the 2014 Top Flutists category and # 1 Rising Star Flutist in 2012. She was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for "Flutist of the Year " seven times, including 2014 and her band The Jamie Baum Septet+ was also been nominated in 2014 as "Best Midsize Ensemble of the Year" - in the same list with only two other bands -The Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve Coleman and Five Elements!
Among the many awards for her composing, Baum was recently awarded the 2014 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowshipand a MacDowell residency, has won the '99 Int'l Jazz Composers Alliance Award, 2010 CAP Award (AMC), the 2003 New Works: Creation/Presentation Award and the 2007 Encore Award, components of the Doris Duke/Chamber Music America Jazz Ensembles Project.
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., making the "Best CDs of 2013" on lists including The Boston Globe, iTunes, Rhapsody.com, EMusic and Francis Davis' NPR Jazz Critics Poll. Ms. Baum was also featured in the September 2014 issue of JazzTimes.
Through a highly competitive auditioning process, Jamie was chosen to tour for the DOS/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador program from '99-'03 as well as several later tours sponsored by the US State Department in South America, Europe and South Asia.
Jeff Hirshfield studied under Ed Soph. He worked for the Joffrey Ballet in 1976-77 and then played with Mose Allison (1977–79). During the 1980s he worked with Red Rodney and Ira Sullivan (1981–85), Toshiko Akiyoshi (1986-89), and Bennie Wallace (1987–90). Alongside Fred Hersch and Steve LaSpina, he was a member of the trio Etc. during 1988-91. During this time he also played in a trio with Hersch and Michael Formanek. From 1990 he played with Harold Danko, played in Formanek's Wide Open Spaces project, and played again with LaSpina in a quartet setting. He also worked in a quartet with John Abercrombie and Andy LaVerne early in the 1990s. In the mid-1990s he played in a trio with Marc Copland and Dieter Ilg (1992–95), another trio with Tim Berne and Formanek (1993–94), and the Lan Xang ensemble with David Binney, Donny McCaslin, and Scott Colley (after 1995).
Hirshfield has also played with a number of other leaders, including Bob Belden, Marc Copland, Vic Juris, Steve Slagle, Dave Stryker, Jim Snidero, Warren Bernhardt, Jay Anderson, and Paul Bley. More information
Though focusing primarily on jazz, she has been involved in several projects, performances and tours performing classical, new music, Brazilian and Latin music. Receiving critical praise for five CD's as a leader, Sight Unheard (w/Dave Douglas, Kenny Werner), Moving Forward, Standing Still (w/Ralph Alessi, George Colligan) and her recent Sunnyside Records release In This Life (w/Amir ElSaffar, John Escreet) all received four stars from DownBeat and made several "Best CDs of the Year" lists. Inch By Inch, by the cooperative band Yard Byard: The Jaki Byard Project (w/Jerome Harris, George Schuller), out May 2014 (GM Recordings) also received four stars from DownBeat. Recordings as sidewoman include those by Dave Binney, George Colligan, Ursel Schlicht, Glenn White, Frank Carlberg, Patrizia Scascitelli, Taylor Haskins, Ken Hatfield, etc.
Ms. Baum has been in the DownBeat Critics Polls annually since 1998, winning #3 in the 2014 Top Flutists category and # 1 Rising Star Flutist in 2012. She was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for "Flutist of the Year " seven times, including 2014 and her band The Jamie Baum Septet+ was also been nominated in 2014 as "Best Midsize Ensemble of the Year" - in the same list with only two other bands -The Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve Coleman and Five Elements!
Among the many awards for her composing, Baum was recently awarded the 2014 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowshipand a MacDowell residency, has won the '99 Int'l Jazz Composers Alliance Award, 2010 CAP Award (AMC), the 2003 New Works: Creation/Presentation Award and the 2007 Encore Award, components of the Doris Duke/Chamber Music America Jazz Ensembles Project.
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., making the "Best CDs of 2013" on lists including The Boston Globe, iTunes, Rhapsody.com, EMusic and Francis Davis' NPR Jazz Critics Poll. Ms. Baum was also featured in the September 2014 issue of JazzTimes.
Through a highly competitive auditioning process, Jamie was chosen to tour for the DOS/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador program from '99-'03 as well as several later tours sponsored by the US State Department in South America, Europe and South Asia.
Jeff Hirshfield studied under Ed Soph. He worked for the Joffrey Ballet in 1976-77 and then played with Mose Allison (1977–79). During the 1980s he worked with Red Rodney and Ira Sullivan (1981–85), Toshiko Akiyoshi (1986-89), and Bennie Wallace (1987–90). Alongside Fred Hersch and Steve LaSpina, he was a member of the trio Etc. during 1988-91. During this time he also played in a trio with Hersch and Michael Formanek. From 1990 he played with Harold Danko, played in Formanek's Wide Open Spaces project, and played again with LaSpina in a quartet setting. He also worked in a quartet with John Abercrombie and Andy LaVerne early in the 1990s. In the mid-1990s he played in a trio with Marc Copland and Dieter Ilg (1992–95), another trio with Tim Berne and Formanek (1993–94), and the Lan Xang ensemble with David Binney, Donny McCaslin, and Scott Colley (after 1995).
Hirshfield has also played with a number of other leaders, including Bob Belden, Marc Copland, Vic Juris, Steve Slagle, Dave Stryker, Jim Snidero, Warren Bernhardt, Jay Anderson, and Paul Bley. More information