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Jacob Varmus

Being pushed in a pram along the banks of La Scala in 1976 the two-year old Jacob Varmus suddenly emitted squeals and shrieks of unmasked delight. The most rapturous sounds he'd ever heard were bouncing off the plaza stone: a lone trumpeter's warming up from within open stage doors at the local opera house. Ten years later Jacob Varmus had a trumpet of his own and began winning top marks at all the California Music Educators' Association festivals for his work as soloist (Haydn's trumpet concerto and Goedicke's Concert Etude) and chamber musician.

Evolving parallel to his love of music was an interest and talent in using language artistically thru poetry, critical essays, and autobiographical stories. In high school he won awards for poetry and sports journalism (an avid San Francisco Giants fan) as well as music. His first year of college, Jacob was admitted to the undergraduate Iowa Writers Workshop for poetry where he studied closely with MacArthur grant recipient Jorie Graham. At Iowa he also had the good fortune of studying with classical trumpet virtuoso David Greenhoe.

An initiation to the music and mastery of John Coltrane, as well as inspiring lessons with progressive trumpeter (and Iowa alum) Paul Smoker led Varmus to focus primarily on learning jazz music to the fullest. In 1994 he decided to move to New York to finish his BFA at the New School Jazz program where he received timeless lessons from a long list of artists including Arnie Lawrence and Billy Harper. Here he became known to his peers and elders as a composer of harmonically intricate yet compellingly simple and striking tunes.

In his senior year he was selected by the Jazz Composers' Collective to write a suite combining jazz quintet with string quartet which featured Ted Nash and Frank Kimbrough. Continuing with his interest in developing as a composer (and helping others do the same) he founded Workshop 39, a jazz composers' workshop in Long Island City, and found work as an incidental music composer for theater companies like Yankee Rep. In 2005 he won a commission from the Queens Council on the Arts to present 'Queensboro Plaza' a suite for jazz quintet drawing on the types of rhythmic cross currents associated with Steve Reich, a harmonic language close to Stravinsky's and Scriabin's, and the collective improvisation of early jazz.

Awards

First Place International Trumpet Guild Student Jazz Competition, 1994; KJA Jazz Advocate Top Ten Albums of the Year (All the Things We Still Can Be, 2006) Queens Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Grant for Queens Library Jazz Series, 2008 Banff Centre For the Arts scholarship, 2005 Queens Council on the Arts commission, 2005


Tags

6
Album Review

Jacob Varmus Septet: Aegean

Read "Aegean" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The existence of this album is firm proof that you never know just when or how a benefactor can come into view. Lifelong jazz fan Apostolos Georgopoulos was passing through upstate New York and he had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Connie Casey and Harold Varmus. Upon hearing some music at their home that piqued his interest, Georgopolous learned that their son, Jacob Varmus, was a jazz trumpeter. Then, after being exposed to Jacob Varmus' All The Things ...

2
Album Review

Jacob Varmus: Terminal Stillness

Read "Terminal Stillness" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Jazz is always caught up in the idea of looking forward or backwards, but whatever happened to the idea of looking around? Much ado about movement--toward the future, the past, the next chord in the progression or the next stage of a career--often gets in the way of the simple act of creation. The jazz community, by-and-large, prefers the time-lapse version of music, but that doesn't mean that some within this tight-knit club aren't fond of stills. Take trumpeter Jacob ...

109
Album Review

Jacob Varmus: All the Things We Still Can Be

Read "All the Things We Still Can Be" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Some influences are readily apparent on trumpeter Jacob Varmus' debut disc, All the Things We Still Can Be, especially Chet Baker and Miles Davis, circa mid-'50s to mid-'60s. The set opens with a buoyant Varmus original, “Ecstatic Little Porpoises." Varmus' tone is warm and round and a bit soft-tufted, like Baker's, as he blows a bright and engaging melody.The title tune explores gentle mid-tempo lyicism, while “Untimely Intrusion" slips into darker territory, with an insistent rhythm and an ...

147
Album Review

Jacob Varmus: All The Things We Still Can Be

Read "All The Things We Still Can Be" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


On Jacob Varmus' debut recording he proves to be an exciting trumpeter, composer and bandleader. Hailing from San Francisco by way of the University of Iowa, Varmus originally planned to be a poet but was also drawn to the music of jazz trumpeters, of whom Chet Baker and Woody Shaw were early favorites. He has worked with local guitarist/bandleader Steve Grismore, gigged with Tom Harrell and studied with Iowa trumpeter Paul Smoker. Varmus placed first in the International Trumpet Guild's ...

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106

Performance / Tour

The Jacob Varmus Quintet Every Tuesday at Cup in Queens, NY--Free!

The Jacob Varmus Quintet Every Tuesday at Cup in Queens, NY--Free!

Source: Kari-On Productions

Jacob Varmus Quintet Every Tuesday 8-11PM Cup 35th Ave at 36th St. Astoria, Queens, NY 718-937-2322 Free To Public

The Jacob Varmus Quintet focuses on music that sounds natural without adhering to any theory or dictum--except perhaps Debussy's “pleasure is the law." Varmus the composer favors the tradition of great jazz composers like Wayne Shorter and Thelonious Monk who have a penchant for creating pieces with ...

152

Performance / Tour

Jacob Varmus Releases His New CD "Adhering To The Law Of Pleasure"

Jacob Varmus Releases His New CD "Adhering To The Law Of Pleasure"

Source: Kari-On Productions

Varmus Releases His New CD; All the Things We Still Can Be With an Adherence to Pleasure Is the Law The Jacob Varmus Quintet focuses on music that sounds natural without adhering to any theory or dictum--except perhaps Debussy's 'pleasure is the law'. Varmus the composer favors the tradition of great jazz composers like Wayne Shorter and Thelonious Monk who have a penchant for creating pieces with hummable, memorable melodies and an approach to harmony and texture that imbues the ...

99

Recording

New Release by Jacob Varmus

New Release by Jacob Varmus

Source: All About Jazz

Jacob Varmus is pleased to announce the release of his 2004 recording All the Things We Still Can Be. It is the first mass-produced recording for Mr. Varmus as a leader and features five of his early compositions with an outstanding group including Toru Dodo (piano), Nate Radley (guitar), Yoshi Waki (bass), and Brian Woodruff (drums).

The silky-toned trumpeter and cornetist is a New School Jazz graduate and currently artistic director of Astoria Music Society's jazz concert series.

First also ...

"Prior to hearing his first major release, All the Things We Still Can Be, I was unfamiliar with trumpet player and composer Jacob Varmus. I have to admit that it will often take listening to a few tracks before I warm up to, or can fully appreciate, the style of an artist that is unknown to me, but with Varmus I was drawn in from the first cut. "He plays with a pleasing round and full sound, and his improvisations are lyrical and musical. "His compositions have a sense of purpose and structure with very listenable and memorable melody lines. "I am personally eager to hear what he offers up next."-Scott Hockenberry, Jazz Improv Magazine

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Primary Instrument

Cornet

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Aegean

Self Produced
2016

buy

Aegean

Self Produced
2015

buy

Terminal Stillness

Crows' Kin Records
2013

buy

All The Things We...

Self Produced
2006

buy

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