Chris Jentsch
Chris Jentsch (guitar) is a recording and performing artist working primarily in jazz and contemporary improvisational forms. Based in Brooklyn since 1999, his main ensemble is Jentsch Group in its trio, quartet, nonet, or large configurations.
Jentsch is also a composer of jazz and concert music having been awarded grants/commissions from NY State Council on the Arts (3), Meet the Composer, the Composers Assistance Program of the American Music Center (2), American Composers Forum (2), Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble, Penfield Commission Project, and Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works Program.
Jentsch’s first CD Media Event was released in 1998 and features his working trio from that era. His second CD Miami Suite (1999) presents original works for large jazz ensemble. His third CD featuring the ACF-commissioned Brooklyn Suite for Jentsch Group Large was released in 2007 on Fleur De Son Records, as was a follow up, Cycles Suite, in 2009. Fractured Pop, a CD/DVD documenting Jentsch Group Quartet was released in 2017.
(on Brooklyn Suite) “…soaring guitar and kaleidoscopic soundscape…” - Howard Mandel
“Jentsch displays contemporary guitar mastery throughout (his CD Media Event). When you think of the traditions of the guitar in late 20th century, ‘emotion’ is the word that is often conjured. For Jentsch, add intellect, substance, and style to that guitar-emotion definition �” a delicacy and charm that spans the history of the music.” - AllAboutJazz.com
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Album Review
- Topics in American History by Jerome Wilson
- Topics in American History by Jack Bowers
- Topics in American History by Troy Dostert
- Fractured Pop by Jerome Wilson
Interview
Album Review
- Brooklyn Suite by Michael P. Gladstone
- Brooklyn Suite by Mark F. Turner
- Brooklyn Suite by Graham L. Flanagan
- Media Event by Mark Corroto
February 07, 2010
Guitarist/Bandleader Chris Jentsch Interviewed at AAJ
January 22, 2007
Chris Jentsch (Mon) Steve Lehman QNT (Tue) Soul of the Blues (Wed) Gnu...
“In its scope and detail and eternally recurring inner logic, Cycles Suite may be the Finnegans Wake of big-band jazz. …a moving and elegiac journey through complex emotional terrain.” - Richard Gehr (from the liner notes)
“Chris Jentsch's seven-part homage to his home borough (Brooklyn Suite) is at once grandly orchestral and strikingly personal. The entire band seems to radiate from Jentsch's pensive guitar pulse, blending jazz, classical and rock ideas into a multidimensional reflection of everyday life.” - Forrest Dylan Bryant, Jazz Times
“Chris Jentsch's Brooklyn Suite (is) a complex-yet-highly rewarding suite for 18-piece ensemble
Primary Instrument
Guitar, electric
Willing to teach
Beginner to advanced
Credentials/Background
Teaching since 1990. Jentsch attended the Berklee College of Music and holds liberal arts and jazz guitar degrees from Gettysburg College, the New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Composition from the University of Miami in 1999 and is published by the University of Northern Colorado Press, Advance Music, and Fleur de Son Records. Available to teach in New York City, particularly in Brooklyn. ChrisJentsch.com for more information.
