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Chris Komer
A New York City resident, Komer is at home playing all types of music in all types of settings, and he has become one of New York City’s most sought after freelance hornists. From the concert hall (in addition to the New Jersey Symphony, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony and Houston Symphony) to the jazz club (he has performed with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Chico O’Farrell Orchestra, Chuck Mangione, Marta Topferova and Gary Morgan’s Panamericana) to the recording studio (he has appeared in recordings for J. J. Johnson, McCoy Tyner, Harry Connick Jr., Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Audra McDonald, Celine Dion, George Michael, Luther Van Dross, Chaka Kahn, 16 major motion picture soundtracks and hundreds of TV themes and commercials) to Broadway (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Candide, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Music Man, La bohème, South Pacific and West Side Story), his versatility is second to none.
He has appeared with many successful chamber groups including the Burning River Brass, Meridian Arts Ensemblethe Aspen Wind Quintet, Music from Marlboro, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Extension Ensemble, Canadian Brass and Hexagon.
His hobbies include drum and bugle corps (he is a former member of the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps in Concord, California), playing jazz piano, motorcycling, hiking and camping. He has founded a performing artists’ retreat in the Rocky Mountains called the Artist’s Refuge at Thunderhead.
In 2009, he released his first solo piano CD, “Travlin’ Music,” featuring all original music; he is working on a second album.
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Jamie Baum Septet+: What Times Are These
by Katchie Cartwright
Reading Marge Piercy's poem “To Be of Use" (track two onWhat Times Are These), Jamie Baum could be speaking of herself, one of those “who jump into work head first without dallying in the shadows, who swim off with sure strokes," knowing that “the thing worth doing has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident." What Times Are These is a satisfying form of this sort. Confined to her New York apartment during the Covid-19 lockdown, Baum responded ...
read moreCharles Pillow Ensemble: Chamber Jazz
by Jack Bowers
Chamber Jazz, alto saxophonist Charles Pillow's eighth recording as leader of his ensemble, is a generally sedate but remarkably engaging series of tone poems that combine contemporary jazz with elements of classical music to produce a hybrid that underlines what is most harmonious and charming in each genre. Chamber Jazz is what it says, and chamber jazz is what it is. For comparison's sake, think of the ensemble as the Modern Jazz Quartet times five. True, there is no John ...
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