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Chris Hemingway

Born in Florence, SC, Chris grew up listening to the sounds of gospel, soul, R&B, and blues even though he and his friends weren’t quite accepting of this “old people’s” music. However, as a product of his own environment Chris eventually came full circle and would later pull from these early listening experiences to develop his overall approach to music today. Chris’ natural fluency in both classical and jazz styles separates him from most musicians.

Chris is now in his thirteenth season with the New Century Saxophone Quartet, the first ensemble of its kind to win first prize at New York City's world famous Concert Artist Guild competition. With NCSQ Chris has performed throughout the world and in 48 of the 50 United States.

His performing career is complemented equally with an active freelance jazz career in NYC. He is a member of the Stan Rubin Orchestra, Valery Ponomarev big band (jazz trumpeter/music director formerly of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers) and George Burton’s “Group 5.” Chris has performed and recorded with musicians all over the world including Azucar, Pittsburgh's premier salsa band, legendary jazz drummer Roger Humphries, funk and jazz bassist Dwayne Dolphin, legendary soul and R&B singer Patti LaBelle, jazz saxophonist Lew Tabackin, Azerbaijani jazz pianist Shahin Novrasli, master funk drummer Poogie Bell, legendary funk bassist Victor Bailey, drummer/percussionist sensation Kahlil Kwame Bell, trombone/arranger Frank Lacey, legendary saxophonist and composer Benny Golson, bassist Tony Depaolis, and with jazz trumpeter Sean Jones.

Mr. Hemingway also leads his own group the “Chris Hemingway Quintet”. The Quintet performs all over the country and throughout the world. This group features George Burton on Piano, Craig Magnano on guitar, Wayne Smith on Drums, and Ryan Berg on bass. These master vibe-creators don't merely walk the genre-crossing edge, but rather run it with rock-infused chords heavy with swing, groove, and mood. Their exchange of surprising harmonies, angular rhythms, pointed chords, use of space, and rhythmic elasticity bring deliverance from the traditional rules of engagement, breaking barriers between audience and musician, resulting in an organic harmonic symbiosis.

In 2007 Mr. Hemingway won an Emmy Award as a performer of WQED's (PBS affiliate station) "Live From Studio A.” As a sophomore at Duquesne University, Chris won the School of Music's prestigious concerto competition. At the young age of 21, he was also a featured soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Chris has studied with James Houlik at the North Carolina School of the Arts and at Duquesne University.

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19
Album Review

Rob Susman: Top Secret Lab

Read "Top Secret Lab" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Trombonist Rob Susman, who is inclined to dwell on the cutting edge of contemporary jazz, remains “out there" for the most part on Top Secret Lab, an album wherein his splendid nonet is challenged by half a dozen of Susman's intricate compositions (and two others) and aces every test without any detectable missteps or errant notes. The question is whether Susman's blend of old-school funk with more modern design might whet a listener's appetite. And the answer ...

Album Review

Tyler Mitchell Octet: Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen

Read "Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Alternando momenti in cui si avverte chiara l'eredità del dedicatario dell'opera (sua la metà dei brani) ad altri un po' più routinieri, i primi e i secondi impreziositi dai graffi dell'ospite d'onore Marshall Allen, che di Sun Ra fu come tutti sappiamo uomo di fiducia per svariati decenni (e che ai tempi dell'incisione in oggetto, live allo Smalls nell'agosto 2021, aveva da qualche mese varcato la soglia dei 97!), si sdipana questo pregevole lavoro a firma di Tyler Mitchell, newyorchese, ...

Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra: Living Sky

Read "Living Sky" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Mentre la Enterplanetary Koncepts continua a sfornare inediti della Sun Ra Arkestra, il roccioso Marshall Allen--che va per i 100 il prossimo anno...-riesce a concepire di tanto in tanto nuove produzioni. Dopo l'apprezzato Swirling, ecco Living Sky, inciso a Philadelphia nel 2021, ancora sotto lo choc del COVID. E appare proprio come una seduta di musica dolcemente terapeutica questa raccolta di brani tenui, riposanti, deliziosi. Il gruppo raduna 19 elementi, che sotto la guida di Allen imbastiscono una ...

10
Album Review

Tyler Mitchell: Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen

Read "Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Sun Ra's Journey from the Tyler Mitchell Octet signals listeners to begin their own happy joy dance. Recorded live at Smalls Jazz Club in August 2021, the music is an animating run through six familiar Sun Ra compositions, plus plenty of surprises. Tyler Mitchell is a Ra alumnus who can be heard on the Black Saint recordings Hours After (1989) and Reflections In Blue (1987), Live In Kalisz 1986 (Lanquidity Records, 2019) and the 1986 studio session Prophet ...

20
Album Review

Tyler Mitchell: Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen

Read "Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Along with elder alum, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen, the second of bassist Tyler Mitchell's deep dives into Sun Ra's master playbook, breaks glorious from the start. As an entry into the Smalls Live Living Masters Series, this octane-infused set was recorded live in 2022 at Smalls in NYC as the city began to cautiously emerge from eighteen months of pandemic-induced nightmare and doom. “Care Free" greets all fellow Arkestra crewmen and women ...

10
Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen: Living Sky

Read "Living Sky" reviewed by Mark Corroto


In 2022, Sun Ra has been gone nearly thirty years, but thanks to maestro Marshall Allen his Arkestra has survived. Allen had been a member of Sun Ra's band since the late 1950s and it has been under Allen's leadership since 1995. Fans that have enjoyed the Arkestra in concert certainly hoped for the band to record and it wasn't until the splendid Swirling (Strut) was released in 2020 that wish was fulfilled. The Marshall Allen-led the Arkestra's second offering, ...

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Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen: Living Sky

Read "Living Sky" reviewed by Chris May


When Sun Ra aficionado and Omni Sound Records founder Ahmet Ulug reached out to Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen to commission a new album from the band, he gave Allen a tight brief. Ulug said that he wanted something: “Spiritual and hypnotic... down tempo, melodic and grooving... Music that is accessible and healing." Even though the crisis the world endured in 2020 and 2021 called out for such music, Ulug's directions to the veteran sonic-warrior may seem ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Top Secret Lab

Self Produced
2024

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Sun Ra's Journey...

Cellar Music Group
2023

buy

Dancing Shadows

Mahakala Music
2022

buy

Living Sky

Omni Sound
2022

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