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Corey Christiansen
Corey Christiansen grew up in a musical family. His father, Mike Christiansen, started teaching him guitar at the age of five. Corey spent a lot of his youth learning the guitar and music. After high school, Corey received his bachelor’s degree from USU. A year later Corey left for Tampa Florida to study with legendary jazz guitar educator, Jack Petersen. In 1999, Corey received his master’s degree from the University of South Florida and took over the teaching duties of Jack Petersen the next year.
From 2000 to 2007 Corey was the senior editor and guitar clinician for Mel Bay Publications. This job allowed him to tour, give clinics, develop products, produce recordings and rub shoulders with the best musicians in the business. Corey has presented countless clinics and performances around the world and developed a fan base not only for his teaching but his playing.
“Awakening,” Corey’s first CD as a leader, was the initial release on Mel Bay Records, the entertainment-recording division of Mel Bay Publications. Awakening spent twelve weeks on the JazzWeek chart, reaching number 16 in March 2005. The title track, an original composition, consistently receives the most airplay from the recording.
MB3: Jazz Hits Vol. 1 marked a great leap in his national and international visibility as a player and producer. Teaming with an all-star band featuring fellow guitarists Vic Juris and Jimmy Bruno and being backed by legendary drummer Danny Gottlieb and first-call NY bassist, Jay Anderson, Jazz Hits Vol. 1 spent three weeks as the No. 1 jazz recording on North American jazz radio.
His first performance DVD – “Vic Juris & Corey Christiansen: Live at the Smithsonian Jazz Café” – was released in July 2006. Jazzwise-reviewer Mike Flynn gave the recording four stars, noting that “…Christiansen is well versed in the guitar’s sonic heritage and his judicious sense of phrasing finds him light-fingered even on the densest of changes and positively euphoric on his ballad work.”
In 2007 Corey moved back to his native Utah and was the Director of Curriculum for The Music School, a privately funded music program outside of Salt Lake City. During this time he continued an extremely active touring schedule playing all over the US and into Europe.
In the fall of 2007 Corey signed with Origin Records by the end of Feb. 2008 had two records ready for release. Laden with hooks and grooves, Roll With It is Corey’s debut release for Origin and features Matt Jorgensen on drums, Pat Bianchi on organ and David Halliday on sax. This critically acclaimed recording proved Corey was formidable player, arranger and composer. C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz reviewed the CD stating that “Corey Christiansen has arrived with one of the most satisfying soul-jazz recordings of the year.” In May of 2010 his second offering for Origin Records, Outlaw Tractor, was released also to critical acclaim.
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Mark Watkins: FOUR + Six
by Chris May
We had out of nowhere, we had straight outta Compton. Here comes straight out of Brigham Young University, Idaho, where saxophone quartet FOUR leader Mark Watkins has been director of jazz studies since 1999. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may not the most abundant source of high-grade jazz--one assumes that Watkins is a member--but FOUR + Six proves it can be. Who would have thunk it? But jazz is a broad church and the album is proof ...
read moreRich Thompson: Who Do You Have to Know?
by Jack Bowers
Veteran drummer Rich Thompson ushers a lithe and swinging quartet through its paces on his latest album, Who Do You Have to Know? (the answer to which, alas, is not forthcoming). This is basically late-night jazz, the kind often reserved for after-hours jam sessions whose participants are fully engaged in the task at hand and hold nothing back. On this studio session, Thompson's able co-partners are guitarist Corey Christiansen, pianist/organist Bobby Floyd and bassist Peter Chwazik. As ...
read moreRich Thompson: Who Do You Have to Know?
by Dan McClenaghan
The title of drummer Rich Thompson's 2023 release is Who Do You Have To Know?. The answer to that: John Bishop and Matt Jorgensen, the team that runs the Origin and OA2 Records labels that boast prolific and consistently good outputs, featuring an array of well-known and a goodly number of not-so-well-known, but always interesting, often terrific, jazz artists. Thompson has released four albums of his own on Origin, including the first-rate, Triocity: I Believe In You (2016), featuring bassist ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Jerome Wilson
Florida's Chuck Owen has been a jazz educator for over 40 years, led his big band, The Jazz Surge, for 25 years and earned seven Grammy nominations along the way, so he cannot be called an unknown. Still, it seems that he is nowhere as well known as he should be, going by the quality of the music on this CD which celebrates The Jazz Surge's 25th anniversary. The band's music has some of the brassy punch of ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Angelo Leonardi
Giunta al settimo disco, l'orchestra The Jazz Surge di Chuck Owen celebra i 25 anni di un'attività discografica ricca di riconoscimenti (tra cui sette nominations ai Grammy) e prestigiose collaborazioni (Chick Corea, Joe Lovano, Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Douglas, Bill Holman, Gerald Wilson e molti altri). Nata nel 1995 come estensione della cattedra di Owen all'University Of South Florida la formazione ha ottenuto negli anni rilievo nazionale col suo stile immerso nella tradizione orchestrale jazzistica ma ricco di ambiziose ...
read moreChuck Owen: Within Us
by Pierre Giroux
Anniversaries are a big deal, especially when they celebrate a notable achievement in the history of a contemporary jazz big band. So when the 25th Anniversary of the first recording of the Jazz Surge came along, Chuck Owen thought it would be a suitable occasion to acknowledge the past and continue to look forward, with the current release Within Us as an attestation to the collective identity of the band. The 19-piece band that is directed ...
read moreChuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us
by Jack Bowers
Any big band celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary has earned a triumph surpassing most others. To mark the occasion with an album as admirable as this one is icing on the celebratory cake. The fact is, composer/arranger Chuck Owen's Florida-based Jazz Surge, formed in 1995, shows no signs of aging or becoming obsolete. Thanks to Owen's broad-beamed and colorful charts, the Jazz Surge is as mesmerizing as a memoir and stylish as tomorrow. Half a dozen of Owen's ...
read moreAll About Jazz Top 10 MP3 Downloads: October 2017
Source:
All About Jazz
All About Jazz features a free song every day spanning all genres of jazz, and of the 30 tracks featured in October, these ten represent our personal favorites. We also included the top ten reader favorites as indicated by total downloads. Musicians and record labels can submit full length MP3s for consideration here. Enjoy! EDITOR'S PICKS Palouse 5:42 Corey Christiansen From: Dusk Joycie Girl 9:00 Roberto Magris From: ...
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Enter the "Corey Christiansen - Lone Prairie" Giveaway at All About Jazz!
Source:
All About Jazz
All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Origin Records Corey Christiansen - Lone Prairie giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on August 27th. Click here to enter the contest
(Becoming a fan of Corey Christiansen at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)
Good luck! Your Friends at Origin Records About Lone Prairie
Still retaining a thoroughly modern jazz aesthetic, guitarist Corey Christiansen here looks to traditional cowboy ...
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Corey Christiansen at Tula's May 19
Source:
Seattle Jazz Scene
Guitarist Corey Christiansen returns to Seattle after his performance at The Ballard Jazz Festival to celebrate the release of his new CD, Outlaw Tractor, at Tulas Jazz Club on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:30pm.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19 TULAS JAZZ CLUB 2214 2nd Ave, Seattle 7:30pm, All Ages
Reservations: 206-443-4221 http://www.tulas.com
Corey Christiansen - guitar Mark Taylor - saxophone Chuck Deardorf - bass Matt Jorgensen - drums ...
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Jazz This Week: Hamiet Bluiett Opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doran and Corey Christiansen at the Gramophone; and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Though we're still in what's generally the slow season of the year for jazz in St. Louis, there are a couple of noteworthy events coming up this week featuring nationally known musicians with ties to the St. Louis area.On Friday, the highly acclaimed baritone saxophonist Hamiett Bluiett, who was born and still lives in Brooklyn, IL, opens the new venue Robbie's House of Jazz (in the former Cookie's Jazz and More location at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster ...
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Jazz This Week: Hamiet Bluiett Opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doren and Corey Christiansen at the Gramophone; and More
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Though we're still in what's generally the slow season of the year for jazz in St. Louis, there are a couple of noteworthy events coming up this week featuring nationally known musicians with ties to the St. Louis area.On Friday, the highly acclaimed baritone saxophonist Hamiett Bluiett, who was born and still lives in Brooklyn, IL, opens the new venue Robbie's House of Jazz (in the former Cookie's Jazz and More location at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster ...
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Corey Christiansen, Matthew Von Doran to Perform at the Gramophone on Tuesday, August 18
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This just in: In another welcome development during this relatively slow time of year for live jazz in St. Louis, guitarists Corey Christiansen (pictured) and Matthew Von Doran will team up for a performance at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18 at The Gramophone.Christiansen and Von Doran are old pals who have worked together before; in fact, Von Doran bought and now resides in the Webster Groves house that Christiansen vacated when he left St. Louis to move ...
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One of the best jazz guitar records I've heard in a long time. Beautiful playing, beautiful writing, beautiful sound. Joe Diorio
Primary Instrument
Guitar
Photos
Music
We Rise
From: Magic LightBy Corey Christiansen
Who Do You Have to Know?
From: Who Do You Have to Know?By Corey Christiansen
Palouse
From: DuskBy Corey Christiansen
Dying Californian
From: Lone PrairieBy Corey Christiansen
Stat
From: Bicoastal Collective: Chapter...By Corey Christiansen
Outlaw Tractor
From: Outlaw TractorBy Corey Christiansen
Steele
From: Roll With ItBy Corey Christiansen