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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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Album Review

Rich Thompson: Who Do You Have to Know?

Read "Who Do You Have to Know?" reviewed 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 ...

9
Album Review

Rich Thompson: Who Do You Have to Know?

Read "Who Do You Have to Know?" reviewed 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 ...

5
Album Review

Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us

Read "Within Us" reviewed 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 ...

Album Review

Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us

Read "Within Us" reviewed 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 ...

1
Album Review

Chuck Owen: Within Us

Read "Within Us" reviewed 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 ...

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Album Review

Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge: Within Us

Read "Within Us" reviewed 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 ...

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Album Review

Corey Christiansen: La Proxima

Read "La Proxima" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Guitarist Corey Christiansen's early days recording for Seattle's Origin Records featured a pair of superb organ jazz recordings, Roll with it (2008) and Outlaw Tractor (2010). A versatile player, the guitarist expanded his vision with his “American West" set Lone Prairie (Origin Records, 2013), in addition to his “avant cowboy/surf rock band" on Factory Girl (Origin Records, 2016). Throughout Christiansen's eight Origin Records releases, with all their shifts and thematic changes, the music has held firmly to its ...

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Website

All About Jazz Top 10 MP3 Downloads: October 2017

All 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: ...

Contest

Enter the "Corey Christiansen - Lone Prairie" Giveaway at All About Jazz!

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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Performance / Tour

Corey Christiansen at Tula's May 19

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 ...

150

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Hamiet Bluiett Opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doran and Corey Christiansen at the Gramophone; and More

Jazz This Week: Hamiet Bluiett Opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doran 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 ...

107

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Hamiet Bluiett Opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doren and Corey Christiansen at the Gramophone; and More

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 ...

145

Performance / Tour

Corey Christiansen, Matthew Von Doran to Perform at the Gramophone on Tuesday, August 18

Corey Christiansen, Matthew Von Doran to Perform at the Gramophone on Tuesday, August 18

Source: 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 ...

Awakening, the first track of the nine, foreshadows not so much the adventurous nature of Christiansen's playing to come, even though he makes clear that a pushing of the envelope certainly can be a component of his talent, but rather the crystalline nature of his tone, rich and glowing, and the logical development of his solos, narrative in their logic. Awakening awakens listeners to a superb guitarist who has developed his own approach that remains technically accomplished and inviting. Bill Donaldson Jazz Improv

One of the best jazz guitar records I've heard in a long time. Beautiful playing, beautiful writing, beautiful sound. Joe Diorio

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Primary Instrument

Guitar

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

FOUR + Six

Jazz Hang Records
2024

buy

Magic Light

Origin Records
2024

buy

Payin’ My Dues

Self Produced
2023

buy

Who Do You Have to...

Origin Records
2023

buy

Within Us

MAMA Records
2021

buy

La Proxima

Origin Records
2019

buy

We Rise

From: Magic Light
By Corey Christiansen

Who Do You Have to Know?

From: Who Do You Have to Know?
By Corey Christiansen

Palouse

From: Dusk
By Corey Christiansen

Dying Californian

From: Lone Prairie
By Corey Christiansen

Stat

From: Bicoastal Collective: Chapter...
By Corey Christiansen

Outlaw Tractor

From: Outlaw Tractor
By Corey Christiansen

Steele

From: Roll With It
By Corey Christiansen

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