Chris Speed

Chris Speed (born February 12, 1967) is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.

Early life and career

Speed grew up outside of Seattle and studied classical piano and clarinet from an early age. He later began studying jazz, took up the tenor saxophone, and performed in a local big band while in high school.

Speed attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he founded Human Feel with Andrew D'Angelo, Jim Black, and Kurt Rosenwinkel; the band continued performing after his move to New York.

Speed leads or co-leads the groups Pachora (with Jim Black, Skúli Sverrisson, and Brad Shepik), The Clarinets (with Oscar Noriega and Anthony Burr), yeah NO (with Black, Sverrisson, and Cuong Vu), Trio Iffy (with Ben Perowsky and Jamie Saft), Endangered Blood (with Black, Noriega and Trevor Dunn), the Chris Speed Trio (with Dave King and Chris Tordini) and Broken Shadows (with Tim Berne, Reid Anderson and Dave King) a band dedicated to reinterpreting the music of Ornette Coleman and Julius Hemphill.

The co-led quartet Pachora was influenced by Balkan and Middle Eastern rhythms and said to be "immersed in Eastern European and Moroccan music", performing originals and Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish works. Speed also performed and recorded with the Balkan brass and jazz band Slavic Soul Party!.

Speed is a founding member of the avant-garde jazz groups Bloodcount (Tim Berne, Jim Black, Michael Formanek), The Claudia Quintet ( John Hollenbeck, Matt Moran, Red Wierenga, and Drew Gress), AlasNoAxis (Black, Sverrisson, and Hilmar Jensson), and Heroic Frenzies (Craig Taborn, Dave King, and Chris Lightcap).

In 2006, Speed created Skirl Records, a label dedicated to Brooklyn based creative music.

In August 2021, Speed joined The Bad Plus. They released an album, entitled simply ''The Bad Plus'', on September 30, 2022.

Awards and honors

* Rising Star on clarinet, ''DownBeat'' magazine, 2004, 2005, 2006
* NEA composition grant in 1993

Selected Discography

as a leader

* ''Yeah No'' (Songlines, 1997)
* ''Deviantics'' (Songlines, 1999)
* ''Emit'' (Songlines, 2000)
* ''Iffy'' (Knitting Factory, 2000)
* ''Swell Henry'' (Squealer, 2004)
* ''Really OK'' (Skirl, 2014)
* ''Platinum On Tap'' (Intakt, 2017)
* ''Respect for Your Toughness'' (Intakt, 2019)
* ''Light Line'' (Intakt, 2021)

with The Bad Plus
* ''The Bad Plus'' (Edition Records, 2022)

with Human Feel
* ''Human Feel'' (Human Use, 1989)
* ''Scatter'' (GM, 1991)
* ''Welcome to Malpesta'' (New World, 1994)
* ''Speak to It'' (Songlines, 1996)
* ''Galore'' (Skirl, 2007)
* ''Gold'' (Intakt, 2019)

with Pachora
* ''Pachora'' (Knitting Factory, 1997)
* ''Unn'' (Knitting Factory, 1998)
* ''Ast'' (Knitting Factory, 1999)
* ''Astereotypical'' (Winter & Winter, 2003)

with Endangered Blood
* ''Endangered Blood'' (Skirl, 2011)
* ''Work Your Magic'' (Skirl, 2013)
* ''Don't Freak Out'' (Skirl, 2018)

with The Clarinets
* ''The Clarinets'' (Skirl, 2006)
* ''Keep On Going Like This'' (Skirl, 2011)
* ''No Pressure'' (Skirl, 2019)

with Zeno De Rossi
* ''Ruins'' (Skirl, 2014)

with Broken Shadows
* ''Broken Shadows'' (Vinyl: Newvelle, 2019; CD and Digital: Intakt, 2021)
* ''Broken Shadows Live'' (Screwgun, 2021)

as a sideman

with Tim Berne
* '' Lowlife: The Paris Concert'' ( JMT, 1995)
* '' Poisoned Minds: The Paris Concert'' (JMT, 1995)
* '' Memory Select: The Paris Concert'' (JMT, 1995)
* ''Unwound'' (Screwgun, 1996)
* '' Saturation Point'' (Screwgun, 1997)
* ''Discretion'' (Screwgun, 1997)
* ''Seconds'' (Screwgun, 2007)
* ''Insomnia'' (Clean Feed, 2011)
* ''Attention Spam'' (Screwgun, 2021)
* ''5'' (Screwgun, 2021)

with Jim Black
* ''AlasNoAxis'' (Winter & Winter, 2000)
* '' Splay'' (Winter & Winter, 2002)
* '' Habyor'' (Winter & Winter, 2004)
* '' Dogs of Great Indifference'' (Winter & Winter, 2006)
* ''Houseplant'' (Winter & Winter, 2009)
* ''Antiheroes'' (Winter & Winter, 2013)

with Uri Caine
* ''Uri Caine Ensemble Plays Mozart'' (Winter & Winter, 2006)
* '' The Othello Syndrome'' (Winter & Winter, 2008)
* ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (Winter & Winter, 2013)

with The Claudia Quintet
* ''John Hollenbeck/The Claudia Quintet'' (CRI, 2001)
* ''I, Claudia'' (Cuneiform, 2004)
* ''Semi-Formal'' (Cuneiform, 2005)
* ''For'' (Cuneiform, 2007)
* ''Royal Toast'' (Cuneiform, 2010)
* ''What Is the Beautiful?'' (Cuneiform, 2011)
* ''September'' (Cuneiform, 2013)
* ''Super Petite'' (Cuneiform, 2016)
* ''Evidence Based'' (Flex, 2021)

with Dave King
* ''Good Old Light'' (Sunnyside, 2011)
* ''Adopted Highway'' (Sunnyside, 2013)
* ''Surrounded by the Night'' (Sunnyside, 2016)

with others/selected
* Hilmar Jensson ''Dofinn'' (Jazzis, 1995)
* John Zorn ''Bar Kokhba'' (Tzadik, 1996)
* Ben Perowsky ''Ben Perowsky Trio'' (JazzKey Music, 1999)
* Myra Melford '' Above Blue'' (Arabesque, 1999)
* Curtis Hasselbring ''The New Mellow Edwards'' (Skirl, 2006)
* Ben Perowsky ''Esopus Opus'' (Skirl, 2009)
* Mary Halvorson ''Reverse Blue'' (Relative Pitch, 2014)
* Matt Mitchell ''Vista Accumulation'' (Pi, 2015)
* Howard Peach ''Howard Peach'' (El Negocito, 2015)
* Michael Formanek ''The Distance'' (ECM, 2016)
* Craig Taborn '' Daylight Ghosts'' (ECM, 2017)
* Ben Perowsky ''Upstream'' (2019)
* Craig Taborn Junk Magic ''Compass Confusion'' (Pyroclastic Records, 2020)
* Dejan Terzić Axiom ''Silent Dancer'' (C.A.M. Jazz, 2021)

Footnotes

External links

Chris Speed official siteSkirl Records Homepage

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speed, Chris
1967 births
Living people
Musicians from Seattle
Free jazz saxophonists
Free improvisation saxophonists
American jazz saxophonists
American male saxophonists
Avant-garde jazz saxophonists
21st-century American saxophonists
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
Orange Then Blue members
Human Feel members
Intakt Records artists