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Jim Goetsch

Sax & synth player mixing jazz, electronic music and contemporary classical

About Me

The music of Jim Goetsch is the product of a widely divergent background that includes extensive jazz experience on saxophone, performance of avant garde classical works on clarinet and bass clarinet, tours with blues legend Albert King and Senegalese griot Mor Thiam, and a long history of performing electronic music in the Los Angeles area.

He currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is primarily engaged in two projects at this time. Baker’s Brew is an experimental jazz ensemble led by veteran drummer Maury Baker, which features total improvisation as well as the group improvising their parts over four channel electronic compositions by Jim. Their release “New Works” has been hailed as “An Album of the Future” by the Italian magazine JAZZit.

The second project is Double Image, a solo effort that is Jim’s electronic music alter ego. This project has recently produced the album “Electronic Landscapes”, a mix that includes ambient music, electronic jazz, modern classical and other elements that is intended to be presented live through a surround sound system. Both “New Works” and “Electronic Landscapes” are available on Jim’s label, Psychosomatic Records.

Jim is currently holding down a weekly jazz gig with the High City Jazz Quartet at Chile Line Brewery in Santa Fe NM. He is also one of the producers of the monthly Sandbox Music Series that presents new and experimental music in Santa Fe. More info on all these projects is at the site for his Psychosomatic Records label at psyrecords.com

My Jazz Story

The best show I ever attended was...... a 1969 Newport Jazz Festival jazz tour appearance in St Louis. That was a legendary year for that festival because it expanded into rock, and that was represented on this mini tour with Ten Years After, who somehow made it to Woodstock the very next night in a performance is now memorialized in the famous film of that event. But on the other end of the spectrum that night was the Newport All Stars with Tal Farlow and Red Norvo, representing traditonal jazz at its finest. Following them was Nina Simone, who virtually owned the audience from the moment she began. Mongo Santamaria was also there (I believe with Sonny Fortine on sax and flute) as well as Herbie Mann, who had one of his best groups ever with Roy Ayers on vibes, Sonny Sharrock on guitar, Bruno Carr on drums and Miroslav Vitous on bass, who would launch Weather Report a year later with Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. But the big killer for me was the opener..... the Miles Davis Quintet. Although he was notorious during those times for showing up hours late to his own gigs, he started up right at 8 pm with all the house lights still on. The group at that time include Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette..... who immediately launched into the most mystical, mind blowing experience of my life..... from that point on, music became an entirely different thing for me. That was on a Saturday night........ the following Tuesday the band went into the studio to begin work on Bitches Brew.