Jazz Articles about Jamie Baum

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Jamie Baum Septet: Solace

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
September 12, 2008

Jamie Baum is a rare improvising flutist who doesn't double from another instrument. For nearly a decade she's led an ambitious septet with French horn, trumpet and alto saxophone joining the frontline, propelled by piano, bass and drums. Doublings on alto flute, bass clarinet, flugelhorn and Fender Rhodes extend the ensemble's wide sonic and textural terrain. A dense statement spanning 70+ minutes, Solace is the second CD by the septet. Joining Baum again are reedman Douglas Yates, ...

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Jamie Baum Septet: Solace

by Glenn Astarita
August 5, 2008

When flautist/composer Jamie Baum releases a new album, many modern jazz aficionados take notice. With a core septet and others sitting in on various works, Baum pays homage to trumpeter/flugelhorn great Kenny Wheeler, and modern classicist Charles Ives. One of the many highlights of this set includes the “Ives Suite," where she rearranges the composer's famous “Unanswered Questions" amid the four parts that are composed around his “Fourth Symphony." Baum's uncanny ability to transpose dense, multi-tiered arrangements into mainstream, cutting-edge ...

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Jamie Baum: Moving Forward, Standing Still

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
November 8, 2004

Experimenting with unconventional instrumentation is sometimes just that--testing an idea to see if it works. On Moving Forward, Standing Still , her third release as a leader, flautist Jamie Baum assembles an atypical combination of instruments, starting with her own and adding Tom Varner's French horn, Ralph Alessi's trumpet and flugelhorn and Doug Yate's alto saxophone and bass clarinet. The front line is supported by a rhythm section comprised of musicians who stretch the traditional roles: pianist George Colligan, bassist ...

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Jamie Baum Septet: Moving Forward, Standing Still

by John Kelman
September 9, 2004

Pity the poor flute. All too often relegated to the second line as an instrument doubled by saxophonists, considered an insubstantial instrument best used, if at all, for bossa novas and lightweight smooth jazz, its position in the jazz world is generally considered to be insignificant. And that's a shame, because while its attractive timbre may give it a reputation for being of little consequence, that doesn't mean there isn't the potential for richer fare. With emerging flautists like Anne ...

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Jamie Baum: Moving Forward, Standing Still

by Michael P. Gladstone
August 24, 2004

Flautist/composer Jamie Baum is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. Baum's classical training has greatly influenced her writings and a sizeable portion of her ten compositions on Moving Forward, Standing Still are the direct result. Several tracks show evidence of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and “Bar Talk" is an homage to Bela Bartok's String Quartets. “Central Park" is influenced by Charles Ives' “Central Park in the Dark."

The assembled ...

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Jamie Baum: Moving Forward, Standing Still

by AAJ Staff
August 21, 2004

In the booklet notes to this excellent album of Jamie Baum compositions (everything here except “From Scratch" is by Baum), the composer-flutist credits Bela Bartok and especially Igor Stravinsky as major influences on her writing. These influences emerge in luminous fashion on “Bar Talk," with its punning title, and the righteously Latin “Spring Rounds." Yet there's more than 20th Century classical influence in Baum's music; it's not hard to hear Moving Forward, Standing Still as a profound and brilliant extension ...

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Jamie Baum: Moving Forward, Standing Still

by Dan McClenaghan
August 19, 2004

Moving Forward, Standing Still doesn't sound as though it's led by a flautist, in spite of the fact that flautist Jamie Baum has allowed herself and her instrument their fair share of solo time. She's also given her front line cohorts their share, too, in addition to writing in a good deal of multi-horn harmony and ensemble interplay, on a set that sounds like the work of an artist who has put her main focus in the arranger/composer field, with ...