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Chris Kase

Chris Kase (b. 1964, New Brunswick, NJ) is a jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and educator who has resided in Madrid, Spain since 1997. He has performed and/or recorded with many well known jazz artists such as: The Mingus Big Band, Adam Nussbaum, Kenny Wheeler, Bob Mintzer, The Bird of Paradise Orchestra, Steve Coleman, Chick Corea, Steve Wilson, Al Foster, Grant Stewart, Bruce Barth, Conrad Herwig, Jacob Sacks, Jamie Baum, David Berkman, Jim Rotondi, Perico Sambeat, Iñaki Salvador, Jorge Pardo and Don Braden, among others.

Presently, Chris maintains an active performance schedule throughout Spain. He is professor of jazz trumpet at Musikene, the Superior Conservatory of Music in San Sebastián.

He has recorded eight albums as a leader. The most recent entitled Let Go was released by Errabal Jazz in January, 2018. New duo with pianist Iñaki Salvador was released in May, 2024.

His pedagogical publications include Odd Meter Escapades (Mountain Peak Music, 2016), Advanced Arpeggio Anthology (Mountain Peak Music, 2016) and Twenty-first Century Technique (Balquhidder Music, 2006). His arrangements for big band as well as for trumpet ensemble and rhythm section have been published by ArrangeMe/Hal Leonard, Triplo Press and Quintessential Brass Repertoire.

Since 1994, more than seventy of Kase’s original compositions have been recorded and released. His talent as a composer has been recognized by the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) Biennial Jazz Composers Competition (Third Prize in 2003 for his composition Epic Ballad and Second Prize in 2001 for Mystery Waltz), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (honorable mention, 1991 ASCAP Competition for Young Composers; annual Popular Awards panel grants, 1991-2014; Honorable Mention, ASCAP/IAJE Dizzy Gillespie Commissions, 1997), and the Michigan Council for the Arts. His arrangements have been performed and/or recorded by Orquestra de Cambra del Teatre Lliure (Barcelona), Creativa Jazz Orchestra, Bird of Paradise Orchestra, the Musikene Big Band, Andalucia Big Band, Big Band del Hot Clube, Orquesta de Jazz del Atlántico, Euskadiko Ikasleen Jazz Orkestra and the Bob Sands Big Band.

Kase was one of fifteen trumpeters chosen from all over the world to participate in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, held in Washington, DC in 1997. The Chris Kase Quartet won the 1990 Ypsilanti (MI) Heritage Jazz Festival Competition and reached the Mid-Western semi-finals of the 1991 Hennessey Cognac Jazz Search.

He has taught Master Classes and workshops in trumpet, improvisation, ensemble and jazz composition in the U.S. at the University of Connecticut and the University of Michigan, in China as part of Jazz-it-up! Macau, and in Spain at Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña (Barcelona); Conservatorio Maestro Jaime López (Murcia); Estudio Escola de Música (Santiago de Compostela); Seminario de Jazz y Flamenco (Sevilla); Creativa Jazz Workshop (Madrid); IV Seminario de Jazz (Zarautz); Escuela Progreso Musical (Madrid); Canjazz (Galicia), el cursillo anual de trompeta en Paiporta (Valencia), la Academia Alto Rendimiento in Ontinyent (Valencia) y el XIV Seminario Internacional de Jazz y Música Latina (Valencia); Seminario Internacional de Jazz (Almendralejo); Conservatorio Superior Joaquín Rodrigo (Valencia); Conservatorio Superior de Navarra (Pamplona); Mousikê La Laguna (Tenerife), etc. From 1997-2004 he taught trumpet, improvisation and ensemble at the Escuela de Música Creativa and from 2014 to 2018 at the Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, in Madrid.

Kase studied at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music Degree (cum laude) in 1985, and had the opportunity to perform with Chick Corea. He then went on to earn a Master of Music degree in Classical Trumpet Performance at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, where he was a student of and graduate assistant to the late Natalo Paella. His trumpet teachers include jazz recording artists Mike Metheny, Louis Mucci, Jack Walrath, Laurie Frink, Greg Hopkins, Laurie Frink, Ralph Alessi and Randy Brecker as well as former Madrid Symphony Orchestra principal trumpet Lluís González Martí. In 1991 he participated in the Jazz Workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada where he was a student of jazz greats Kenny Wheeler, Rufus Reid and Bunky Green, and performed with Wheeler and Steve Coleman.

While living in New York City (1992-97), Chris was an adjunct faculty member of the Mannes College of Music as well as the New School for Social Research Jazz and Contemporary Music Program. His years in New York provided him with the opportunity to play in such recognized jazz clubs as: Time Café, Visiones, Five Spot, Small’s, Metronome and Cornelia Street Café.

Chris Kase: Let Go

Read "Let Go" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
June 25, 2018

Chris Kase is one of those artists that those in the know, know. The trumpeter, who currently resides, teaches and performs primarily in Spain, is a superb player and composer. All those qualities can be seen in Let Go. It is an intelligent, thought-provoking display of his fine musicianship. “Teaser" opens the session with a catchy, “lick-like" up-tempo theme on which Kase displays his playful, yet focused approached to the melody and his improv. “The Wishing Song" ...

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Album Review

Chris Kase: Nine Easy Pieces

Read "Nine Easy Pieces" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
March 24, 2004

Lester Young once said, “Can you sing me a song?" and ...

In his detailed liner notes trumpeter Chris Kase attempts to shed some light on the technical considerations behind the compositions on his latest release, Nine Easy Pieces. And it is true that there is a lot of meat in his writing; but what really makes this album succeed is the easygoing manner in which all participants navigate music that, while complex and considered at its core, sounds deceptively simple. Lester Young once said, “Can you sing me a song?” and clearly Kase can. He has a warm and inviting tone on both trumpet and flugelhorn and his playing demonstrates a lyrical elegance that makes every solo, every motif eminently singable. Whether it be on the brooding “Dark Interval,” improvising around a brief 6/4 piano-bass motif, or on the more compositionally rich “Número tres,” Kase creates melodies which linger in the memory. And speaking of rich compositions, Kase is another example of a contemporary writer who explores more extended compositional form, avoiding the tune-solo-tune format and, instead, creating a broader framework which still allows the group ample opportunity to stretch out. Remarkably, the group’s improvisations are so thoughtfully constructed that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the written and extemporized.-John Kelman, ALL ABOUT JAZZ * * * * * To include Kenny Wheeler in a band in which the leader is also a trumpet player is to establish a level of perfection so high that it could deeply damage his own credibility. Chris Kase has created an encounter for his second Spanish release that is always collaborative, never antagonistic. [A Song We Once Knew] is a disc in which the first measures establish an atmosphere -in this case, one of warm melancholy- that moves the listener spellbound toward its conclusion. Excellent. -Ángel Gómez Aparicio, MÁS JAZZ [Te espero aqui] is one of twenty essential compact discs to get oneself into Spanish jazz.-EL PAÍS, July 2004 * * * * Extraordinary 'business card' from trumpeter Chris Kase. The most attention-getting aspect of [Te espero aqui] is the revelation of Kase as a composer with fresh ideas, lyricism, and harmonic and rhythmic inventiveness.-Jorge Garcia, CUADERNOS DE JAZZ * * * * [On Starting Now] Kase has surrounded himself with some of the best players on the contemporary scene, including saxophonist Bob Mintzer and drummer Adam Nussbaum. There's great potential and present mastery here and the jazz world at large ought to be paying more attention in the not too distant future.-Michael G. Nastos, ANN ARBOR NEWS Aside from the joy of discovering Kase as an instrumentalist and composer whose tunes swing hard and eschew the cliches that predominate so much of today's 'retro-bop,' saxophonist Mintzer, normally associated with more commercial offerings, turns in a fully satisfying straight-ahead performance.- THE SARATOGIAN

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