Jamie Baum

NYC flutist, composer, Sunnyside Records artist, producer and educator, Jamie Baum, has toured the US and over 35 countries performing at major festivals, clubs and concert halls including the Monterey, Madrid, Oeiras, Bermuda, Edinburgh, North Sea, Winter Jazzfest and London Jazz Festivals, Tampere Jazz Happening, Guimaraes Jazz Festival, Jazztopad, Bimhuis, Unterfahrt, Jazz Gallery, Jazz Standard, 55 Bar, Dizzy’s, Blue Note, etc.. She’s performed with artists as renown and diverse as Randy Brecker, Roy Hargrove, Donald Brown, Tom Harrell, Paul Motion, Mick Goodrick and Kenny Barron to Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Leni Stern, Louis Cole, Jane Bunnett, David Binney, Ralph Alessi, Ben Monder, Anthony Braxton, Karaikudi Mani, V. M. Bhatt, Navin Chettri and Wadada Leo Smith.

Though focusing primarily on jazz, she’s been involved in several projects performing classical, new music, Brazilian and Latin music. Receiving critical praise for seven CD's as a leader, with most making several “Best CDs of the Year” lists and four stars from DownBeat, her recently-released What Times Are These received five stars in DownBeat. Inch By Inch (GM Recordings), by the cooperative band Yard Byard: The Jaki Byard Project (w/Jerome Harris, George Schuller),received four stars from DownBeat. Jamie has appeared on over 50 recordings as sidewoman including those by Dave Binney, George Colligan, Ursel Schlicht, Frank Carlberg, Patrizia Scascitelli, Taylor Haskins, Monika Herzig, Louise Rogers, Sarah McKenzie, Steve Lampert, Brian Landrus, Laura Andel, Judi Silvano, Shigeko Suzuki, James Hall, Yoko Yates, etc.

Ms. Baum’s many awards and grants for composing and touring include: 2022 Cafe Royale Recording Grant, 2021 South Arts Jazz Road Touring Grant, 2020 International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers (ISJAC) Covid Relief Commission, Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2020, 2020 Chamber Music America Jazz Presenter Consortium, 2020 & 2018 USArtists International Touring Grants, 2024 & 2017 New Music USA Project Grants, and a 2014 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Baum was selected as a 2014-15 Norman Stevens Fellow/MacDowell resident and since awarded residencies again at MacDowell (2021), UCross (2015) and VCCA (2020). She won the '99 International Jazz Composers Alliance Award, 2010 CAP Award (American Music Center), 2003 New Works: Creation and Presentation Award and the 2007 Encore Award (components of Doris Duke/CMA Jazz Ensembles Project.

Ms. Baum has been in the DownBeat Critics Polls annually since 1998, making #1 “Rising Star Flutist” in ’12, #2 “Flutist” in ’19, ’24, and #3 “Flutist” in ’20. She was named a "Major New International Talent” in 2015 lists by both “Musica Jazz” and “Jazzit” (Italy), was #2 “Flutist of the Year” in the 2018 Eleventh Annual International Critics Poll and tied 4th place with Hubert Laws in the 2018 JazzTimes Critics Poll. Jamie was included in Huffington Post’s "Twenty five Great Jazz Flute Performances”, nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for “Flutist of the Year“ fourteen times, and The Jamie Baum Septet+ was nominated in 2014 "Best Midsize Ensemble" - in the same list with only two other bands -The Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve Coleman’s Five Elements!

Media attention for, Bridges, and previously released, In This Life, brought features on WBGO’s RADAR and NPR’s All Things Considered, reviews in The New York Times, DownBeat, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, etc.. and two hour-long feature/retrospectives on major German and Czech public radio shows. Bridges was voted #4 in the 2018 JazzTimes Readers Poll for “Best New Release,” and In This Life and What Times Are These made "Best of the Year” lists inDownBeat, JazzTimes and Francis Davis' Jazz Critics Poll, etc. Baum was included in the JazzTimes 10: Essential Jazz Flute Albums (2019), 3 Questions for Today’s Jazz Musicians by Lilian Dericq, Cricket Publishers (Paris), the “Woodshed” in DownBeat, January 2019, and was the flutist on “The Essence of the Blues -- Flute: 10 Great Etudes for Playing and Improvising, Book & CD”, (Jim Snidero “play-along” series, 2019).

Through a highly competitive auditioning process, Jamie was chosen to tour for the DOS/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador program from ’99 -’03 in South America and South Asia. The US State Department also sponsored later shorter tours, in addition to several isolated US Embassy-sponsored programs while Baum was on her own tours in Europe and South Asia. Baum’s active projects featuring her compositions include The Jamie Baum Septet+, together since 1999, her Quartet, and her Short Stories band who marked five years by performing at the 2020 Winter Jazzfest. In addition, she co-leads Yard Byard: The Jaki Byard Project and is involved in several other projects either as co-leader or side-woman, including The Richie Beirach/Jamie Baum Duo and NYC Jazz Flutes.

Baum has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Arts department since 2006, on the adjunct faculty roster at the New School University since 2004 and taught at Berklee College of Music (2011-2013). Summer jazz programs Baum has taught composition, improv, flute technique and coached ensembles at include the Stanford Jazz Workshop Institute, Litchfield Jazz Camp, Maryland Jazz Camp, etc. A clinician for Altus Flutes/KHS America since 1993, they have sponsored her innovative, pioneering workshop "A Fear Free Approach to Improvisation for the Classically-Trained Musician”TM, "A Fear Free Approach to Composition for the Improvising Musician”™ and “Flute Technique for Doublers” at colleges, conservatories, festivals, flute clubs and “music and art” schools worldwide.

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Yoko Yates: Eternal Moments

Read "Eternal Moments" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 6, 2025

On her second album, Japanese-born, New York City-based pianist and composer Yoko Yates, ever the genial story-teller, presents ten of her elegant original compositions. Based on feelings and emotions she has experienced while living and working in and around the New York area, they encompass a wide range of phenomena--from outer space and a serpentine river to seasonal changes and even the penultimate day of a flower. Yates leads her quintet along an avenue whose bedrock is ...

Interview

Jamie Baum: These Are Her Times

by Dean Nardi
August 25, 2025

Jamie Baum is a world-class composer as well as flutist, who smoothly balances woodwinds with horns, guitar, bass, piano and drums so that they are equals. Her compositions can remind you of a Gil Evans arrangement with several decades of development added to create a thoroughly modern milieu. She mixes high-energy with ballads and Western foundations with South Asian colors; the music so charged it practically has a visible aura around the score. You can hear it on Bridges (Sunnyside, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jamie Baum, Jon Irabagon, and Cassie Kinoshi

by Jerome Wilson
March 5, 2025

This show features recent releases by Jamie Baum, Jon Irabagon, and Cassie Kinoshi as well as older music by Geri Allen, George Cables, and Barry Altschul. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 George Cables “Up Jumped Spring" from You Don't Know Me (Kind of Blue) 00:49 Keith Jarrett “Straight No Chaser" from The Old Country (ECM) 4:50 Host Speaks ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jamie Baum: A Flutist Sets Poetry In Motion

by Lawrence Peryer
February 8, 2025

Today, the Spotlight shines On flutist Jamie Baum. When COVID hit, Jamie found inspiration and solace in poetry. What started as daily readings of women poets became something much bigger: an album, What Times Are These (Sunnyside), blending jazz and spoken word. As leader of her long-running Septet+, Jamie has crafted wide-ranging music for over twenty years. She has played everywhere, from major jazz festivals to tiny clubs in 35 countries, bringing her distinctive sound to ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jamie Baum: Redefining Jazz with Poetry and Global Sounds

by Steven Roby
January 21, 2025

When Jamie Baum steps onto the stage, flute in hand, she transforms into a storyteller, weaving melodies and rhythms that feel like a conversation with the world. Her latest album, What Times Are These, is more than music; it's an exploration of poetry, culture, and the human condition. As a guest on the Backstage Bay Area podcast, Baum shared her creative process, career highlights, and the upcoming performances that have jazz fans buzzing.Baum is no stranger to the ...

Multiple Reviews

Paying Tribute: Jamie Baum and Kris Davis

by Jerome Wilson
November 16, 2024

These two albums present prominent female musicians paying tribute to other women in the arts who have inspired them. Jamie Baum draws her inspiration from the work of several poets while Kris Davis tips her cap to other jazz pianists. The Jamie Baum Septet + What Times Are These Sunnyside Records 2024 Jamie Baum's project has her using the words of poets such as Marge Piercy and Adrienne Rich as ...

Album Review

The Jamie Baum Septet+: What Times Are These

Read "What Times Are These" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
September 9, 2024

Nella sua nuova incisione Jamie Baum coniuga impegno civile e ricercata varietà di soluzioni musicali con voci e suoni di particolare freschezza. A distanza di sei anni dal precedente Bridges la flautista e compositrice firma l'album più riuscito del suo ensemble, in gran parte rinnovato con l'ingresso del trombettista Jonathan Finlayson, del pianista Luis Perdomo, del bassista Ricky Rodriguez e del percussionista Keita Ogawa accanto ai fidi Jeff Hirshfield alla batteria, Brad Shepik alla chitarra, Chris Komer al ...

Recording

The Jamie Baum Septet+ Release 'What Times Are These' on Sunnyside Records

Source: Lydia Liebman Promotions
April 1, 2024

On What Times Are These (Sunnyside), Jamie Baum’s fifth recording with The Jamie Baum Septet+, her flagship ensemble, the acclaimed New York-based flutist-composer presents her first exploration of spoken word and art song. To be specific, seven of Baum’s ten compositions respond to works by a cohort of eminent 20 th and 21 st century female poets (Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy, Tracy K. Smith, Lucille Clifton, and Naomi Shihab Nye), interpreted by renowned guest vocalists Theo Bleckmann, Sara Serpa, Aubrey ...
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Recording

Flutist/Composer Jamie Baum Explores Links Between Sacred Music Traditions On "Bridges," A Riveting New Album By The Jamie Baum Septet+

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity
March 11, 2018

Flutist/Composer Jamie Baum Explores Links Between Sacred Music Traditions on Bridges—A Riveting New Album by The Jamie Baum Septet+—Co-produced by Jamie Baum and Richie Beirach. Available May 18, 2018 on Sunnyside Records. Jamie Baum Septet+ CD Release Celebrations for Bridges May 25: Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT May 26: The Cell Theater, NYC May 27: StageOne, Fairfield Theatre Company, Fairfield The Jamie Baum Septet+ Jamie Baum-flutes, singing bowl, Amir ElSaffar-trumpet, vocals, Sam Sadigursky-alto sax/bass clarinet, Chris ...
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Festival

Jamie Baum At European Festivals: Südtirol Jazzfestival 6/25, Jazzlent 6/27

Source: Scott Foster
June 23, 2011

The Jamie Baum Septet will perform at the Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige in Bolzano, Italy on June 25, 2011, and The Jamie Baum Quintet will perform at Jazzlent in Maribor, Slovenia on June 27, 2011. The Südtirol concert will be at Piazza Walther in the center of Bolzano. The concert begins at 9:30 PM and admission is free. Jamie Baum, a brilliant flutist and composer, will lead her septet in the performance of her original compositions, including selections from her ...
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Performance / Tour

Jamie Baum Septet at Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festival May 19

Source: Scott Foster
May 16, 2011

The Jamie Baum Septet will perform May 19, 2011 as part of the 16th annual Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The concert, which begins at 7:00 PM, will be at the Terrace Theater in the Kennedy Center complex, and will also feature the Tia Fuller Quartet and JaLaLa. Tickets may be purchased on the festival's website or by phone (800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600.) Orchestra seats are ...
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108

Performance / Tour

Jamie Baum Septet at Winter Jazz Fest, Jan. 8 NYC

Source: Scott Foster
January 5, 2011

THE JAMIE BAUM SEPTET will make its Winter Jazz Fest debut on Jan. 8 at the Bitter End in New York City. The Winter Jazz Fest is a two-day festival with over 60 bands at 5 venues over 2 nights (Jan. 7 and 8.) A two-day pass is $35 and a one-day pass is $25. Festival passes allow entry to all 5 venues: (Le) Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall, Zinc Bar, Kenny's Castaways and the Bitter End, all within a small ...
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Performance / Tour

Firehouse 12 to Present the Jamie Baum Septet November 14th

Source: Improvised Communications
November 11, 2008

On Friday, November 14th, New Haven's Firehouse 12 will present New York flautist/composer Jamie Baum and her longstanding septet as part of the venue's ongoing 2008 Fall Jazz Series. This decade-old ensemble, featuring Shane Endsley (trumpet and flugelhorn), Doug Yates (alto saxophone and bass clarinet), Chris Komer (French horn), Aaron Goldberg (piano), Matt Penman (bass) and Jeff Hirshfield (drums), is on the road celebrating its most recent release, Solace (Sunnyside). The disc, Ms. Baum's fourth as a leader and second ...
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Performance / Tour

Jamie Baum at the Deer Head Inn on February 8, 2008

Source: All About Jazz
January 31, 2008

TimePeace

TimePeace is a cooperative jazz quartet that performs creative and exciting arrangements of jazz standards and originals with contributions by all its members. Long-time friends and compatriots Jamie Baum on flute and alto flute, Roberta Piket on piano, Cameron Brown on bass and Jeff Hirshfield on drums bring together their rich and varied experiences to create some unique and fresh music. While rooted in the jazz tradition with a modern sound and spirit, their very personal take is realized ...
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Performance / Tour

Jamie Baum Septet in NYC & NJ, November 30th & December 1st

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 30, 2007

The Jamie Baum Septet featuring Jamie Baum - flutes Ralph Alessi - trumpet Doug Yates - alto sax, bass clarinet Josh Roseman - trombone Aaron Goldberg - piano Johannes Weidenmeuller - bass Jeff Hirshfield - drums PERFORMS AT: The All Things Project & JazzUnderGround 269 Bleecker Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues), NYC #1 to Christopher St./A,B,C,D,E,F,V to West 4th ...
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Performance / Tour

Jamie Baum Septet in NYC & NJ, November 30th & December 1st

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 26, 2007

The Jamie Baum Septet featuring Jamie Baum - flutes, Ralph Alessi - trumpet Doug Yates - alto sax, bass clarinet Josh Roseman - trombone Aaron Goldberg - piano, Johannes Weidenmeuller - bass Jeff Hirshfield - drums PERFORMS AT: The All Things Project & JazzUnderGround 269 Bleecker Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues), NYC #1 to Christopher St./A,B,C,D,E,F,V to West 4th ...
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Performance / Tour

Jamie Baum Septet Friday, September 14 at Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village (NCGV)

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
September 12, 2007

The All Things Project & JazzUnderGround 269 Bleecker Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues), NYC #1 to Christopher St./A,B,C,D,E,F,V to West 4th (212) 691-1770

NO COVER, NO MINIMUM

Presents

The Jamie Baum Septet

Jamie Baum - flutes, Ralph Alessi - trumpet, Ned Rothenberg - alto sax, bass clarinet, Josh Roseman - trombone, Frank Kimbrough - piano, Martin Wind- bass, Jeff Hirshfield - drums

Friday, September 14th at 8 p.m. (one long set) ...
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…your latest CD (What Times Are These) is a masterpiece of sound and spirit. - Bill Moyers

At the peak of her artistry, flutist and composer Jamie Baum delivers her new album, What Times Are These. Indeed, art is at the forefront here, on every level....If, for you, the beauty of a musical work merits the same contemplation as a visual artwork, then and only then will this album appear as “Indispensable,” as it did for us. - Thierry De Clemensat - Paris-Move, April 2024

It only follows that a recording intended to relay the current chaos of the social systems prevalent to our lives would wind its way through an array of wildly different music expressions. Jamie Baum’s latest, however, weaves those disparate sounds together into a cohesive whole. Constant throughout is the flutist’s particular talent at bringing a sense of normalcy to the unconventional, a sense of cutting-edge modernity both past and present. This recording also doubles as a tour guide to all-stars of the modern jazz scene… - Dave Sumner - The Best Jazz on Bandcamp, April 2024

…your latest CD (What Times Are These) is a masterpiece of sound and spirit. - Bill Moyers

*****(5 stars) It’s past time that Baum was elevated from the “other instruments” ranks and recognized as an important composer/leader. It’s a great album, and for its various linked messages alone, an important album. - Brian Morton, DOWNBEAT, May 2024

****(4 stars) “Editor’s Choice”…with her incredible Septet+ ensemble…on this audacious sonic journey…the instrumental pieces illustrate Baum’s remarkable ear for textural detail and her singular approach to the layering of material..one of the most powerful things you’ll hear this year. - Peter Quinn, Jazzwise (UK), June 2024

What Times Are These - a gorgeous new album by flutist and composer Jamie Baum,…Baum explains how the disquiet and stillness of lockdown drove her headlong into composing…Whatever it took to get her there, we should feel fortunate, because these compositions, for the mid-size chamber ensemble known as her Septet+, feel illuminated from within. - Nate Chinen - Take Five - The Gig, April 2024

…creative music is best when it dares to reach across boundaries of all kinds — but it only works when the artist has a strong vision that allows multiple strands to be woven into a beautifully conceived tapestry. Baum has done that to thrilling effect - it is her best recording… it is a revelation. - Will Layman, PopMatters, June 2024

The result is a sublime balance of texts and music, drawing from poets like Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy, and Tracy K. Smith, and singers Theo Bleckmann, Aubrey Johnson, and Sara Serpa, plus Baum’s stellar Septet+. - Jon Garelick, Boston Globe, The 20 best albums of 2024 (so far)

With “What Times Are These,” she reaffirms her position as a first-rate composer with a vast imagination, a widening array of experiences, a sophisticated pen and an able group of willing musical accomplices. - Katchie Cartwright, All About Jazz - NYC, May 2024

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