Chris Speed

Chris Speed is a composer, clarinetist and saxophonist living in Brooklyn, NY. His bands include Human Feel, yeah NO, Trio Iffy , Pachora and The Clarinets. He is a member of Jim Black’s Alas No Axis and John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet.

Speed was born in Seattle in 1967 and graduated from the New England Conservatory in 1990. In 1992 he moved to NYC where he joined Tim Berne’s Bloodcount. Throughout the nineties Speed worked with many pioneering bands in the creative new music/downtown scene including the Dave Douglas Sextet, Myra Melford’s Same River Twice, Erik Freidlander’s Chimera, John Zorn’s Bar Kokhba and Mark Dresser’s trio with Anthony Coleman. During this time he also began pursuing his interest in East European folk music, forming Pachora in 1992, and traveling throughout Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Macedonia. Speed is considered one of the leading NYC musicians linking jazz and creative improvisation with Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. Currently, he works with Uri Caine’s Bach, Mahler, and Mozart projects, as well as Ben Perowsky’s quartet.

Chris was named the rising star clarinetist in Downbeat magazine for 2004 and 2005. In July 2004 he was the special guest at the Copenhagen International Jazz Festival, working with ten different cutting edge Danish groups. In April 2006, he launched Skirl Records, a label dedicated to Brooklyn based creative music.

Photo Credit
Michael Hoefner

David Bailis: Tree Of Life

Read "Tree Of Life" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 31, 2024

Some jazz artists create distinctive sound worlds with their instruments and the bands they put together. In the “guitarist as leader" genre--on the popular music side), think Link Wray, Dick Dale, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Robbie Robertson. In jazz, think Wes Montgomery, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Sangeeta Michael Berardi. All of these musicians have a sonic worldview that they have been able to represent in their recordings faithfully. New York-based Guitarist David Bailis is knocking on the door of that ...

Album Review

The Bad Plus: Complex Emotions

Read "Complex Emotions" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 4, 2024

For those out there who may have inadvertently thought The Bad Plus had nothing major left to say after two-plus decades of saying major things, guess again. Because Complex Emotions--their sixteenth statement of purpose--doubles down and ups a hundred. Proof positive is how guitarist Ben Monder's valedictory “LiPo"--equal parts biblical wind and prairie sandstorm--sleigh rides Category 5 nonstop from Complex Emotions's changeling opener, founder/bassist Reid Anderson's “Grid/Ocean." Seemingly with a mind of its own, the track thrashes then ...

Album Review

Billy Mohler: Ultraviolet

Read "Ultraviolet" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
April 8, 2024

Aveva spiazzato tutti con Focus, album del 2019 nel quale riuniva alcuni degli improvvisatori più in vista della scena jazz statunitense, in controtendenza rispetto alla sua fama di produttore e songwriter per leggende della musica pop, rock, R&B e country, di vincitore grammy e di compositore per importanti campagne pubblicitarie. Parliamo di Billy Mohler, bassista dai molteplici talenti, che con UltraViolet presenta il medesimo quartetto, e che quartetto, che aveva dato seguito all'esordio con l'altrettanto apprezzato Anatomy. ...

Album Review

The Angelica Sanchez Nonet: Nighttime Creatures

Read "Nighttime Creatures" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 6, 2023

Pubblicato dalla Pyroclastic Records, Nighttime Creatures è il magistrale debutto del nonet della pianista Angelica Sanchez, organico che riunisce alcuni protagonisti della scene musicali di New York, Los Angeles e San Francisco: i sassofonisti Chris Speed e Michael Attias, il clarinettista Ben Goldberg, il cornettista Kenny Warren, il trombettista Thomas Heberer, il chitarrista Omar Tamez, il contrabbassista John Hébert e il batterista Sam Ospovat. Trasferitasi nel 1994 a New York da Phoenix (Arizona), Angelica è parte dell'Exploding ...

Album Review

Billy Mohler: Anatomy

by John Chacona
July 2, 2022

Can we please retire the old cliché about jazz from Los Angeles being limp, wan and bland? One listen to pianist Cameron Graves' slamming metal-jazz or to the jittery complexity of David Binney's recent releases should be enough to torch that outdated canard. Now comes bassist Billy Mohler with Anatomy, 43 minutes of amped-up, torqued-out energy that pulses with the elevated heart-rate of first-wave punk rock. That's no accident. Mohler is a pop music pro, a Grammy nominee ...

Album Review

Broken Shadows: Broken Shadows with Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson, Dave King

Read "Broken Shadows with Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson, Dave King" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 24, 2021

The context for Broken Shadows is--can you guess--the Ornette Coleman album of the same name, recorded in 1971 and released on Columbia Records in 1982. That, along with three tunes from Coleman's Science Fiction (Columbia, 1971), and more from the free jazz pioneer's Atlantic and Blue Note Records days. And while we're at it, throw in a pair of compositions from Julius Hemphill, one from saxophonist Dewey Redman and one from bassist Charlie Haden--all players with strong connections to Coleman. ...

Album Review

Craig Taborn: Compass Confusion

Read "Compass Confusion" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 4, 2021

Compass Confusion, the long hoped for return of Craig Taborn's depth defying, solo-gone-quintet from Junk Magic (Thirsty Ear, 2004), climaxes early and often and, however you like to be lured, It pulls you along with a lush velvet hook in your mouth. Reeling it in is a struggle but a blessing. We know that. We get it. CTJM thinks so too. First timers, saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed and bassist ((Erik Fratzke}} are welcomed brotherly into the fold by pianist ...

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Performance / Tour