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Christopher Dean Sullivan

Bassist of various approaches and styles. ..."Chris Sullivan, a bassist whose authoritative and bluesy bendings of the notes honor his affection for legends such as Slam Stewart as well as Ray Brown"..~ Steve Monroe, Jazz Journalists Association

About Me

.. Chicago, Ill born, raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Artisan Bassist Christopher Dean Sullivan is a media renown highly versed bassist of many musical languages: Jazz, Funk, Reggae, Latin, Fusion, Caribbean, Indian, African, and Eurocentric perceptions, rock, country, and more. Chris is well traveled throughout the U.S., the Caribbean Islands and Europe. He has shared the stage with Stanley Jordan, Pete Seeger, Archie Schepp, Charli Persip, Yusef Lateef, Grant Green, Horace Parlan, Joe McPhee, Sonny Simmons, Cecil Payne, Joe Lovano, Roy Campbell Jr., to name a few, and led his own ensembles within the U.S. and abroad which opened for such national commercial acts as The Barkays, Ohio Players, New Birth, The Trinairs, The Moments, Sam and Dave and the like. Chris Sullivan is heard on various records and CDs from jazz and blues to acoustic folk, funk and gospel. His discography includes Live in New York (Black Saint / Soul Note) with reedist Michael Marcus and drummer Codaryl Cody Moffett; Language of Swans (Drimala) with reedist Joe Giardullo and soundrhythium Michael T.A. Thompson; Under the Moon (A440 Music Group) with Barbara Sfraga, Paul Wertico, John McLean, Kevin Patrick; Stepping Around the Giant (C.I.M.P./Cadence) with Carl Grubbs, Odean Pope and Newman Taylor Baker; Timelessness Frozen in Time (SyncTimiCity) - a collaborative project featuring Barbara Sfraga, Michael T.A. Thompson, Mala Waldron and Allen Won. “Something Quiet” (FMR); “Alan Glover: The Blue Shift” (OMOLADE) a DVD/CD combo release; Word Riffs with poet Golda Solomon; poet E. J. Antonio “Rituals from the Marrow: Recipe for a Jam Session (BlueZygo Records) ~This particular release also has a featured track where bassist Christian McBride and Christopher Dean Sullivan are performing together, and the compilation release A Mother’s Heart (Sound Visions Media Group) with Sheila Jordan. Chris Sullivan also performs with the Cotton Club All Star Orchestra and has toured with various 50's / 60's notable groups such as the Marcel's, The Drifters, Sharelles and many others. Chris Sullivan has done movies, “Dawn of the Dead”, some TV commercials and magazines such as Vanity Fair with Grammy Award recipient Janet Jackson. While living in Pittsburgh, PA Chris was an instructor for the Jazz Workshop Inc. “I attribute all of my formative years of learning the instrument and understanding musicality during the time I lived in Pittsburgh. Playing with such Pittsburgh luminaries as Dr. Nelson Harrison, Dr. Nathan Davis, master drummers as Roger Humphries and JC Moses, learning arrangement composition with composer Arthur Powell, having the opportunity to be around when Stanley Turrentine, George Benson or Ray Brown would sit in on gigs where I was booked. I must say the city of Pittsburgh music was my school”. It was the Jazz Workshop Inc. where Christopher Dean Sullivan got the chance to teach all he had learned. Harold Young, director the of JWI approached Chris to teach electric bass technics, music theory and ensemble performance approaches. Chris developed, produced and hosted, along with a longtime friend Aubrey Bruce, his own Warner Communication award winning television show “The Tree of Arts Alive” where they produced performances and interviews with Max Roach, Roger Humphries, Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, George Duke, Robert Bell ( Kool and the Gang), Patrice Rushen, Larry McGee, The Whispers, Chaka Chan, Lenny White, The Pittsburgh Repretory Theater, Betty Carter and the list goes on and on. Over recent years, now living in New York, Mr. Sullivan has received various community and arts services municipal, NYS Congressional, NYS Assembly and NYS Senate awards as well as the 2010 NYS Arts Council Champion for the Arts Award. Christopher Dean Sullivan's approach is heartfelt and is accessed first of all by intensive listening -- to himself, to the elemental structure of a tune, to the soul of his fellow musicians, and to his own quest for the purest, more direct expression of sound and feeling and is a prime advocate for bringing entertainment into what he calls “The American World Music Genre…Jazz”…

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