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The Jamie Baum Septet+ gives a rare NYC performance at The Cell Theater this Saturday, May 25th as part of their on going CD-release celebration of Bridges (Sunnyside Records), their fourth recording. On the heels of their wildly successful 2018 tours, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Tampere Jazz Happening (Finland), Jazztopad Festival (Poland), the London Jazz Festival, Bimhuis (Netherlands), Unterfahrt (Germany), etc., the band's never sounded better! Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Baum's exciting band of stellar NYC players and music (funded by Baum’s 2014 Guggenheim Award) which generates a standing ovation at every performance. Baum’s even composed a new piece just for this occasion!
Video “teaser” of Jamie Baum Septet+ “Bridges”CD: https://youtu.be/ffw1-14P_1U
Bridges Jazz Festival 2018 Reviews:
"The biggest surprise of the events of Sep. 22 was a name new to me, Jamie Baum, a diminutive flute player whose imagination is as big as the world. Standing outside Dizzy’s Den in the afternoon, I heard some delicious cacophony coming from the room and thought, oh yes, let’s check this out. Upon entering, I saw a uniquely-configured octet…it was the most extraordinary music of the (Monterey Jazz) Festival.”
– Richard S. Ginell, Journal of Music Critics Assoc.
""(Of) my top five quick takes: Flutist Jamie Baum’s Septet+ provided another revelation. An exploratory composer and arranger interested in long forms and arresting voicings, she focused on music from her recent album Bridges, Her wide brass palette…and the wild-card guitarist Brad Shepik filled each piece with exquisite details…"
– Andrew Gilbert, SFVC, Monterey Jazz Festival 2018
"Jamie Baum’s ambitious arrangements captivated the audience with a first-class band of eight members comprising some of the finest NY-based musicians”
– Pascal Dorban, Jazz Journal (UK) Tampere Jazz Happening 2018
Bridges CD Reviews:
“…what shakes out is the fact that this is uplifting music…(the CD’s) tone generates vivid imagery and a sweeping grandeur. And when Baum’s expanded Septet+ goes big, the music is grander than life. Baum’s lineup is like a future wing of the Jazz Hall of Fame…”
– Dave Sumner, May’s “Best Jazz on Bandcamp”
****(four stars) "Always a traveler, never a tourist, Baum constructs significant harmonic relationships between jazz and some far-flung music traditions. Everything connects here: concept and execution, soloists and ensemble, Nepal and New York, spirit and flesh.”
– Michelle Mercer, DownBeat
“ …a fine album of ambitious range and sharp melodic clarity. It’s part of her continuing experiment with blending hypercontemporary jazz strategies and traditional music from the South Asian subcontinent.” – Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times
"Nothing about this music composed by Jamie Baum is conventional; this is plain to see, so to speak. But because much of this music also comes from cultures that are not even remotely close to her own and yet this music succeeds in inhabiting them – be they Islamic or Hindu and by association, Arabic, Turkish, Azeri, Nepali and Indian – this effort from her on Bridges must be regarded as truly remarkable as the music succeeds magnificently in the setting of themes, details in modes and the manner in which it stands conventional collisions within the broad swathe of its cultural topography on its head. Incandescent, profoundly human and intoxicating in its celebration of the world of nature and of birth and re-birth in the context of Judaic-Islamic-Hindu relationship with the Divine Bridges by Miss Baum is demanding of herself and of performers requiring special treatment at every turn..” – Raul da Gama, JazzdaGama
****(four stars)“This is the latest strong entry in Baum’s discography…that skillfully blurs the lines between multi-layered through-composition, hard, tough grooves and focused improvisation.” – Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise (UK)
“Bridges is packed with layered counterpoint and dense sonic textures. It’s full of shifting rhythms,— The often-serpentine melodic lines overlap, intermingle and clash for dramatic effect. It takes a top-fight group of players to execute such an ambitious endeavor. And Baum’s Septet+, certainly rises to the challenge. Indeed, (Baum’s) tone has a sonic heft — a thickness — that stands in contrast to the instrument’s often bird-like quality. ."
– Eric Snider, Jazziz Magazine Summer 2018
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