Chase Baird

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For more info, visit: www.chasebaird.com

Part experimental rocker, part classical romantic and part post-bop devotee, saxophonist, guitarist and composer CHASE BAIRD has been described as "... the future of jazz music and the saxophone" by Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Randy Brecker.

His latest album, A Life Between, explores vast emotional terrain with a band comprised of modern jazz’s most revered innovators. Pianist Brad Mehldau and drummer Antonio Sánchez are veteran companions alongside new-generation talents Nir Felder, guitar, and Dan Chmielinski, bass. Critics have declared the album “…a truly inspired, dare we say, epic recording complete with progressive singularities and sonic cosmicalities.”

Chase has worked as a sideman with pop icon Chaka Khan, legendary Chicago vocalist Bill Champlin as well as indie-rocker Jakob Dylan. In the jazz realm, he has performed or recorded with Chris Botti, Brad Mehldau, Antonio Sánchez, Mike Stern, Antonio Faraò, Mike Clark and others.

Born in Seattle and later raised in Utah and California, Chase picked up the saxophone at age ten.  He was discovered and mentored by tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker in 2003. Chase attended California State University Long Beach and later graduated from The Juilliard School in New York City.

In January 2017, he performed a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert celebrating the life and music of Michael Brecker, playing his own original, “Ripcord”–with former President (and sax player) Bill Clinton sitting in the front row.

Chase performed with drummer Antonio Sánchez’s band Migration from 2017 - 2020, recording both saxophone and EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) on the groups’ acclaimed album Lines In The Sand. He also co-led Venture, a fusion ensemble featuring drum legend Mike Clark, vibraphonist Mark Sherman and bassist Felix Pastorius.

Chase plays EWI in all-synthesizer band Circuit Kisser, formed by bassist and collaborator Dan “Chimy“ Chmielinski. The band’s sophomore album, First Kiss, released via La Reserve Records in 2023.

As a guitarist, Chase performs with his singer/songwriter sister Christine Baird and her band Rocky Mountain Soul. He currently explores the guitar—and his own unique vocal style—daily in composition and songwriting, through the genre-bending aperture of indie rock, Americana, neoclassical synth-pop and his jazz roots.

As a music educator, Chase penned two innovative jazz method books, including the highly-celebrated Basics to Bebop. He currently publishes a weekly podcast-style lesson series, Modern Jazz Pathways, which helps musicians globally to learn the more eclectic techniques found in post-bop and fusion jazz styles.

When not touring, Chase makes his home in Austin, Texas.