Jamie Baum

Jamie Baum has impressed audiences, musicians and critics alike with her inventive, finely crafted compositions and commanding and atypical approach to the flute as a lead instrument. Originally from Connecticut, Baum has been living in New York for seventeen years working as a leader or sidewomen with a wide range of consummate musicians including Randy Brecker, Paul Motian, John Abercrombie, Mick Goodrick, George Russell, Donald Brown, Kenny Werner, Fred Hersch, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, Billy Hart, Mickey Roker, Uri Caine, Ursel Schlicht, Leni Stern, V. M. Bhatt, Karaikudi Mani, Hakim Ludin, etc.; in a wide range of styles. Though focusing primarily on jazz, she has been involved in projects performing classical and new music to Brazilian, Indian and Latin music offering her ample opportunity to develop a strong personal style.

Honors and Awards
Jamie Baum's last two CDs, Moving Forward, Standing Still, and Solace were included in several Critics Pick lists for "Best CDs of the Year" ('04 & '08 respectively) including Jazz Times, Jazziz, All About Jazz, Jazz Improv NY and DownBeat, and she was nominated as "Flutist of the Year" by the Jazz Journalists Association in their 2005, 2006, 2009 & 2010 annual jazz awards. She was elected "Best Flutist of the Year" in the 2008 Jazz Station Poll (Brazil) as well as in Brazil's daily newspaper "Tribuna da Imprensa" (Press Tribune). Ms. Baum was a winner of the prestigious 2003 New Works: Creation and Presentation Award, a component of the Doris Duke/Chamber Music America Jazz Ensembles Project and their New Works: Encore Program grant in 2007; the 1998 through 2002 DownBeat Critic's Poll for Talent Deserving Wider Recognition, the 2003 through 2009 Critic's Poll Rising Star category and their 2004 through 2009 Best Flutists category. Jamie won the '96 JAZZIZ Woodwinds-On-Fire contest and was featured in their magazine and CD.

The recipient of the '99 International Jazz Composers Alliance/Julius Hemphill Composition Award in the Small Group category, she has also won three National Endowment for the Arts awards, two Meet The Composer grants, an NPN grant, and was an awarded "Fellow" in the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Program in composition. Ms. Baum has had endorsement agreements with Haynes Flute Co. and Altus Flutes and continues to work with Altus as a clinician.

Discography
Jamie Baum's recent recordings of note include the recently released Solace (***1/2 DownBeat) on Sunnyside Records (featuring her septet including Ralph Alessi, Vincent Chancey, Johannes Weidenmeulller, George Colligan, Douglas Yates and Jeff Hirshfield), Moving Forward, Standing Still (****DownBeat) on the OmniTone label (also featuring her septet); Sight Unheard (****DownBeat) on Gunther Schuller's label GM Recordings (featuring Dave Douglas and Kenny Werner); Woodwinds On Fire (a compilation CD) on Jazziz-on-Disc; and Undercurrents, her debut album as a leader on the German label Konnex (featuring Randy Brecker, Dave Douglas and Vic Juris). Other recordings (collaborative or as a sidewoman) include Sharp Five's Intersect (Consensus) with Roberta Piket, Allison Miller and Virginia Mayhew; Ed Jackson's Wake Up Call (New World Records); Dave Binney's Free to Dream (Mythology); Somnambulist, w/Laura Andel (Red Toucan/Cactus); Props for Pops w/Great Circle (JA Records); Paul Arslanian's Rachel's Dance (DBK), The Sound of New York Underground (Fresh Sounds, New Talent); Judi Silvano's Let Yourself Go (Zoho Records), Steve Lampert's Music From There (Bridge), George Colligan's Blood Pressure (Ultimatum) and Glenn White's Sacred Machines (OA2 Records), Patrizia Scacitelli's Conversations with Mike (Piloo Records) and Ursel Schlicht's Ex Tempore Syncretic Tales.

Tours, Festivals, Clubs, etc.
Jamie Baum has performed in clubs and concerts throughout the U.S., Japan, South America, South Asia and India of which include; NY's Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Birdland, Sweet Rhythm, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, Knitting Factory, Five Spot, Visiones, the Guggenheim, Brooklyn Museum and Museum of Modern Art Jazz Series, The Jazz Room Series at William Patterson University and Hunter College Jazz Forum Series; Boston's Scullers and Regatta Bar; St. Louis' Just Jazz; Jazz Factory (Louisville), Columbia's Murray's, National Pastimes Productions "We Always Swing" Jazz Series (MO), Albuquerque's Outpost; Walton Arts Center (Fayetteville, AK); Dazzle (Denver); Houston's Cezanne; Austin's Elephant Room; Knoxville's Lucille's and Alive After Five; Nashville's Caf- 123, Phoenix's Jazz in AZ and Higher Ground; Maine's Cafe No; D.C.'s Blues Alley, The Nest, One Step Down and Twins; Rhode Island's Chan's; New Jersey's Trumpets; Pennsylvania's Painted Bride, Deer Head Inn, Ortlieb's Jazzhaus and Deetrick's; New Orleans' Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro and the Contemporary Arts Center; Burlington's Flynn Center, New Haven's Firehouse 12, Pizza Express (London), The Jazz Center (Edinburgh), The Improv Room and No Alibi (Belfast), J.J. Smith's (Dublin) Thelonious Jazz Club (La Paz, Bolivia), Santiago Jazz Club (Chile), Wish Jazz Club (Himeji, Japan), Klangbr(cke (Aachen, Germany), etc.

Performances at festivals include the Boston Globe Jazz Festival, the Rochester Jazz Festival, Bragajazz Festival '06 & '10, (Portugal),Terrassa Jazz Festival (Barcelona), Guelph Jazz Festival (Toronto), NY's Texaco and "What is Jazz?" Knitting Factory Festivals ('93, '97, '98); the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C ('99, '00); the Freihoffer's Festival in Saratoga, the Jazzmandu Kathmandu Jazz Festival '03 & '09 (Nepal), the Venezuela Jazz Festival, the NYC JVC Jazz Festival ('03, '05), "America Week" (Bangladesh), Germany's Documenta Festival, the Bermuda Jazz Festival, University of Fairbanks Alaska Jazz Festival, Capital JazzFest 2001, the East Coast Jazz Festival, Jazz India (Bombay); Festival of Nations (Paraguay & Bolivia), The Peruvian International Flute Festival; the Newark, Portsmouth, Fairbanks and Cornell University Jazz Festivals; the IAJE Convention (NYC '01); the Texas, Mid-Atlantic, Greater Boston Flute Fairs and the U.S. National Flute Association Conventions ('93, '95, '98, '04, '07); New York's Festival of Women Improvisers, V Falaut Festival di Cernusco sul Naviglio - Festival internazionale del Flauto, Italy, and many colleges.

U.S. Jazz Ambassador
Jamie Baum was chosen to go on a six-week tour of South America, sponsored by the US State Department/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador Program to perform and give masterclasses with a jazz trio in Columbia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile and the Dominican Republic, beginning with a concert presenting them at the Kennedy Center in the fall of '99. By competitive audition Jamie won a second five-week tour for the same program (March/April 2002) to India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand with guitarist Ken Wessel and bassist Jerome Harris. Their tour ended with concerts at The Smithsonian Institute as part of its JAM series and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They were also sent under the same auspices to perform as part of America Week in Bangladesh in September 2002. Separate from that, The Jamie Baum Quartet was awarded funding by the DOS, Arts America and the American Center (Nepal) to perform in Delhi, India and at the Kathmandu Jazz Festival (3/03) and at the Venezuela Jazz Festival (10/03). In March '06 the American Consulate in Barcelona sponsored a masterclass at Taller de Music featuring Baum's Septet.

Media
Having been interviewed and performed for several live broadcasts on WGBH, WKCR, WERS, GMN, WPKN and NPR and several US, South American, and South Asian radio and TV stations, Baum is also featured in a book by Bob Bernotas called Reed All About It that includes interviews and master classes with a wide range of great musicians including George Coleman, Johnny Griffin, Joe Lovano, James Moody, Robert Dick and Don Byron. The Flute in Jazz: Window on World Music by Peter Westbrook, features Baum in one of the chapters on influential jazz flutists and came out in 2009 and the book Jazz is a Woman by Italian writer Guido Michelone, includes interviews of 38 female musicians including Jamie and will be out in June, 2010.The Italian flute magazine Falaut recently featured Baum in its spotlight on jazz flutists. She was featured in the August '04 Prelude section in Jazziz and the Hearsay section of the January '05 issue of JazzTimes. The July '05 issue of Jazziz, which focuses on women, includes a feature on Baum and she was the cover story in the September '05 issue of Flute Talk.

Education
Baum received her MM from Manhattan School of Music in jazz composition, her BM degree from New England Conservatory of Music in jazz flute/composition and briefly attended Berklee College of Music. Before entering NEC, Ms. Baum spent a year in Paris studying at Ecole Normale de Music. She has studied with Jaki Bayrd, Richie Bierach, Dave Liebman, Hubert Laws, Keith Underwood, Ransom Wilson, Robert Stallman Charlie Banacos, Rich DeRosa, W. T. McKinnley and Ludmilla Ulehla.

Teaching
In addition to teaching privately since 1981 Ms. Baum is on the faculty teaching private lessons at Manhattan School of Music and The New School University. She has also been very active giving master-classes, clinics and workshops for the past fifteen years. Aside from teaching improvisation, ear-training, compositional techniques and flute, Jamie has developed two very successful workshops: "A Fear-free Approach to Improvisation for the Classically-trained Musician" and "A Jazz Flute Survey/ Retrospective" which includes interviews with over 30 renowned flutists including living legends such as Hubert Laws, Frank Wess, Paul Horn and Herbie Mann. Each workshop has a booklet and discography to be used in a clinic or extended course.

Some of the venues where Ms. Baum has presented masterclasses and clinics include: New England Conservatory of Music, Williams College (MA), Thelonious Jazz Club (La Paz, Bolivia), the Litchfield Jazz Festival Summer Music School (CT), University of Bucaramonga (Columbia), The National Conservatory of Music (CNM) of the Dominican Republic, The Peruvian International Flute Festival, Berklee College of Music, University of Chile (Vina Del Mar & Talca), University of New Hampshire, University of Maine/Augusta, University of Tennessee (Knoxville), Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, The National Flute Conventions ('93, '95, '98, '04), H & H Music Stores and Lee College (Houston), William Patterson University (NJ), Rice's Shepherd School of Music (Houston), Longy School of Music (Boston), University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), New York and Mid-Atlantic Flute Fairs, San Jacento College and St. Thomas University (TX), Simon's Rock College (MA), Stephens College (MO), University of Missouri, Belmont College (Nashville), University of Bridgeport (CT), Rockbridge and Hickman High Schools (MO), NOCCA (New Orleans), Jefferson City Public Library, Bayside High School (NY), ProJazz School of Music (Santiago, Chile), Kala Academy and Goa Jazz Club (Goa, India), The Vineyard Center (Channai, India), The American Center/Jazz India (Mombai, India), Aum-aree Music School (Bangkok, Thailand), UNICA (Maracaibo, Venezuela), University of Fairbanks, Alaska, British Flute Society Convention, Oxford Flute Summer School, Ottawa Flute Society & Carleton University (Ottawa), Goucher College (MD), University of Colorado at Boulder, Outpost Performance Space (Albuquerque), Verona High School (NJ), Taller de Music ((Barcelona), etc.

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