Episode #152: Jamie Baum

Improv Exchange Podcast

NYC flutist, composer, Sunnyside Records artist, producer, and clinician, Jamie Baum, has toured the US and over 35 countries performing at major festivals, clubs, and concert halls including the Monterey, Madrid, Oeiras, Bermuda,

Edinburgh, North Sea, Winter Jazzfest and London Jazz Festivals, Tampere Jazz Happening, Guimaraes Jazz Festival, Jazztopad, Bimhuis, Unterfahrt, Jazz Gallery, Jazz Standard, 55 Bar, Dizzy’s, Blue Note, etc.. She’s performed with artists as renowned and diverse as Randy Brecker, Roy Hargrove, Donald Brown, Tom Harrell, Paul Motion, Mick Goodrick and Kenny Barron to Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Leni Stern, Louis Cole, Jane Bunnett, David Binney, Ralph Alessi, Ben Monder, Anthony Braxton, Karaikudi Mani, V. M. Bhatt, Navin Chettri and Wadada Leo Smith. Though focusing primarily on jazz, she’s been involved in several projects performing classical, new music, Brazilian and Latin music. Receiving critical praise for seven CD's as a leader, with most making several “Best CDs of the Year” lists and four stars from DownBeat, her recently-released What Times Are These received five stars in DownBeat. Inch By Inch (GM Recordings), by the cooperative band Yard Byard: The Jaki Byard Project (w/Jerome Harris, George Schuller), also received four stars from DownBeat. Jamie has appeared on over 40 recordings as a sidewoman including those by Dave Binney, George Colligan, Ursel Schlicht, Frank Carlberg, Patrizia Scascitelli, Taylor Haskins, Monika Herzig, Louise Rogers, Sarah McKenzie, Steve Lampert, Brian Landrus, Laura Andel, Judi Silvano, Shigeko Suzuki, James Hall, etc. Ms. Baum’s many awards and grants for composing and touring include the 2022 Cafe Royale Recording Grant, 2021 South Arts Jazz Road Touring Grant, 2020 International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers (ISJAC) Covid Relief Commission, Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2020, 2020 Chamber Music America Jazz Presenter Consortium, 2018 USArtists International Touring Grant, 2017 New Music USA Project Grant, and a 2014 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Baum was selected as a 2014-15 Norman Stevens Fellow/MacDowell resident and has since been awarded residencies again at MacDowell (2021), at UCross (2015), and at VCCA (2020). She won the '99 International Jazz Composers Alliance Award, 2010 CAP Award (American Music Center), the 2003 New Works: Creation and Presentation Award and the 2007 Encore Award, both components of the Doris Duke/CMA Jazz Ensembles Project.

Ms. Baum has been in the DownBeat Critics Polls annually since 1998, making #1 “Rising Star Flutist” in ’12, #2 “Flutist” in ’19, and #3 “Flutist” in ’20. She was named a "Major New International Talent” in 2015 lists by both “Musica Jazz” and “Jazzit” (Italy), was #2 “Flutist of the Year” in the 2018 Eleventh Annual International Critics Poll and tied for 4th place with Hubert Laws in the 2018 JazzTimes Critics Poll. Jamie was included in Huffington Post’s "Twenty-five Great Jazz Flute Performances”, nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for “Flutist of the Year“ fourteen times, and The Jamie Baum Septet+ was nominated in 2014 "Best Midsize Ensemble" - in the same list with only two other bands -The Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve Coleman’s Five Elements! Media attention for her recent CD, Bridges, and previously released, In This Life, brought features on WBGO’s RADAR and NPR’s All Things Considered, reviews in The New York Times, DownBeat, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, etc.. and two hour-long feature/retrospectives on major German and Czech public radio shows. Bridges was voted #4 in the 2018 JazzTimes Readers Poll for “Best New Release,” and In This Life was in the "Best CDs of 2013” lists including Boston Globe, iTunes, and Francis Davis' NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Recently, Baum was included in the JazzTimes 10: Essential Jazz Flute Albums (2019), 3 Questions for Today’s Jazz Musicians by Lilian Dericq, Cricket Publishers (Paris), the “Woodshed” in DownBeat, January 2019, and was the flutist on “The Essence of the Blues -- Flute: 10 Great Etudes for Playing and Improvising, Book & CD”, (Jim Snidero “play-along” series, 2019).

Through a highly competitive auditioning process, Jamie was chosen to tour for the DOS/Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador program from ’99 -’03 in South America and South Asia. The US State Department also sponsored later shorter tours, in addition to several isolated US Embassy-sponsored programs while Baum was on her tours in Europe and South Asia. Baum’s two main active projects featuring her compositions include The Jamie Baum Septet+, together since 1999, and her Short Stories band marking five years by performing at the 2020 Winter Jazzfest. In addition, she co-leads Yard Byard: The Jaki Byard Project and is involved in several other projects either as co-leader or side-woman, including The Richie Beirach/Jamie Baum Duo and NYC Jazz Flutes. Baum has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Arts department at since 2006, on the adjunct faculty roster at the New School University since 2004, and taught at Berklee College of Music (2011-2013). Summer jazz programs Baum has taught composition, improv, and flute technique, and coached ensembles at including the Stanford Jazz Workshop Institute, Litchfield Jazz Camp, Maryland Jazz Camp, etc. A clinician for Altus Flutes/KHS America since 1993, they have sponsored her innovative, pioneering workshop "A Fear Free Approach to Improvisation for the Classically-Trained Musician” TM, "A Fear Free Approach to Composition for the Improvising Musician” TM and “Flute Technique for Doublers” at colleges, conservatories, festivals, flute clubs and “music and art” schools worldwide.