Boston’s Charlie Kohlhase and the Reunion of his Original (2003-2006) Saxophone Support Group + a Special Guest = Eight (8) Saxophones
Charlie Kohlhase__Boston
Sean Berry _New York _
Dan Blake _New York
Matt Langley Maine
Jared Sims West Virginia_
Josh Sinton _New York
Andy Voelker_ Boston_
+ Guest Jason Robinson Amherst, MA
The Support Group will be playing the music of Julius Hemphill, Steve Lacy, John Tchicai plus Kohlhase’s own…
“As a mainstay in Boston’s jazz scene, saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase has helped cultivate the city as one of America’s most fertile hotbeds for creative music.” (John Murph, Jazz Times Magazine)
“Kohlhase’s own themes are as action-packed as a comic book and as spontaneous in feel as graffiti.”(Nate Dorward, Squid’s Ear)
"Charlie Kohlhase's music is post-modern, free yet not inchoate, merging the harmonic sophistication of bebop with more asymmetrical approaches to form." --Bob Blumenthal.
In Cambridge and Boston and all of New England and beyond, Charlie Kohlhase, internationally recognized, is that Jazz iconic figure: a seasoned leader, composer, multi-saxophonist, educator, and radio host (WMBR-FM)—a world class musician and traveller—with endless ideas and music about and arrangements of modern Jazz’s history; AND, an extensive repertoire of his own compositions, often incorporating the mainstream with the free-form into a seamless journey; not to mention the gifted young and other seasoned musicians he has associated himself for more than 30 years including this evening.
Bio:
Charlie Kohlhase
Alto, tenor and baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase (b. 11/28/56, Portsmouth, NH) has been a part of Boston’s jazz scene for more than thirty years. After private studies with Stan Strickland and Roswell Rudd Kohlhase moved to Boston from his native New Hampshire in 1980. In 1989 he formed the Charlie Kohlhase Quintet, a band that worked around Boston and toured nationally for a dozen years. Kohlhase is mainly leading amongst many projects, the Explorer’s Club, an octet with two reeds, trumpet, tuba, piano, guitar, bass and drums. In 2009 saw the release of the Explorers Club CD “Adventures” on Vermont’s Boxholder label. Kohlhase also co-led groups with the late, great Danish/ Congolese saxophonist John Tchicai for New England tours in 1993, 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2006.
Charlie was a member of Boston’s Either/ Orchestra from 1987 to 2001, playing throughout North America, Europe and Russia. Recent sideman activities have included work with the Makanda Project, a large ensemble dedicated to performing unrecorded compositions by the late woodwind player/ composer Makanda Ken McIntyre, bassist Kit Demos’ Flame-Tet and trumpeter Daniel Rosenthal’s Quintet. Charlie, along with Dave Douglas and Roswell Rudd, was an artist-in-residence at Harvard for Spring 2003. In May 2003 Kohlhase recorded with Anthony Braxton’s Genome Project and in June worked with violinist/ composer Leroy Jenkins at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Charlie rejoined the Either/ Orchestra in 2008 and has worked with them along with Ethio-Jazz greats Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatke, Alemayhu Eschete and Teshome Mitiku in venues ranging from Chicago to London, Toronto to Germany and Holland to Ethiopia.
Charlie has also been active in jazz radio for many years, most recently hosting “Research & Development” Monday afternoons from 2 to 4 PM on WMBR-FM in Cambridge. He directs the Modern American Music Repertory Ensemble at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.
The Creative Music Series (CMS) was established in 1/ 2015, to showcase the work of adventurous jazz musicians from Out-of-State, presenting them in intimate venues in the Cambridge/Somerville area. My endeavor was a reaction to the apparent lack of invitations being extended to accomplished and even unknown musicians to Boston. CMS has now begun to zero in on Boston based musicians who are creating their own projects with these out-of-town guests and taking these musical risks to find an expression and gain a wider appreciation.
