About Jason Stein

“The bass clarinet does not figure prominently in jazz,” writes the Chicago Tribune‘s Howard Reich, “but it hasn’t had many champions as ardent or accomplished as Jason Stein…he presides over music that leaps fearlessly from classic bebop to up-to-the-minute avant-garde and back.” One of the few musicians in jazz playing the instrument exclusively, Stein has been called “clearly an improviser and composer to watch” (Clifford Allen, Bagatellen), “a new voice on an often overlooked instrument with promises of a very exciting future” (Jay Collins, Cadence) and “an astute interpreter of the jazz lineage and a first-rate writer on the rise” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure). Time Out Chicago‘s Matthew Lurie adds, “The bass clarinet, finally, has a new master to follow.”

A native of Long Island, Stein studied with Charles Gayle and Milford Graves at Bennington College and Donald Walden and Ed Sarath at the University of Michigan before moving to Chicago in 2005. Since then, he has become an integral member of that city’s storied jazz scene and steadily built a career that regularly takes him all over the world. In addition to his own groups, the Jason Stein Quartet and Locksmith Isidore, he also co-leads more than a half dozen active bands and serves as a member of working ensembles led by Josh Berman, Kyle Bruckmann, Keefe Jackson, Rob Mazurek, Jason Roebke and Frank Rosaly. His latest recording is 2011′s The Story This Time (Delmark), which appears on a number of best-of-the-year lists.

Featured Discography

Jason Stein Quartet, The Story This Time (Delmark, 2011)

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