TED NASH

Born in Los Angeles, Ted Nash's interest in music started at an early age. Exposed to music and encouraged by his father, trombonist Dick Nash, and uncle, reedman Ted Nash (both well-known studio and jazz musicians), young Nash started playing the piano at age seven. At age twelve he began playing the clarinet and a year later picked up the alto sax. While in high school, he studied jazz improvisation with the innovative teacher and vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake. Mr. Nash's first gig came at age sixteen, playing a week in Hawaii with legendary vibraphonist and band leader, Lionel Hampton. That same year he won an audition to play lead alto with the Quincy Jones band. By age seventeen Nash had toured Europe, appeared on three records, and was performing regularly with Don Ellis, Louie Bellson, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, as well as with his own quintet.  Ted Nash has been composing music since the age of fifteen. His first composition, Tristemente, was recorded by Louie Bellson on a record, Raincheck, on which Nash played with the late trumpeter Blue Mitchell. At age eighteen, Nash moved to New York City and soon recorded his first album as a leader, "Conception," on the Concord Jazz label. During his first three years in New York became a regular member of the Gerry Mulligan Big Band, the National Jazz Ensemble, and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the latter an association that would last for more than ten years.  In 1994, Nash was commissioned by the Davos Musik Festival in Switzerland to compose works featuring a string quartet in a jazz setting, the seed which let to the formation of his group, Double Quartet, and the recording of his CD "Rhyme and Reason" (Arabesque), voted one of the best releases of 1999 by Jazz Times Magazine.  Ted's most recent release (March 2005), "La Espada de la Noche" (Palmetto Records), has reached the #1 position on the CMJ radio chart. Of a recent performance, the Los Angeles Times wrote: “You say jazz is having trouble these days finding a creative focus? Don’t believe it. Go to the Jazz Bakery tonight to hear saxophonist Ted Nash’s marvelous group Odeon, and any doubts will quickly be dispelled. What this Los Angeles native is demonstrating with Odeon is the fact that -- far from being on a down slope -- jazz is in a period of extraordinary opportunity.” To quote the Village Voice: "Every record collection should include at least one version of 'Tico, Tico,' and have I got a goodie for you -- ripping, dramatic, and only slightly ironic, which also describes everything else on saxophonist Ted Nash’s new tango album." The San Diego Union says: “Like few others in contemporary music, Ted Nash thrives on combining disparate styles into an enticing whole that is never quite what it seems. Just how well he does it is demonstrated on his forth album, the splendid "La Espada de la Noche."  Odeon’s previous release, "Sidewalk Meeting" (Arabesque), landed on several "top ten" lists for 2001, including the New York Times, Village Voice, Boston Globe, and the New York Newsday, as well as the 2002 Downbeat Critics Poll for best jazz CD. Gary Giddins, in an article in the Village Voice (May 2002), singled out the first track from this CD, an adaptation of Debussy's "Premiere Rhapsodie," as his favorite from all the jazz CDs recorded that year. Mr. Nash is a Composer-in-residence of the Jazz Composers Collective, a musician-run, non-profit organization dedicated to presenting the original works of composers who are pushing the boundaries of their self-expression. Cited as "Rising Star" in the tenor sax category of the 2003 Downbeat Critics Poll, Nash can be heard on several acclaimed CDs produced by the Jazz Composers Collective: the Herbie Nichols Project -- "Love is Proximity" and "Dr. Cyclops' Dream" (Soulnote), and "Strange City" (Palmetto); with Ben Allison —"Medicine Wheel", "Third Eye", and "Riding the Nuclear Tiger" (Palmetto); as well as recordings with Wynton Marsalis, including "Big Train" (Columbia), "Sweet Release and Ghost Story" (Sony Classical), "All Rise" (Sony Classical), and (with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra) "A Love Supreme" (Palmetto). Recent engagements include concerts and club appearances with his two groups Odeon, and Still Evolved, including the Village Vanguard and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York City; tours of Europe and Asia with the LCJO; collaborations with the Augusta Ballet (Georgia) and Zenon Dance Company (Minneapolis); and concerts with the Jazz Composers Collective, including tours of Brazil.

For more info please visit www.tednash.com.