FM
Biography
Like a number of emerging musicians on the New York creative jazz scene during the 1990s, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Chris Speed grew up in the Seattle area. Speed was first introduced to classical music and played the piano and clarinet before becoming interested in improvisation and the tenor saxophone during high school. He moved to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory and was soon part of the collaborative ensemble Human Feel, which in addition to Speed featured drummer Jim Black (also from Seattle), alto saxophonist Andrew D'Angelo, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and bassist Joe Fitzgerald. Speed was also a member of Orange Then Blue, the creative big band led by drummer George Schuller (son of Gunther). Two noteworthy recordings from this early period of Speed's career are Human Feel's Scatter (1992) and Orange Then Blue's While You Were Out (1994), both on the GM Recordings label.
However, Speed's greatest accomplishments would occur after he moved to New York City and joined several pioneering bands on the so-called "downtown scene." These included Tim Berne's Bloodcount, the Dave Douglas Sextet, and Myra Melford's The Same River, Twice, critically acclaimed as three of the 1990s' top working bands in creative jazz and improvised music. Through the mid-'90s Speed remained a member of Human Feel, which survived its principals' move from Boston and released two CDs as a quartet minus bassist Fitzgerald. (Speed also stayed with Orange Then Blue when George Schuller's ensemble shifted its base of operations to New York.) Notably, Bloodcount and the New York version of Human Feel continued Speed's relationship with drummer Jim Black. Performing together in these and other subsequent downtown groups, Speed and Black have remained highly empathetic collaborators who are strikingly likeminded in diverse musical settings.
