Chris Speed


Chris Speed is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.

Early life and career

Speed grew up outside of Seattle and studied classical piano and clarinet from an early age. He later began studying jazz, took up the tenor saxophone, and performed in a local big band while in high school.
Speed attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he founded Human Feel with Andrew D'Angelo, Jim Black, and Kurt Rosenwinkel; the band continued performing after his move to New York.
Speed leads or co-leads the groups Pachora, The Clarinets, yeah NO, Trio Iffy, Endangered Blood, the Chris Speed Trio and Broken Shadows a band dedicated to reinterpreting the music of Ornette Coleman and Julius Hemphill.
The co-led quartet Pachora was influenced by Balkan and Middle Eastern rhythms and said to be "immersed in Eastern European and Moroccan music", performing originals and Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish works. Speed also performed and recorded with the Balkan brass and jazz band Slavic Soul Party!.
Speed is a founding member of the avant-garde jazz groups Bloodcount, The Claudia Quintet, AlasNoAxis, and Heroic Frenzies.
In 2006, Speed created Skirl Records, a label dedicated to Brooklyn-based creative music.
In August 2021, Speed joined The Bad Plus. They released an album, entitled simply The Bad Plus, on September 30, 2022.

Awards and honors

  • Rising Star on clarinet, Downbeat magazine, 2004, 2005, 2006
  • NEA composition grant in 1993

    Selected discography

As leader/co-leader

  • Yeah No
  • Deviantics
  • Emit
  • Iffy
  • Swell Henry
  • Really OK
  • Platinum On Tap
  • Respect for Your Toughness
  • Light Line
  • Despite Obstacles
Human Feel

With Kurt Rosenwinkel, Andrew D'Angelo and Jim Black
  • Human Feel
  • Scatter
  • Welcome to Malpesta
  • Speak to It
  • Galore
  • Gold
Pachora
  • Pachora
  • Unn
  • Ast
  • Astereotypical
The Clarinets
Endangered Blood
  • Endangered Blood
  • Work Your Magic
  • Don't Freak Out
Zeno De Rossi
  • Ruins
Broken Shadows
  • Broken Shadows
  • Broken Shadows Live
The Bad Plus
  • The Bad Plus.
  • ''Complex Emotions''

    as a sideman

with Tim Berne
  • Lowlife: The Paris Concert
  • Poisoned Minds: The Paris Concert
  • Memory Select: The Paris Concert
  • Unwound
  • Saturation Point
  • Discretion
  • Seconds
  • Insomnia
  • Attention Spam
  • 5
with Jim Black
  • AlasNoAxis
  • Splay
  • Habyor
  • Dogs of Great Indifference
  • Houseplant
  • Antiheroes
with The Claudia Quintet
  • John Hollenbeck/The Claudia Quintet
  • I, Claudia
  • Semi-Formal
  • For
  • Royal Toast
  • What Is the Beautiful?
  • September
  • Super Petite
  • Evidence Based
with Uri Caine
  • Uri Caine Ensemble Plays Mozart
  • The Othello Syndrome
  • Rhapsody in Blue
with Dave King
  • Good Old Light
  • Adopted Highway
  • Surrounded by the Night
  • Old TV
with Craig Taborn
  • Daylight Ghosts
  • Compass Confusion with Junk Magic
with others/selected