Christopher Burnett’s Artist Profile
How are jazz careers made?
Many have remarked on the big historical shift: musicians used to apprentice on the road with masters and learn the language firsthand, but those cultural conditions are fading, and the bandstand has been replaced by the graduate degree. There’s truth in that narrative, and yet it fails to account for the full variety of paths that players are taking as they strive to find their voice in this music.For alto saxophonist Christopher Burnett, the journey involved spending 22 years as a musician in the U.S. Army.
He left the service in 1996 — “I’ve been out nearly as long as I was in,” he says — and resettled in 2001 in his native Kansas City metropolitan area. Two years earlier, in 1999, he had released his debut recording, Time Flies, and in 2008 he followed up with Theme Music, both on the Artists Recording Collective (ARC) label that he cofounded with saxophonist Erica Lindsay and pianist Sumi Tonooka. Now at age 58, Burnett reaches another level of achievement with Firebird, showcasing a fine working quartet and a set of compositions rich in beauty, subtlety and sophistication.
There’s a remarkable lyrical ease and harmonic savvy in the compositions that make up Firebird, not least of all on the title track with its layered flutes and Latin-tinged rhythmic feel. Burnett’s legato eloquence and depth of expression on the slow 4/4 “Ballad for An Optimist” is another highlight. His choice of the inspired, metrically shifting “A Risk I Take,” by French horn virtuoso and colleague Mark Taylor, tells us much about his refined taste and interpretive abilities.
Excerpt from the forthcoming liner notes by:
David R. Adler
New York, August 2014
Christopher Burnett’s Summary
Business professional with extensive background in music, project management, promotion and arts-based business organizations. Broad technical knowledge of music, music instruction, and systems approach to management. Successful background in arts marketing and promotion. Fluent in web design, social media marketing as well. Diverse range of skills. Team player.
A native of the Kansas City Area, award-winning composer and saxophone artist, Chris Burnett began his prolific professional start and rose to prominence while leading, touring and recording with US military bands from 1974-1996.
During this era, Army band organizations required leaders to direct and manage all operations of a military company – fiscal, finance, administration, training, marketing and publicity. All of these business duties were mastered during the course of a career and performed in addition to and in conjunction with the daily conduct and performance of hundreds of professional musical engagements and concerts each year by the military band companies he was posted with.
Subsequently, Mr. Burnett is the 1995 5-Star Award of Merit Winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs for his original composition and arrangement for big band titled, Daedalus. He has also received numerous awards, letters and decorations for superior military service performance.
As an artist/businessman and modern thinker, Mr. Burnett was an early explorer of the digital music landscape. Through skillful and innovative promotion and marketing tactics, Burnett garnered more than a half million music downloads and sold CDs to fans in 38 countries via the original MP3.com (1999-2003). This was before most musicians had figured out that there were other ways than major record label contracts and brick-and-mortar retail stores to reach listeners with their products.
Burnett founded a retail music store business immediately after his military career and held an adjunct position as director of the jazz band program at Missouri Science & Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla). He currently is Marketing Communications Manager for the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, a professional jazz artist educator and businessman.
Specialties
Professional musician, jazz alto saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader, webmaster, educator and writer. Co-founded Artists Recording Collective – an American label brand that serves as a dynamic and multi-dimensional platform to present the works and services of a select roster of artists. Subsequently, Artists Recording Collective formally launched its first commercial CD recording release in early 2008 to critical acclaim and National Radio success.