About Me
I am Chris Mosley.
I was born and raised in Austin, TX where I began playing music when I was 11 years old. I was very much influenced by and drawn to the playing of the great Austin guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. As I began playing and understanding the style and form of the blues, I began to improvise more and more, in many different ways. By the time I was fourteen, I had recorded a home project of tunes that I wrote, played, and improvised on. This inspired me to search for a deeper understanding of musical form and spontaneous creation which led me quickly to jazz. I began listening to and practicing almost exclusively jazz. I listened extensively to musicians like Keith Jarrett, Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Branford Marsalis, Joe Henderson, Cannonball Adderly, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter.... When I was in high school in Colorado, I was fortunate enough to study with the great Dale Bruning, a wonderful jazz guitarist and long time teacher of a young Bill Frisell. The summer before I left for Boston, I was a part of a group called The New Organ Quartet which recorded and released a full CD of original jazz music. I am still intimately connected with the many great young musicians that make up the vibrant creative music scene in the Denver/Boulder area. Few things inspire me more than being surrounded by these wonderful people.
At seventeen, I recieved a scholarship to, and began attending Berklee College of Music where I was a performance major. Despite the surroundings of an over-hyped, over-attended, and inevitably elitist atmosphere, my two years at Berklee turned out to be extremely positive for me musically. I was able to study with Mick Goodrick, Joe Lovono, Jon Damian, Dave Fiuczysnki, Dave Tronzo, Garrison Fewell, and Dave Santoro, among many others. I was also surrounded by some truly fantastic fellow students, whose careers I'm sure I will be following for quite some time. As I grew as a musician, I also grew as a listener and began persuing many different kinds of music. I was very much drawn to bands like the Notwist, and Mice Parade as well as more 'worldly' musics like classical Indian, bulgarian choir, Bartok, and Ligeti. When I started studying fretless guitar with Dave Fiucsynski, I became a devoted student of microtonal music and tuning sytems alternative to our 12 tone equal tempered system. This has led me deep into the world of harmonic structure which is expressed most accurately in the Pythagorean ratio system and, hand in hand with Phi (the Golden Ratio, 1.618....) is the foundation of Nature's many creations.
I recieved the Louie Bellson award my fourth semester at Berklee, but was somewhat chagrined to find that they weren't willing to send me on my way with a tuition check...oh well.
In the fall of 2005, I moved to Portland, OR. I am currently leading Mosley's ExStatic Band and the Chris Mosley Quartet, and I play in many other projects including the Drew Shoals Collective, Commotion, Echo Helstrom, the Sam Howard Band, and the John Nastos Quartet along with many freelance jazz and latin gigs. I am currently teaching private lessons and group seminars at Cadenza Academy in SE.
