Chris Mosley profile picture

Chris Mosley

music...

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.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/10/2005
Band Website: chrismosley.com
Band Members: On 'Seeing Experiential' : Damian Erskine - Bass Drew Shoals - Drums.On all others: Randy Rollofson - Drums, Tim Willcox - Sax, Bill Athens - Bass
Influences: Bill Frisell, Keith Jarrett, John Scofield, Mice Parade, Cuong Vu, Wayne Shorter, Mos Def, Trane, Miles, John Mclaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Prasanna, John Hollenbeck, Chris Speed, Ezra Sims, Kurt Rosenwinkel, the people I play music with.
Sounds Like: PURCHASE 'OUTSIDE VOICES' FROM WWW.DIATICRECORDS.COM"Steeped in standard-jazz tradition and trained at Berklee, Mosley is a far cry from your cookie-cutter, guitar-slinging, jazz-school nerd. As interested in Les Voix Bulgares and Ligeti as he is in the innovations of teachers like Screaming Headless Torso's Dave Fiuczysnki and Dave Tronzo of Spanish Fly. Barely in his 20s, Mosley possesses rapid-fire dexterity and a fluidity that is as jazz as jazz gets. And with his interest in nontempered microtonal systems, he's also daringly experimental. Dig the kaleidoscopic possibilities of his fretless guitar work with trio-mates Damian Erskine and ubiquitous drummer Drew Shoals. It's as bold as it is beautiful." TIM DUROCHE
Record Label: Diatic Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

New CD 'Outside Voices'

I just posted three tunes from my upcoming quartet release, 'Outside Voices'.  Again, all original tunes that I feel like have been very nicely interpreted by some great musicians.  For thi...
Posted by Chris Mosley on Thu, 24 May 2007 10:58:00 PST

Every Wednesday @ Olive or Twist

I've been playing with guitarist Ryan Dolliver at the chic new martini bar, Olive or Twist, and it is now a weekly wednesday thing!  Come here us reinvent the great american songbook from 6-9pm.....
Posted by Chris Mosley on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:21:00 PST

The Miraculous Aspect of Time

We just recorded what is turning into a really great record!  It will be available in about month and features the wonderful playing of Drew Shoals and Damian Erskine.  It has nine original ...
Posted by Chris Mosley on Thu, 23 Mar 2006 08:45:00 PST

things

Good things are happenin'!  Just played a little bit at the Fiction Junkies CD release party at Blue Monk last night.  It's a very cool recording, worth picking up for sure.  We al...
Posted by Chris Mosley on Sun, 22 Jan 2006 04:22:00 PST

'Miraculous Aspect' on iTunes!

'The Miraculous Aspect of Time', the debut record from the Chris Mosley Trio w/ Drew Shoals and Damian Erskine is now available for download @ iTunes. It's also on Rhapsody.com/chrismosley.To get one ...
Posted by Chris Mosley on Mon, 30 Oct 2006 09:53:00 PST

Fiction Junkies Session

I recorded a couple of tunes with the Fiction Junkies(dan duval, matt weiers, drew shoals) on my fretless guitar yesterday.  Interesting position to be in, musically, and my first fretless record...
Posted by Chris Mosley on Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:15:00 PST

First Installment (Hello!)

Welcome to my new Myspace blog!If you are interested in new improvisational music of a high order, I think you will dig some of the tunes I've posted, and hopefully be interested in what's going ...
Posted by Chris Mosley on Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:55:00 PST