Chris Jennings (musician)

Early Life and career

Growing up in Calgary Alberta Canada, he began studying music early on piano and classical guitar before moving to electric bass and then double bass. He had numerous occasions in Calgary at a very young age to perform with local musicians as well as to accompany artists from abroad such as Sheila Jordan, Edgar Meyer, Hugh Fraser, Jens Lindemann, Dee Daniels as well as attending the Banff Centre for the Arts Jazz Workshop in 1996 under the direction of Kenny Wheeler.

Moving to Toronto Canada in 1996 to complete a bachelors in Music Performance at the University of Toronto, he composed and performed his own music and also worked with local artists such as Mike Murley, Bob Brough, Dave Restivo, Kirk MacDonald, Mark Duggan, Great Bob Scott, David Occhipinti, Michael Occhipinti, Phil Dwyer, Roy Styffe, Brian Dickinson, Mark Duggan, Richard Underhill, Barry Romberg, Nich Fraser, Geoff Young, Adrean Farrugia, Mark Adam, Anthony Michelli, David French etc.

European life and career (since 2002 to date)

Moving to Europe in 2002, he has established himself as an international Canadian double bassist based in Paris, France.

With guitarist Nguyên Lê he is currently in his "Fire & Water Trio" with percussionist Stephan Edouard and Nguyên Lê's "Streams" Quartet ^[1] featuring vibraphonist Illya Amar & New York percussionist John Hadfield. He first appeared in Nguyên Lê's Fragile Beauty Group with Huong Thanh in 2007 and since, and later in a quartet with Rita Marcotulli and Danny Gottlieb as well as in many different formations of Nguyên Lê with Karim Ziad, Jan Bang, Bojan Zulfikarpasic, Rick Margitza, Paul McCandless, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Himiko Paganotti, Cathy Renoir, Alex Tran, and Mark Guiliana, Stéphane Galland, Françsis Lassus and Joel Allouche.

As bassist of the Dhafer Youssef quartet with Tigran Hamasyan and Mark Guiliana, this group toured extensively from 2009 to 2012. Other formations performing with Dhafer Youssef include with pianist Kristjan Randalu and drummers Chander Sarjoe and Ferenc Nemeth, guitarist Eivind Aarset, Turkish clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici and cymbalum player Aytaç Dogan, Danish percussionist Marilyn Mazur and Norweigen trumpetist Nils Petter Molvaer, pianist Marcin Wasilewski and drummer Satoshi Takeishi. In summer 2017 he returned on tour with Dhafer's American quartet with pianist Aaron Parks and drummer Ferenc Nemeth.

In 2015 he began as bassist with pianist Joachim Kühn's "New Trio",^[2][3] with drummer Eric Schaefer. They have two albums on ACTMusic and the trio performed with drummer Gary Husband and trumpetist Enrico Rava. He is also bassist with the Céline Bonacina Quartet with pianist Gwilym Simcock and percussionist Asaf Sirkis, bassist in Titi Robin's "Nargis" Trio ^[4] with percussionist Habib Meftah, as well as the Loïs le Van Quartet with saxophonist Sylvain Rifflet and pianist Bruno Ruder.

In 2017 he became bassist with the Gregory Privat Trio (music mixing jazz and music from La Martinque) ^[5]

Other projects as a side man include numerous projects with Turkish ney player Kudsi Erguner, as well as the El Gusto traditional Chaâbi orchestra, Slovenian pianist Marko Crncec with saxophonist Mark Shim and drummers Ludwig Afonso and Rudy Royston, the Thomas Enhco Trio, the Jacek Kochan/Dave Liebman Quartet in Eastern Europe, the Lee Konitz/Giovanni Ceccerelli Quartet, pianist Kenny Werner and Benjamin Koopel, Triple Horizon Trio with guitarist Florian Zenker and drummer Arie den Boer. He has also worked with Seamus Blake, Yaron Herman, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Omri Mor, Terumasa Hino, Kiyohiko Semba, Andy Milne, and Nelson Veras to name a few. He is in guitarist Nguyên Lê's Fire & Water Trio^[6] with percussionist Stephane Edouard. Audio-Visual projects include composing and performing for works with Canadian visual artist Dan Hudson.^[7]

As leader

Releasing in 2011 of his self-titled Chris Jennings Quartet CD on Promise Land Records^[8] featuring Manu Codjia (el. gtr), Pierre Perchaud (ac. gtr), Patrick Goraguer (drums), he also led the Country Jazz Trio with American drummer Leon Parker for three years. Jennings/Perchaud acoustic duo began 2006, and trio featuring guitarist/percussionist Kevin Seddikiand the young Belgium vocalist revelation Lynn Cassiers since 2011. A co-leader project with trombonist Karin Hammar was created^[9] in 2012 featuring Ingrid Jensen. As well as the Chris Jennings Solo Double Bass project and the Chris Jennings String Quintet, his principal group is his Drum'n Koto Trio featuring Mieko Miyazaki (Japanese koto) and Patrick Goraguer (drums/santour) whose album received disc of the Day^[10] (TSF Jazz Radio France), disc of the week^[11] (FIP Radio France) and disc of the month.^[12]

Studies and teaching

Since 1996, Mr. Jennings completed numerous self-study/project residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts Canada, a Bachelors (B.A.) in Jazz Performance from the University of Toronto, Canada (2000) and a Masters (M.A.) in Music from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, the Netherlands (2004). He has studied extensively with Dale James, Palle Danielsson, John Patitucci, as well as with Ray Brown, Mark Johnson, Thomas Martin, Edgar Meyer, Hein Van de Geijn, Bruno Chevillon, François Rabbath, Cameron Brown, David Takeno, Menahem Pressler, Don Thompson, Dave Young, Jim Vivian, Dale James and John Hyde.

He is on faculty at the Didier Lockwood Music School (Centre Musiques Didier Lockwood - CMDL), since 2005 and having taught at the Conservatory of Chelles France for 7 years. He does masterclasses across Europe for d'Addario Bowed Strings, David Gage pick-ups and teaches privately.

Instruments and endorsements

Jennings uses a custom built Thomas Martin double bass (2004),^[13] a Croatian double bass circa 1880 converted into a neck off for air travel by David Gage, a "Lolita" electric double bass by Hervé Prudent (2011)^[14] as well as a Saz (Nino le Saz) by luthier Hervé Prudent ^[15] and a custom made 6 string electric bass by Tak Hosono (1992)^[16]