I was born and raised in Brooklyn, Baltimore, a little, lower-middle-class community located between the aromatic backwaters of Curtis Bay and Cherry Hill. In Brooklyn, there were always neighbors fighting and kids playing in the street. Because many of the WWII shipbuilding industry workers lived in Brooklyn, lines of brick row homes were built with small front yards.  In the summertime, a donkey cart would sometimes go up and down the alleys separating our backyards while the driver called out, “Cantaloupe! Watermelon! Strawberries!” 

My father was a plumber who worked as a supervisor for the Department of Education and did side jobs, and my mother was an avid reader who gave me my love of science fiction. I’m also the youngest of five siblings, and the only boy. There were always a lot of 45s lying around our house, waiting to be stacked on the stereo’s spindle to drop one after the other. I loved all the music I heard: Dad loved Benny Goodman and Dixieland, and my sisters were always playing pop and folk music. I picked up my first instrument, the clarinet, in fourth grade, and it quickly became apparent that I was a little geeky. I started learning songs from the radio by ear and my mother would hum tunes to me that she wanted me to play. 

One day in high school, a local bass player spotted me and told me that his band needed a sax player, so I began my career as a sixteen-year-old playing in nightclubs and bars. I went from one band to the next, always the youngest member, getting some interesting life experiences along the way. There were some amazing musicians in Baltimore. I got to jam frequently with Dennis Chambers, Gary and Greg Grainger, Drew Gress, and so many others. 

After high school I attended Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins as an Education major and put in a full three years before I realized I needed a change.  I met a girl at Peabody, and together we decided to move to New York where she would get her masters degree at Columbia Teacher’s College and I would go back to school as a performance major and immerse myself in the New York music scene. There was one small problem: I had zero contacts in New York. None. Oh, and no money. Through a friend of a friend I was able to get work as a union carpenter in the city where I installed computer flooring and built concrete forms for high rises.  This kept my rent current, food on the tiny table in the tiny apartment, and enabled me to attend Manhattan School of Music. 

It was lucky that most of my classes were after work, although I did often show up for Jazz History class in dusty clothes and work boots.  It was around this time I put together a jazz quartet playing all original music of mine. We played frequently and made several demo recordings with money I made in construction.  I don’t remember when I slept during this period, but in May of 1989 I graduated with my bachelors degree in Jazz and Commercial Music.

The more I played, the more musicians I met. In my now over thirty-year musical career, I have been blessed to play with so many wonderful people – Paul Simon, Martha Reeves, Gladys Knight, Ron Carter, Keith Urban, Joseph Arthur, David Johansen, John Hammond, Hubert Sumlin, Stuff Two, Rene Lopez, Julia Darling, Jason Robert Brown, Teddy Thompson, and so many more.

As time went on, recording sessions became more frequent and my network got more expansive. I auditioned and got the sax chair in the Broadway hit Smokey Joe’s Café. My friend Dave Keyes and some of the core band from Smokey Joe’s got hired as the house band for the Ainsley Harriott Show, a daytime cooking and interview show that aired for one season but was great fun. Ainsley was a total blast. I began to put my studio together, still writing all the time. I played in Movin’ Out, the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical, and I played Riverdance on Broadway, all on-stage performances. Around this time my studio started to get busier with TV and remote session work.  Presently I have three solo recordings: two singer/songwriter albums and a brand new instrumental album. This latest project is a genre-bending, sax-driven collection with some amazing musicians. Please check it out!

To hire Chris for performance, producing, and more, please get in touch: