Saxophonist Chase Baird has finally lifted the veil on his sophomore bandleader LP, A Life Between, with its first single “Ripcord”.
Baird’s new single is a fascinating combination of smooth jazz and lo-fi grunge textures. Opening the album on a lofty, genre-bending note, “Ripcord” demonstrates Baird’s attempts to “to cultivate a romanticism inside [himself], even when the circumstances weren’t romantic,” as he explained in a press release.
A Life Between arrives nine years after Crosscurrent, Baird’s debut album as a bandleader. Since then, the composer has worked on five other LPs as co-leader or sideman.
For this new album, Baird recruited Grammy-nominated pianist Brad Mehldau, Grammy-winning drummer Antonio Sanchez, guitarist Nir Felder and bassist Dan Chmielinski. The quintet crafted A Life Between around Baird’s innovative implementation of the saxophone, culminating in an album that deftly blends jazz’s storied history with the sounds of the modern era.
That’s not to say that Baird takes it all too seriously: The saxophonist joked in a press release that he “really want[s] to be in Radiohead, but how can I be a saxophonist and do that?”
Baird’s new album A Life Between will be released August 9 via Soundsabound Records. Listen to “Ripcord” now.