Fagan, Chris
Fagan, Chris
Fagan, Chris, jazz alto saxophonist; b. Seattle, Wash., July 11, 1962. After a number of moves throughout the U.S. and Europe, Pagan’s family settled in Bloomington, Ind., where he grew up and began the saxophone. He attended Pomona Coll. in Claremont, Calif., in the early 1980s, and while there studied with John Carter, and came under the wings of Bobby Bradford and Charlie Shoemaker. Fagan made his professional debut with Dick Berk at The Becket Jazz Festival in 1984. In 1986, he traveled to N.Y. on an N.E.A. grant to study with David Murray. He pursued jazz in N.Y. until 1991, working with small groups as well as big bands at Visiones and Zanzibar with Jack McDuff, Dave Douglas, and Bill Warfield. He also made regular appearances at Greenwich Village’s Blue Willow club with his own quartet. In 1991, he moved to Amsterdam to become guest saxophone instructor at the Sweelinck Cons. He returned to N.Y. in 1992, then to Seattle in 1995.
Discography
Lost Bohemia (1992); Signs of Life (1997).
—Lewis Porter