Christopher Lowell Clarke Quintet at TAC Jazz Fest at Temescal Art Center

Christopher Lowell Clarke began playing trumpet in the fourth grade. While attending School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio, he participated in the Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Band and Jazz Band. Before graduating from high school in 1989, Chris had an impressive list of performance credits with hit musicals such as The Music Man, Peter Pan, Ain't Misbehavin, Sophisticated Ladies, and The Wiz. He also had opportunities to perform with guest artists Bobby Shew and Joe Lovano. After high school, Chris attended the College Conservatory of Music, at University of Cincinnati, majoring in Jazz Studies and Studio Music Performance. There, he performed with many jazz greats including Joe Henderson, Slide Hampton, Byron Stripling, John Fedchock and Gordon Brisker. In 1992, Chris received the Fish Middleton Young Emerging Jazz Artist Scholarship and performed at the East Coast Jazz Festival in Rockridge, MD....

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Christopher Lowell Clarke began playing trumpet in the fourth grade. While attending School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio, he participated in the Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Band and Jazz Band. Before graduating from high school in 1989, Chris had an impressive list of performance credits with hit musicals such as The Music Man, Peter Pan, Ain't Misbehavin, Sophisticated Ladies, and The Wiz. He also had opportunities to perform with guest artists Bobby Shew and Joe Lovano. After high school, Chris attended the College Conservatory of Music, at University of Cincinnati, majoring in Jazz Studies and Studio Music Performance. There, he performed with many jazz greats including Joe Henderson, Slide Hampton, Byron Stripling, John Fedchock and Gordon Brisker. In 1992, Chris received the Fish Middleton Young Emerging Jazz Artist Scholarship and performed at the East Coast Jazz Festival in Rockridge, MD.

Anxious to sow his professional oats, Chris left school in 1993 and worked as a musician with Carnival Cruise Lines off and on for the next four years, living in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico. Chris moved to San Francisco in 1995 and immediately impacted the jazz scene, performing regularly with heavy weights like Bishop Norman Williams, Herbie Lewis and Eddie Marshall, just to name a few. In 1997 he traveled abroad with the Johnny Nocturne Band to perform at the Umbria Jazz Festival and in 1998 performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Monterey Jazz Festival and led his own quintet at the Fillmore Jazz Festival. In recent years, Chris and bassist DeWayne Oakley have received rave reviews for their outstanding duo performances. Now, one of the most sought after trumpet players in the Bay Area, Christopher continues to develop his professional career and showcase his compositional skills with his debut CD, "The Swooper".

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