Tim Armacost
After a life of travel and discovery on three continents, Grammy winning saxophonist, composer and author Tim Armacost has established himself as one of the most important improvisers on the New York scene today. Armacost was born in Los Angeles, but came of age as a musician in Tokyo, New Delhi and Amsterdam, emerging with a big tenor sound and an impeccable rhythmic sense.
Since he moved to New York in 1993, Armacost has recorded 17 critically acclaimed records as a leader, performed on more than 60 as a sideman, and has composed and arranged for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In addition to his own groups, Armacost co-leads the New York Standards Quartet and the Brooklyn Big Band, for which he composes and arranges. Touring regularly around the world both as a sideman and a leader, Armacost has worked with a phenomenal number of jazz greats, including Al Foster, Jimmy Cobb, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Victor Lewis, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Peter Erskine, Ray Drummond, Roy Hargrove, Don Friedman and Randy Brecker.
Armacost authored The Jazz Saxophone Book for Sher Music, and is a widely respected educator, teaching at the Jamey Aebersold and Stanford Summer Jazz Workshops, at Queens College in New York City and as a clinician at Universities throughout the U.S., Japan and Europe. He is a member of Emilio Solla’s Grammy nominated group Inestabile de Brooklyn and won a Grammy with Solla’s Tango Jazz Orchestra in 2020.