Saxophonist and South Hills native Chelsea Baratz, is coming home for the Jazz Fest - playing with her quartet and a “surprise special guest” Sunday, September 17th at 1pm at the Highmark Stadium, in Station Square for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival.

Chelsea Baratz shares stories about growing up in Pittsburgh’s South Hills, her first jam session with Roger Humphries as a teenager; how living in New York during Covid led her to a new vocal project; and what’s in the works with her newest recording.

September 4, 2023

Scott Hanley, WZUM
We welcome to the radio and welcome back home to her Pittsburgh roots. Chelsea Baratz. Chelsea, great to have you coming back.

Chelsea Baratz
Thank you so much. It's great to be back.

WZUM

You went to the same high school as Benny Benack III (Upper St Clair).

Chelsea Baratz
Yeah, that's right. And actually, Benny's mom and my mom went to the same high school together and were best friends growing up. So, my connection with Ben and the Benack family goes way back.

Chelsea Baratz - tenor sax; Orrin Evans; Maurice Brown - trumpet; Luques Curtis - bass; John Davis - drums

I originally stumbled into the scene, my high school band director, Frank Eisenriech, he told me about Roger Humphries’ jam session that was happening back when it was still at the Crawford Grill. And the night that got me to go out was the night Sean Jones was doing a performance in like a tent next to the Crawford Grill with his band. This was before he had moved to Pittsburgh and started teaching at Duquesne. So, I had a little gig, like a little country club gig with this jazz trio of high school students that I was going to high school with. And we were determined to go from the gig to the Crawford Grill to both see Sean play his set and then play at our first jam session, Crawford Grill. So that's really how I got, like directly injected into the scene of Pittsburgh. And from then that's when I started going to Roger's jam session on a weekly basis. And it was pretty quickly after that time that it moved over to James Street.

WZUM
And it continues on in a couple of different formations right now. There's a Monday night jam session at Con Alma downtown with Tony Campbell, and then Roger's busy all over town on an ongoing basis. In fact, just played at the Monroeville Jazz Festival, along with Kenny Blake, bringing back names of musicians still on the scene. So, who are you going to be bringing to Pittsburgh with you for your band?

Chelsea Baratz
I'm really excited. I have a Ben Williams playing bass with me. I have this amazing young drummer who graduated from Berkeley recently. His name is Brian Richburg, Jr., and I have my longtime keyboard player, Takahiro Izumikawa. And I also have a surprise special guest coming in.

WZUM
Well, we hope you're able to also hang out a little bit with the scene and later at night, because there's some jam sessions going on. A lot of great musical collaboration, but especially glad to have you back in town.

Chelsea Baratz
Thank you so much. And I'm really excited for that. Hang Actually, I'm into the programming on the festival - that Sunday night is just amazing, so we're really looking forward to hanging out with everybody.

WZUM
You had a single that came out a couple of years ago. Do you have a new recording project coming out as well?

Chelsea Baratz
Yeah, I'm working on a new album. I have some vocal singles that I'm working on that's been a big project that I poured a lot of energy into during the pandemic because it was kind of hard to practice saxophone while everybody was home sheltering in place. So yeah, I'm working on new music on a pretty consistent basis over Maurice Brown’s Studio, MoSounds, so we're really excited to have a welcome space to cultivate the music on an ongoing basis over there.

Chelsea Baratz plays with her quartet - Chelsea Baratz - tenor sax; Ben Williams - bass; Brian Richburg, Jr. - drums, Takahiro Izumikawa - keys; plus a “Surprise Special Guest” at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Sunday September 1pm at Highmark Stadium, Station Square.