George Kaye; bass

George Kaye, Bassist, Composer, Arranger, Educator

Starting as a self-taught musician, George learned from jazz recordings of Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Blue Mitchell, Bill Evans, Ornette Coleman, and Dave Brubeck. In the mid 1970’s George started performing with Nick Brignola and the local musicians of the Albany, New York area. In 1981 he moved to New York as a freelance jazz bassist. He attended Manhattan School of Music (MSM) earning a Bachelors of Music degree in 1997. While at MSM he became the bassist for the Houston Person/ Etta Jones group with whom he played until 2001. George has performed with many other jazz notables including Randy Brecker, Slide Hampton, Ted Curson, Doc Cheatham, James Spaulding, Dakota Staton, Mose Allison, Nicholas Peyton, Al Gray, and Norman Simmons.

George has appeared at many major jazz venues including the Village Vanguard, NYC; Jazz Showcase, Chicago; Blue Note, NYC; Sweet Basil’s, NYC; Jazz Bakery, LA; Blue Note, Tokyo. In addition, he has performed on Annual Floating Jazz Festivals, toured Norway, France, Spain and Japan.

In 2015 George earned a Masters of Music in Jazz Composition and Arranging at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is a faculty member at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, and the bassist in the Green Street Trio since 2010, which hosts the Northampton Jazz Workshop every Tuesday night at Sparetime Northampton.