Ian Carey

Ian Carey

Born on July 24, 1974 in Binghamton, New York, Ian Carey comes from a musical family – his father Philip was a choral vocalist who recorded works by Ives and Stravinsky, and his whole family sang in the church choir. Early on, Carey was exposed to music like Bach’s liturgical pieces and visiting brass quintets—which sparked his interest in the trumpet. At age 13, his family moved across the country to Folsom, California. It was an eye-opening experience, at a time when Sacramento had a vibrant and busy jazz community, and Folsom High School was initiating what would become a highly successful jazz program.

Deciding to build a career in music, Carey studied trumpet at the University of Nevada, Reno, before transferring to the New School in New York, where he studied with Billy Harper, Reggie Workman, and Loren Schoenberg. He also studied composition with Bill Kirchner and Maria Schneider, and was exposed to the dense work of composers like Gil Evans, John Carisi, and Jimmy Giuffre. After seven years in New York, Carey took a summer sublet in San Francisco, and never looked back. He quickly met the musicians with whom he still works with, while hustling creative work as a designer and illustrator (he tapped on this expertise to create the vibrant comic-art–inspired cover for Fire in My Head, which features visual portrayals of the piece’s five movements as regions of his own flame-engulfed brain.)

A regular bar gig was the genesis of Carey’s quintet – still his core ensemble to this day. Beginning as a standards band in 2004, Carey began introducing his originals, and in 2006, his quintet recorded its debut, Sink/Swim, followed by 2010’s Contextualizin’, after which Carey augmented his quintet with alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen. After the new Ian Carey Quintet+1 recorded 2013’s Roads & Codes, founding member and saxophonist/flutist Evan Francis left for New York, to be succeeded by bass clarinetist Sheldon Brown for 2016’s Interview Music. Carey also leads two other Bay Area bands: the seven-piece chamber/jazz hybrid ensemble Wood/Metal/Plastic, which will release its debut recording in late 2020, and an organ quartet that performs what Carey calls “pared-down, street-food–style versions of my tunes.”