Jazz & Contemporary Music: No Boundaries

The No Boundaries Big Band explores the rich American Big Band Jazz tradition, examining the legacy left by the greats as well some of the lesser-known Jazz Composer/ Arrangers.

Alto and baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase (b. 11/28/56, Portsmouth, NH) has been a part of Boston’s jazz scene for more than forty years. After
private studies with Stan Strickland and Roswell Rudd, Kohlhase moved to Boston from his native New Hampshire in 1980. In 1989 he formed the
Charlie Kohlhase Quintet, a band that worked around Boston and toured nationally for a dozen years. Kohlhase has recently been leading two
ensembles: the Explorer’s Club, an octet with two reeds, trumpet, trombone, tuba, guitar, bass and drums and the Saxophone Support Group, a woodwind octet that plays saxophone-oriented compositions by Julius Hemphill, Steve Lacy, John Tchicai and Kohlhase.

Charlie has also been active in jazz radio for many years, most recently hosting “Research & Development” Monday afternoons from 2 to 4 PM on WMBR-FM in Cambridge. He directs the No Boundaries Big Band and the JCM Art Ensemble at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge.