Jason Sharp

Based in Montreal, baritone and bass saxophonist Jason Sharp entered the local experimental music community as both performer and composer. He first took up the saxophone at age twelve, then encountered jazz during high school. At university he started composing original works and later pursued formal studies in composition, completing a master’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Residence in the Dutch capital drew him into its classical and electronic circles, whose currents began to shape his own approach. Through saxophone performance he started examining connections between breath patterns and heart rate. Upon returning to Montreal he initiated projects with several prominent musicians, appearing on recordings by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, performing in Sam Shalabi’s Land of Kush orchestra, and contributing to Matana Roberts’ Coin Coin Chapter One. In 2016 he issued his debut full-length studio album, A Boat Upon Its Blood. The title derives from Robert Creeley’s poem The Heart, and the project employed custom-built devices that converted breath and heart-rate signals into sound alongside conventional instruments, yielding a genre-defying statement. Violinist Josh Zubot and pedal-steel guitarist Joe Grass appeared on the record, which Constellation, the Montreal-based label, released in September 2016.