Like most musicians, three New York City jazz flutists’ lives changed suddenly in mid-March 2020 when the Covid-19 “lockdown” was put in place. Amid tours and NYC engagements, they saw both their performance lives and income come to a complete stand-still, with all future gigs falling like dominoes! However, like most musicians, they were resourceful, creative and determined to be productive and did what jazz musicians do…improvise…not only musically, but in determining their path forward.

Flutists have always gravitated towards the joyful and social activity of playing with other flutist whether in duets or larger ensembles…just go to a flute convention and you’ll hear every size and combination! While the classical flute quartet is a known quantity, it seemed fitting that the time was right to do a jazz version, “virtually” that is, since performing together in person was out of the question due to social distancing, mask mandates and NYC finding itself as the “epicenter” of this new corona virus!

Their initial vision was to record and video each flute part individually and edit them together with the idea of offering the final versions on-line. There would be corresponding charts, virtual performances, and eventual recorded “play-along” options for flutist, all available on their website.

While musing collectively who would fit as their fourth member, this collective trio realized that since they weren’t going to be doing live performances any time soon, the fourth participant could live anywhere…thus the birth of the “guest artist”. This concept offered the exciting opportunity to connect, collaborate and showcase top flutists across the globe. Guests flutists could participate by offering a chart and performing on that chart (“virtually”) with the idea to eventually perform either in NYC or in the location fo the artist.

With mutual respect and admiration and the desire to be inspired, productive and motivated by each other, renown flutists Jamie Baum, Bart Platteau and Anders Bostrom (who have all toured the globe and recorded extensively) took advantage of at this precarious, unprecedented time. They followed an idea that had been long dormant, awaiting this perfect opportunity! Though in the works since April of 2020, the New York Jazz Flutes is finally emerging…stay tuned as they begin to populate their new site with videos, recordings, charts and information.