Chris Lee’s Standard Deviations reimagines the Great American Songbook through the lens of modern harmonies and rhythms. Exploring new ways of hearing songs that have permeated our collective musical consciousness and emerging with a fresh perspective.
The trio features Mike Murray - guitar, Shawn Wang -acoustic bass and Chris Lee - drums
In addition to recording and leading his own groups as a drummer, Chris has worked with diverse artists such as Joe Henderson, Lew Tabackin, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Ron Miles, Sheila Jordan, Mose Allison, John Handy, David "Fathead" Newman, George Cables, Nguyen Le, Sonny Simmons and others.
As a vibist he has led the chamber jazz trio Primal Mates and the Poetry Music Project with vocalist/cellist Colleen O’Brien.
His compositions have been performed and/or recorded by Sheila Jordan, Steve Kuhn, Kenny Wheeler, Art Lande and Paul McCandlessHe has two recent recordings on the PJCE label “Green in Grey” and “Quintet Music” and was featured artist at the 2024 Montavilla Jazz Festival.
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Elements of jazz, rock, noise, microtonal and world traditions have all made their way into the music of Mike Murray. Whether involved in original composition, free improvisation, the great American songbook or somewhere in between the guitarist is always pushing to explore new territory.
Mike is a Berklee grad who has also received a masters degree in jazz composition from the New England Conservatory having studied with Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell and Mick Goodrick. He has performed and/or recorded with Paul Flaherty, Randall Colbourne, the late Thomas Chapin, Royal Hartigan, Scott Thornton, Matt Moran, Rich McGhee, Steve Marien and many others in and around the New England area. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest.
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Shawn Wang is a bassist from Reno, Nevada. While initially growing up as a classical pianist, he encountered the world of jazz and improvisational music in middle school and never looked back since. He attended the University of Nevada, Reno, where he switched to the bass, while studying with excellent faculty like Hans Halt, Adam Benjamin, and Andy Heglund. He then spent two years in the Twin Cities of Minnesota where he truly honed his musicianship playing with many mainstays of the Twin Cities jazz scene like Jay Epstein, Kavyesh Kaviraj, and Kevin Washington. Recently he has moved to the Portland, Oregon area where he continues to try and make meaningful music with great people.