Jim Hobbs

After two decades as an underground legend on the Boston music scene, alto saxophonist and composer Jim Hobbs is beginning to gain wider recognition as one of the most vibrant artists currently active in jazz and contemporary music. He has been described as “one of his generation’s most gifted altoists” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com), and hailed for his “superb writing…his vision that mixes tempos, time signatures, harmonies, and timbre: an exciting voice” (Steve Loewy, Cadence Magazine). The Boston Phoenix’s Jon Garelick writes “there’s no one with a more individual sound and conception than Hobbs: strangled and crying one minute, soft and bluesy the next, or just plain Johnny Hodges purdy.” while Time Out New York’s Steve Dollar advises “he occasionally grows meditative, dropping into a knuckle-dragging register for a burly groan or puffing out little cirrus clouds that float by like melancholic memories. Then the daydream dissolves, and it’s time for rump-rolling…go see ’em with someone you fuck.”Best known for his long-time leadership of the Fully Celebrated Orchestra, Jim Hobbs also leads the Jim Hobbs Quartet, Jim Hobbs & the Hobbettes, and The Brothers of Heliopolis, an eleven-piece big band. He has collaborated with acclaimed figures of the jazz avant-garde and stalwarts of the Boston music scene, including Fred Hopkins, Joe Morris, Matthew Shipp, Fred Ho, the Jazz Composers Alliance, Bill Lowe, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Gerard Faroux, Laurence Cook, Timo Shanko, Allan Chase, Forbes Graham, and Luther Gray. Other credits range from calypso legend Mackie Burnette, to the alternative hip-hop group Jasper and the Prodigal Suns (including a run on Geffen Records in the early ‘90s), to his work with the Death’s Head Quartet, featuring vocalist Seth Putnam from the notorious grind core band Anal Cunt. Recent recordings featuring Hobbs include The Story of Mankind (NotTwo Records) and Lawnmower – West (Clean Feed).Hobbs was born and raised in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where he received many awards and accolades as a young saxophonist including selection to the Indiana All-State Jazz Band and a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee he studied saxophone with Joe Viola and earned a degree in Jazz Composition. In 1987 he founded the Fully Celebrated Orchestra with bassist Timo Shanko and drummer Ray Anthony. They became know for their energetic style, appearing mostly at Boston’s many rock clubs and survived by busking in the Boston Commons and Harvard Square, gaining recognition as “Boston’s best jazz group” from both The Boston Globe and The Boston Phoenix. Along with later members including cornettist Taylor Ho Bynum and drummer Django Carranza, the FCO has released nine critically acclaimed recordings, including 2009’s Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones (Aum Fidelity), described as “full of power and intrigue on every level”