Tim Hagans

Tim Hagans (born August 19, 1954) is a jazz trumpeter, arranger, and composer. He has been nominated for three Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Composition for "Box of Cannoli" on The Avatar Sessions (Fuzzy Music, 2010); Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Animation*Imagination (Blue Note, 1999); and Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Re-Animation (Blue Note, 2000).

Hagans grew up in Dayton, Ohio. His early inspirations included Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and Thad Jones, to whom he dedicated For the Music Suite, a 40-minute piece for jazz orchestra composed on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1974, Hagans joined the Stan Kenton band, with whom he played until 1977, when he toured with Woody Herman. He then left for Europe, where he lived in Malmö, Sweden, a hotbed of the European jazz scene. While in Europe, he toured extensively and played with Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Horace Parlan, and Thad Jones. His first recorded composition, "I Hope This Time Isn't the Last," appears on the album Thad Jones Live at Slukefter (Metronome, 1980).

In 1987, he moved to New York City. He has performed with Maria Schneider, Yellowjackets, Steps Ahead, Secret Society, and Gary Peacock. Hagans has worked extensively with producer and saxophonist Bob Belden on a variety of recordings and live performances, including their ongoing Animation/Imagination project. Festivals at which he has performed include the Mount Fuji Festival in Japan, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Berlin Jazz Tage, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

Hagans has taught master classes at universities throughout the world.

He taught at the University of Cincinnati from 1982 to 1984 and at Berklee College of Music from 1984 to 1987. From 1996 to 2010, he was Artistic Director and Composer-in-Residence for the Norrbotten Big Band located in Luleå, Sweden. The Norrbotten is a 17-piece jazz orchestra for whom Hagans wrote and arranged original compositions with guest artists including Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, and Rufus Reid, an enterprise culminating in the Grammy nominated album, The Avatar Sessions: The Music of Tim Hagans, for which the Norbotten Big Band traveled to New York. His compositions are featured on numerous recordings with the Norrbotten Big Band, including Future North (Double-Time, 1998), Future Miles (ACT, 2002), and Worth the Wait (Fuzzy Music, 2007).

Hagans has been commissioned by several other European jazz orchestras, including the NDR Big Band in Hamburg, UMO in Helsinki, and he was Composer-in-Residence at the Jazz Baltica Festival in 2000. In 2008, he was awarded the ASCAP/IAJE Established Composer Award, and in 2009 he was commissioned by the Barents Composers Orchestra to write a piece for strings, woodwinds, and percussion: Daytonality, a piece based on improvisational melodic language.

Hagans is the subject of the feature documentary Boogaloo Road, directed by Runar Enberg and Marianne Soderberg. He is a featured soloist on Howard Shore's soundtrack for the feature film The Score starring Marlon Brando, Edward Norton, and Robert De Niro.

Following his interest in exploring theatrical venues for innovative jazz, he is Composer-in-Residence with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble, a dance company located in Houston, Texas, and in New York City. In January 2012, his composition Outside My Window was performed with the MBDE at Dance Theatre of Harlem. He also performs with author-actor Peter Josyph in duets consisting of haiku texts and freely improvised trumpet, including Josyph's the way of the trumpet, a haiku novel written for and dedicated to Hagans.

In June 2012, Hagans was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

As leader

• From the Neck Down (MoPro, 1983)
• No Words (Blue Note, 1993)
• Audible Architecture (1994)
• Hub Songs, the Music of Freddie Hubbard (1997)
• Animation – Imagination (1999)
• Re-Animation: Live in Montreal (1999)
• Between the Lines (SteepleChase, 2000) with Marc Copland
• Future Miles (ACT, 2002)
• Beautiful Lily (Pirouet, 2006)
• Alone Together (Pirouet, 2008)
• The Avatar Sessions (2010)
• The Moon is Waiting (Palmetto, 2011)

As sideman

With Stan Kenton

• 1974 Fire Fury & Fun
• 1976 Journey Into Capricorn
• 1976 Kenton '76
• 1977 Kenton Live in Europe
• 1992 Street of Dreams

With Ernie Wilkins

• 1980 Ernie Wilkins & the Almost Big Band
• 1981 Almost Big Band Live
• 1981 Live! At the Slukefter Jazz Club

With Joe Lovano

• Worlds (Label Bleu, 1989)
• Universal Language (Blue Note, 1992)
• 52nd Street Themes (Blue Note, 2000)
• Streams of Expression (2006)

With Bob Belden

• 1990 Treasure Island
• 1991 Straight to My Heart: The Music of Sting
• 1994 When the Doves Cry: The Music of Prince
• 1996 Bob Beldon Presents Strawberry Fields
• 1996 Shades of Blue
• 1997 Tapestry
• 2001 Black Dahlia

With Bob Mintzer

• 1991 Departure
• 1993 Only in New York
• 1995 The First Decade

With Blue Wisp Big Band

• 1982 Butterfly/The Smooth One
• 1996 Rollin' with Von Ohlen/Live at Carmelo's

With Bert Seager

• 1986 Time to Burn
• 1987 Because They Can

With Maria Schneider

• 1992 Evanescence
• 1995 Coming About

With Steve Slagle

• 1993 The Steve Slagle Quartet
• 1995 Spread the Word

With Vic Juris

• 1992 For the Music
• 1996 Music of Alec Wilder

With Mark Masters

• 2003 The Clifford Brown Project
• 2005 Porgy and Bess: Redefined
• 2006 Wish Me Well
• 2008 Farewell Walter Dewey Redman

With Marc Copland

• 1997 Softly
• 2001 Between the Lines

With Andy LaVerne

• 1990 Severe Clear (SteepleChase)
• 1994 Serenade to Silver

With Ron McClure

• 1994 Sunburst
• 1996 Concrete Canyon
• 1999 Double Triangle

With Jon Gordon

• 1994 Ask Me Now
• 1996 Witness

With John Fedchock

• 1992 New York Big Band
• 1998 On the Edge

With others

• 1980 Eclipse, Thad Jones
• 1986 Music for Jazz Orchestra, Orange Then Blue
• 1991 Dancing Voices, Judi Silvano
• 1992 Beyond Another Wall: Live in China, George Gruntz
• 1992 Like a River, Yellowjackets
• 1994 Gu-Ru, Kenny Werner
• 1994 Until Further Notice..., Steve Rochinski
• 1994 Vibe, Steps Ahead
• 1995 Passion Dance, Roseanna Vitro
• 1995 Primal Blue, Kenny Burrell
• 1995 Regarding the Soul, Dee Carstensen
• 1995 Right as the Rain, Helen Schneider
• 1995 Secrets, Joey Calderazzo
• 1996 The Open Road, Don Braden
• 1996 True Image, Jarmo Savolainen
• 1997 Four Track Mind, Seamus Blake
• 1997 Further Ado, Greg Osby
• 1997 San Juan, Jim Snidero
• 1997 The Gift, Gordon Brisker
• 1998 Currents, Charles Pillow
• 1999 Joyful Noise: A Tribute to Duke Ellington, Don Sebesky
• 1999 Let's Call This That, Hal Galper
• 1999 Syzygy, Jim Nolet
• 1999 The Undiscovered Few, Rodney Jones
• 2001 17 (Seventeen), Mark Soskin
• 2003 5000 Miles, Nils Landgren
• 2003 It's About Time, Charles Blenzig
• 2003 Land of Shadow, Conrad Herwig
• 2004 Exploration, Grachan Moncur III
• 2006 Kinesthetics, Scott Kinsey
• 2007 Worth the Wait, Peter Erskine
• 2009 Coming Through Slaughter: The Bolden Legend, Dave Lisik Orchestra
• 2010 México Azul, Magos Herrera
• 2011 Agemo, Animation
• 2011 Asiento, Animation