Ethan Helm
plays the saxophone,
writes music,
leads Cowboys & Frenchmen,
drinks a responsible amount of coffee,
works with dancers,
wakes up early,
releases albums,
improvises,
wanders through old neighborhoods,
collaborates,
plays the flute,
listens,
writes books,
teaches at NYU,
holds a PhD,
came from Southern California,
attended Eastman School of Music,
lives in New York City,
and daydreams often.
New York-based saxophonist and composer Ethan Helm works in contemporary jazz, classical, and other genres. The diverse musical influences in his work shine an imaginative light on the jazz tradition, drawing listeners in by combining the familiar and the mysterious. Ethan leads the genre-hopping quintet “Cowboys & Frenchmen,” with whom he has released three albums on the Outside in Music record label, garnering frequent radio play and a four-star review in Downbeat Magazine, as well as two U.S. tours. He has performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and throughout the United States and Canada with Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project and Miho Hazama’s m_unit. His performing often extends past jazz into other improvisatory music, like Balkan wedding music in Seido Salifoski and Brad Shepik’s Balkan Peppers, or Carnatic music in Svara, with Swaminathan Selvaganesh, Sam Minaie, and Dan Weiss.
Ethan composes and arranges for jazz ensembles (Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Shrine Big Band, Air Forces in Europe Band) and orchestras (American Composers Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s), and writes music for dance and film. He was a featured presenter at the 2016 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, performing his piece “Paul Desmond’s Sound” with the Texas Tech University Jazz Ensemble, and is also the author of Patterns for Creative Improvisation, Volumes I and II. (2020, 2023). In 2024 he will present his research in jazz improvisation and pedagogy at the Jazz Educator’s Network Annual Conference and the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference.
Ethan grew up in a musical family in Southern California, holds degrees from Eastman School of Music (BM) and New York University (MM, PhD), where he is an adjunct faculty member.
