ABOUT

Guitarist and composer Tim Stine has been an active member of Chicago’s dynamic jazz and improvised music communities since 2008. A native of North Dakota, Stine studied music at Minnesota State University Moorhead and CCM in Cincinnatti before moving to Chicago where his highly original compositional style and unique instrumental voice soon became integral features of the city’s renowed progressive music scene. As a bandleader, Stine has focused his energies on two projects in which he plays acoustic guitar: a trio with bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly; and a quartet with alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bassist Matt Ulery, and drummer Quin Kirchner. These ensembles specialize in performing and recording Stine’s original material and have released albums on the record labels Astral Spirits (Tim Stine Trio, Trim Stine Trio, 2016) and Clean Feed (Knots, Tim Stine Quartet, 2019). As a sideman, Stine primarily plays electric guitar and has contributed to numerous Chicago-based bands, most notably the Nick Mazzarella Quintet and the Jarod Bufe Quartet. Apart from these working groups, Stine frequently collaborates with some of Chicago’s most celebrated improvisers including drummer Mike Reed, bassists Jason Roebke and Matt Lux, and cornetist Josh Berman.

In addition to performing, Stine has worked since 2015 as a co-curator of the Ratchet Series, a monthly concert series currently in residence at Café Mustache in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

“Devising an angular and melodic guitar style, Stine is an exciting new voice on the scene.” — Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective

“Tim Stine plays acoustic guitar and writes knotty, seesawing lines that arrive in sudden rushes of activity—he often follows tangles of tightly clustered notes with measures of silence, sounding like Derek Bailey if he'd decided he wanted to swing again.” — Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader