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The Chris Mondak Band live at the Rose Bowl TavernTuesday, October 8th, 6-8pm
No cover! Tips for the band much appreciated.
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The Chris Mondak Band
Award-winning jazz bassist and composer Chris Mondak returns to Urbana-Champaign on Tuesday October 8. A 2016 graduate of Champaign Central High School, Chris has been a
mainstay of the burgeoning Nashville jazz scene since he moved to Nashville in 2020. He and his band return home for Chris’s first-ever show at Rose Bowl Tavern.
In his high school days, Chris was highly active in Central’s renowned music program, where he was a three-time all-state musician, a YoungArts winner, and a Brubeck fellow. A long-time
student of the U of I’s Larry Gray, Chris played over 100 local shows with his jazz combo West of Staley, and he also performed with the In Your Ear big band, Parkland’s jazz band and
orchestra, and U of I combos. After graduating from Central, Chris attended the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied with jazz legends Cecil McBee and Dave Holland.
While in college, Chris amassed a great deal of time on the road, including two multi-week tours in China, and week-long runs in Mexico and Panama. Chris received his B.M. in 2020.
Chris also is a prolific composer. Upon release of his 2019 CD Eternal Youth, Blurt Magazine commented “with Chris Mondak, the future of jazz is bright indeed.” Chris followed in 2022
with Glass Spheres (Summit Records), which reached #17 on the national NACC jazz chart, and that led All About Jazz to label Chris as “one of the talented young lions of the jazz world today.”
Chris’s newest CD, Blank with Colour (Summit Records) was released in October 2023. Blank with Colour has amassed extensive radio play, spending nine weeks in the top 100 of the national Jazz Week chart. Chris has received two international jazz composition awards—one in Italy in 2023 for “Begetting,” a tune on Blank with Colour, and one in China in 2019 for “Always
Smiling,” which Chris recorded and performed during his stint with the Nextgen Jazz Quartet.
The Chris Mondak Band includes Nashville’s top young jazz musicians. Their live shows combine sophisticated musicianship with electrifying, high-energy performances.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Rose Bowl Tavern, 106 N. Race St.,Urbana, Illinois, United States
