Annie Booth is a versatile and award-winning composer and jazz pianist based in Denver, CO. She has established herself as an active force on the local and national scene as a composer and leader-performer of her many projects (the Annie Booth Trio, Sextet, and Big Band) and as a busy side-musician. Booth holds a Bachelors of Music Performance (Summa Cum Laude, 2011) and a Masters of Music in Jazz Performance and Pedagogy (Summa Cum Laude, 2020) from the Thompson Jazz Studies Program at the University of Colorado.
As a composer, Annie has received national recognition with awards from ASCAP (Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers’ Award, Phoebe Jacobs Prize), Downbeat Magazine (2020 Outstanding Graduate Performance), and the Jazz Education Network (2020 Young Composers Showcase), among others. In her hometown of Denver, CO, she was named “Best in Denver” in the jazz genre by Westword Magazine in 2015, 2016, and 2017 and was featured as part of Jazz 89.3 KUVO’s 30-under-30 spotlight in 2015.
Booth has released four albums as a leader. 2014 brought forth her debut album Wanderlust, a slate of original works for trio and quartet (featuring saxophonist Joshua Quinlan) and released on Dazzle Recordings. Abundance: Live at Mighty Fine by the Annie Booth Sextet - another display of Booth’s compositional prowess - was recorded in front of a live studio audience in late 2015 and released in early 2017. The Annie Booth Trio’s joyous holiday album, Festive!, was released in 2016 and her most recent release is 2018’s The Annie Booth Trio with Max Wellman - a collaboration between her trio and the midwest-based crooner Max Wellman. The Annie Booth Trio features the immense musicianship and camaraderie between Booth and long-time friends and collaborators, Patrick McDevitt (bass) and Alejandro Castaño (drums).
Annie Booth’s most recent compositional endeavors include Flowers of Evil and the Annie Booth Big Band. Flowers of Evil is an evenings-length song cycle for chamber-jazz dectet based on the poetry of 19th cent. French poet Charles Baudelaire in the poetry collection of the same name. Composed in 2017 during Booth’s time as Musician-In-Residence at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada, Flowers of Evil premiered at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO in March 2018. The piece, which features soprano Kathryn Radakovich, is slated for a 2021 studio release thanks to support from the Boulder County Arts Alliance and the Pathways to Jazz grant program. Established in 2019, the Annie Booth Big Band is an 18-piece jazz orchestra that performs Booth’s original compositions and arrangements. The ensemble features a diverse cast of the best and brightest jazz musicians in Colorado including household names such as Greg Gisbert (Maria Schneider Orchestra), Paul McKee (Woody Herman Orchestra) and the newest generations of jazz gems including guitarist Tim Wendel, alto saxophonist Anisha Rush, and vocalist Jenna McLean, among many others. The group is in a monthly residency at the Mercury Cafe in Denver, CO.
When Annie is not performing, traveling or composing, she adores working with the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts (CCJA), an organization of which she is an alumna and current faculty member. In 2017, in conjunction with CCJA, she created Colorado’s first ever jazz camp exclusively for young womxn, the SheBop Young Womxn in Jazz Workshop. She is fiercely passionate about empowering the next generation of young women to express themselves thorough the jazz art form and the workshop is the subject of her 2020 Masters Thesis. Booth maintains an active schedule as a guest clinician, artist, and adjudicator at jazz festivals and high school and university programs across the U.S. and Canada. She is currently on adjunct faculty at the University of Northern Colorado, teaching jazz piano and jazz arranging.
PRESS
"An abundant talent." - Jazz History Online
"Booth's compositional gifts bloom ecstatically." - Dave Kirby, Boulder Weekly
"There is a story hidden in the wordless tones of Booth's compositions, with moments of triumph, loss, and sweet repose. Her choices are bold and innovative." - Tim Breckon, The Examiner
"Talented to the max..." - Candace LeGault, Jazz 89.3 KUVO