Hunter Diamond
Chicago, IL
Music
Hunter Diamond is a creative woodwind and sound artist living and performing in Chicago. A mixture of conceptual, composed, and improvised performances keep him fully embedded in the Chicago creative arts community. In 2021 Hunter founded Curio Records which serves as the primary outlet for his recorded projects. For more information, visit curiorecordings.com.
Diamond is currently in post-production on a new double-album from his project Black Diamond (co-led since 2011 with saxophonist Artie Black) to be released by the Helsinki label We Jazz, and an album of new collaborative work with artist Allen Moore.
Diamond performs with several groups of his own: Black Diamond, the Hunter Diamond Quartet, Metal and Wood, Herbsaint (New Orleans traditional), and Strange Frontiers: sonifying the poetry of his father Eric Diamond. Diamond also frequently contributes to collaborative work, often bringing a one-man-orchestral sound to projects with poet Marvin Tate, storyteller Sam Lewis III, sound artist Allen Moore, movement artist Irene Hsiao, vocalist Ana Everling, singer/songwriter Hannah Frances, and the Wonder Wagon.
After releasing his first album with Black Diamond in 2017, Diamond received a fellowship from the Luminarts Foundation. With an initial award and continued grant support, Luminarts has made possible many of Hunter’s artistic goals including touring with Black Diamond, his multi-media project “MASKS,” and a double-album release with We Jazz Records (Helsinki).
In 2018, Black Diamond completed a month-long performance residency at The Whistler, leading to their second release “Chant”(2019) on Shifting Paradigm records.
In 2019, Diamond was an artist in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts studying composition and improvisation with flautist/composer Nicole Mitchell. Many pieces were conceived and created during this time, most of which were then debuted at Chicago’s beloved Logan Square venue The Whistler in September 2019 during a month long performance/recording residency.
In 2020 Diamond took his long stand group Black Diamond in a new direction with the release of “A Held Space” (Woolgathering Records), featuring the duo of Black and Diamond on a multitude of woodwind and percussion instruments to form a collage of improvised song forms.
With six albums finished albums waiting for release, Diamond founded Curio Records in 2021. Curio is an independent label that resists the fruitless trappings of the contemporary music business by bypassing streaming platforms and selling music directly from artist to listener. Diamond has released seven albums through Curio: his debut solo record Reflective Nostalgia (a site-specific solo saxophone album captured in the coastal woods of northern Florida) and the Metal and Wood series (a collection of improvised drum duets with five different drummers in Chicago and New Orleans).
Diamond makes regular visits to New Orleans, and collaborates with some of the city’s most creative musicians including James Singleton, Helen Gillet, Aurora Nealand, Justin Peake, Jeff Albert, and Mikel Patrick Avery.
In addition to an active performance and teaching schedule, Diamond has been a producer at Elastic Arts Foundation, a membership committee member at Experimental Sound Studio, the 2022 curator of the 3-on-3 series at Constellation, a staff member at the Pitchfork Music Festival, and a volunteer graphic designer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression.