For more than two decades, trumpeter and composer Ted Chubb has built a life in jazz as a bandleader, educator, community builder, and artistic director in Jersey City. He leads his own ensembles, teaches jazz trumpet at Princeton University, and co-owns and helms The Statuary in his chosen hometown.
“Ted Chubb is a very talented trumpeter, composer, improviser, bandleader and educator,” says bassist, composer, and 11-time Grammy Award winner Christian McBride. “Ted is the total package, and most of all, he is just one great guy.”
Chubb’s playing is grounded in melody, bebop, and blues phrasing. He draws from the trumpet lineage of Miles Davis, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, Dizzy Gillespie, Blue Mitchell, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham, and Art Farmer, alongside modern voices such as Tom Harrell and Nicholas Payton. He has also cited vocalists including Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan as formative influences.
“Everything I play, I want to have the blues in it — and I believe that jazz is a language and should be taught more similarly to an actual spoken language,” he has said. “There is improvised vocabulary and repertoire that you have to know to be able to communicate with other musicians in a logical and meaningful way.”
Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, Chubb grew up in a musical household; his mother was a cellist, pianist, and soprano vocalist. As a young child, family gatherings centered around the piano. He sang in church choirs, studied Suzuki violin briefly, and took piano lessons before choosing the trumpet. “When I was 10, the band instruments were demonstrated at school and it was never a question of if I was going to play, only which one,” he recalls. “For some reason the trumpet just felt like my voice. Once I began playing, it felt a part of me.”
Discovering Miles Davis’s ’Round About Midnight and Lee Morgan with Art Blakey on A Night in Tunisia changed his trajectory. “Music was always something that was natural to me but not something I put a lot of emphasis on until I found jazz,” he says. “It was a sound that, as a kid growing up in a small town in Ohio, I had no idea existed. I was completely enthralled with it from the moment I heard those records.”
While studying at Ohio State University, Chubb worked professionally in Latin bands, soul bands, big bands, avant-garde ensembles, jam bands, and small jazz groups. He apprenticed with saxophonist Gene Walker and organist Bobby Floyd, playing weekly in a Hammond B3–centered church band. Those years deepened his relationship to blues language, groove, and audience connection.
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In 2003, Chubb moved to New Jersey to study with trumpet pedagogue William B. Fielder at Rutgers University, earning his Master of Music degree. Fielder’s focus on breath, tone, and lineage sharpened his technical foundation. The phrase “Gratified Never Satisfied,” taught to him by Fielder, became a guiding principle and later the title of his 2017 release. Chubb has also cited Dennis Reynolds, Pharez Whitted, and Derrick Gardner as early mentors. “Without them,” he has said, “I am not sure I would still be playing today.”
He found a musical home at Cecil’s, the Newark club run by drummer Cecil Brooks III, in an environment where, as he puts it, “you never knew who might walk in the door… This is where I met most of the musicians I am associated with still to this day.”
As a performer, Chubb has worked as both bandleader and sideman with artists including Winard Harper, Christian McBride, Wallace Roney, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Billy Hart, Antonio Hart, Houston Person, George Coleman, and Charenee Wade. He was a member of Wallace Roney’s Orchestra and first connected with Harper through the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in 2006, later working regularly in Harper’s band. He has appeared at venues including Smalls and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and at festivals across North America, South America, Europe, and the Middle East.
From 2006 to 2011, Chubb toured with the Tony Award–winning Broadway production Jersey Boys, performing more than 1,500 shows and appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “I really learned what it meant to be a working trumpet player,” he has said. “No matter how you felt that day you had to produce. There were a thousand people in the audience who didn’t care how you felt — they just wanted to have a good time — so you had to do your job.”
Chubb first gained recognition as co-leader, with saxophonist Mike Lee of New Tricks, a chordless quartet featuring trumpet, tenor saxophone, bass, and drums, which released New Tricks (2009) and Alternate Side (2011). He later released Gratified Never Satisfied (2017), reflecting the guiding philosophy he absorbed from William B. Fielder. “As a trumpet player we always have to be bandleaders,” he has said. “I have been leading gigs since I was 16.” In addition to his quintet work, he leads a trio and quartet devoted to the Great American Songbook, ballads, bossa novas, and blues.
Between 2015 and 2018, Chubb lived in Switzerland and traveled extensively across Europe and beyond. “I love to hear as much music as possible,” he has said, “not always even the most professional music but the folk music of the country, where regular folks are expressing themselves. I am not so interested in perfection but rather emotion and connecting with people.”
From 2012 to 2020, Chubb served as Director of Music at Jazz House Kids in Montclair, New Jersey, and from 2020 to 2024 as Vice President of Jazz Education & Associate Producer. He oversaw a staff of 20, led a faculty of approximately 100 musicians and served thousands of students and families annually, developing cutting edge jazz education programming, corporate and non-profit partnerships, and leading tours, master classes, and cultural exchanges from Peru to Bahrain. He remains active with Jazz House Kids in a curatorial and advisory capacity, most recently as Artistic Advisor to “The Max Roach Music Project” a 10 week curriculum for NYC DOE schools centered on justicing music through the work of Max Roach.
Chubb serves on the artistic leadership team of the Montclair Jazz Festival, curates “Jazz at One” at St. Paul’s Chapel in collaboration with Trinity Church and Jazz House Kids, and sits on the advisory board of the Jersey City Jazz Festival.
In 2020, Chubb and his wife, Rachel Ryll, purchased The Statuary in Jersey City, a 1907 brick industrial building. After renovations, they reopened concerts to the public in 2021. Since then, the venue has presented more than fifty concerts and community events, operating on a suggested-donation model designed to remove financial barriers and bring world-class jazz directly into the neighborhood — often introducing the music to local listeners encountering it for the first time.
In May 2026, Chubb will release Live at The Statuary on Circle 9 Records, documenting his longstanding quintet with Bruce Williams, Oscar Perez, Tom DiCarlo, and Jerome Jennings. Recorded over three nights in March 2025, the album captures a spectacular performance inside the space he helped create.
“I needed to record and put my music first — but most importantly, I am trying to connect with and develop relationships through music both in our local communities and the wider globe,” Chubb has said. “In a time where so much of the world is trying to divide us, I believe this is of the highest importance.”
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Trumpeter & Composer
Born in Ashtabula, Ohio into a musical family, Chubb chose the trumpet at age ten. “For some reason the trumpet just felt like my voice,” he recalls. Hearing Miles Davis’s ’Round About Midnight and Lee Morgan with Art Blakey on A Night in Tunisia set his direction early. “I was completely enthralled from the moment I heard those records.”
Chubb’s playing centers on a warm, distinct trumpet sound grounded in storytelling and melody. His improvisations favor lyricism, direct melodic development, and conversational phrasing, drawing from the lineage of Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Blue Mitchell, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Farmer while also absorbing the phrasing of vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Chet Baker. “Everything I play,” he has said, “I want to have the blues in it.” DownBeat praised his “warm, sinewy tone” and his ability to unravel “singable melodies.”
Chubb earned his Master of Music degree at Rutgers University, where he studied with trumpet pedagogue William B. Fielder, whose students include Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Terrell Stafford, and Sean Jones. The phrase “Gratified Never Satisfied,” taught to him by Fielder, became both a personal credo and the title of his 2017 Unit Records release.
As a composer, Chubb favors melodies that remain singable and direct while leaving space for harmonic openness and rhythmic momentum. His pieces often grow from lived experiences — travel, family, community, and reflection — providing frameworks that encourage interaction and conversational improvisation among his collaborators.
As a leader, he first gained recognition with New Tricks, a chordless quartet that released New Tricks (2009) and Alternate Side (2011). He later released Gratified Never Satisfied (2017), featuring Bruce Williams, Seth Johnson, Oscar Perez, Tom DiCarlo, and Jerome Jennings.
As a performer, he has appeared alongside artists including Winard Harper, Christian McBride, Wallace Roney, and Rudresh Mahanthappa, and has shared stages with Billy Hart, Antonio Hart, Houston Person, Billy Harper, and George Coleman. From 2006 to 2011, he toured with the Tony Award–winning Broadway production Jersey Boys, performing more than 1,500 shows and appearing on national television. “No matter how you felt that day you had to produce,” he says. “You had to do your job.”
In May 2026, Chubb will release Live at The Statuary on Circle 9 Records, documenting his longstanding quintet with Williams, Perez, DiCarlo, and Jennings. Recorded over three nights in March 2025 inside the Jersey City space he co-owns and curates, the album captures a band shaped by decades of shared history and a musical approach rooted in clarity, lyricism, and collective exchange.
Educator
Education has long been central to Chubb’s work as a musician. From 2012 to 2020, he served as Director of Music at Jazz House Kids in Montclair, New Jersey, and from 2020 to 2024 as Vice President of Jazz Education and Associate Producer. During that time, the organization expanded dramatically in scale and visibility, evolving from a regional nonprofit into one of the most prominent pre-college jazz education institutions in the country. Chubb oversaw more than 100 faculty members and a team of arts administrators while helping guide educational programming across Montclair, Manhattan, and more than fifteen in-school programs serving over 2,000 students each year. He had previously served as a teaching artist in the organization’s weekly public school residency programs in Newark for three years and spent a decade as an in-house faculty member teaching small ensembles, improvisation classes, and adult ensembles.
His work extended well beyond classroom instruction. Chubb helped shape the artistic and educational direction of the organization’s major public initiatives, curating and producing performances and events including the Montclair Jazz Festival, Inside the Jazz Note, the Hang at Home web series with Christian McBride, the Jazz at One concert series at Trinity Church in New York, and the Ralph Pucci International Jazz Set. These programs connected young musicians directly with major artists and audiences while reinforcing the role of jazz as a living cultural tradition.
Under his leadership, the Jazz House Kids Big Band gained national recognition, placing second at the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center in two consecutive years and earning honors at competitions including the Charles Mingus Competition and the Next Generation Jazz Festival.
During the same period, Chubb directed the Jazz House Summer Workshop, a two-week immersive program bringing together 160 students, faculty, and guest artists from across the United States and abroad for intensive study and performance. Earlier in his educational career he also served as band director for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Middle School Academy.
His work also emphasized international collaboration and cultural exchange. Through partnerships with organizations such as Tomorrow’s Warriors in London and programs supported by the U.S. Embassy in Peru, Chubb helped lead educational tours and exchanges that connected young musicians across borders while expanding the reach of the program. He has also adjudicated the New Jersey State Jazz Ensemble finals and presented masterclasses at institutions including Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Michigan, Indiana University, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, California State University North Bay, and the Conservatory of Lima in Peru.
“When you’re a really good educator,” he has observed, “a lot of times you get pushed into being an administrator.” His leadership roles grew out of that trust. While no longer administering a large institution, he continues to consult with Jazz House Kids and the New York City Department of Education in coordination with the estate of Max Roach, helping develop curriculum centered on Roach’s socially engaged music for schools across New York City.
Chubb also teaches jazz trumpet at Princeton University, where he serves as Lecturer in Music and directs small ensembles while maintaining an active private teaching studio. Drawing on the breathing and “flow” concepts of his teacher William B. Fielder, as well as principles of body awareness and breath control, he encourages students to approach the trumpet vocally — to play phrases that breathe.
“There is improvised vocabulary and repertoire that you have to know to communicate with other musicians in a logical and meaningful way,” he says, emphasizing jazz as a language with its own grammar, history, and cultural context.
Artistic Director & Community Builder
In 2020, Chubb and his wife, Rachel Ryll, purchased The Statuary, a 1907 brick industrial building in Jersey City that had long functioned as an artist live/work space. After renovations, they reopened it to the public in 2021 as an intimate performance venue operating on a suggested-donation model designed to remove financial barriers and bring world-class jazz directly into the neighborhood.
As Artistic Director, Chubb curates performances that place audiences just feet from the musicians, emphasizing immediacy, listening, and shared experience. The venue has since presented more than 50 concerts and community events featuring internationally recognized artists, including Billy Hart, Rudresh Mahanthappa, David Kikoski, and Edmar Castaneda while also creating a platform for emerging voices and local performers. In a city where much of the music scene revolves around Manhattan venues, The Statuary has helped establish Jersey City as an active and welcoming center for live jazz.
Chubb’s curatorial work extends far beyond the venue itself. He serves on the artistic leadership team of the Montclair Jazz Festival, one of the largest free jazz festivals in the region, and curates the Jazz at One concert series at St. Paul’s Chapel in collaboration with Trinity Church and Jazz House Kids. He also serves on the advisory board of the Jersey City Jazz Festival, helping guide programming and strategic direction for one of the area’s most visible annual music events.
Across these roles, Chubb works to strengthen the infrastructure that supports live jazz — creating performance opportunities, connecting artists with audiences, and building cultural spaces where music can thrive locally while remaining connected to the wider global community.
“I am trying to connect with and develop relationships through music both in our local communities and the wider globe,” he says. “In a time where so much of the world is trying to divide us, I believe this is of the highest importance.”
≈250 Bio
For more than two decades, trumpeter and composer Ted Chubb has built a life in jazz as a bandleader, educator, community builder, and artistic director in Jersey City. He leads his own ensembles, teaches jazz trumpet at Princeton University, and co-owns and operates The Statuary, an intimate performance space in his adopted hometown.
“Ted Chubb is a very talented trumpeter, composer, improviser, bandleader and educator,” says bassist and composer Christian McBride. “Ted is the total package, and most of all, he is just one great guy.”
Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, Chubb grew up in a musical household and began playing trumpet at age ten. While studying at Ohio State University, he apprenticed with local legends B3 organist Bobby Floyd and saxophonist Gene Walker before earning a Master of Music degree at Rutgers University, where he studied with renowned trumpet pedagogue William B. Fielder.
From 2006 to 2011, Chubb toured with the Tony Award–winning Broadway production Jersey Boys, performing more than 1,500 shows and appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. As both bandleader and sideman, he has worked with artists including Winard Harper, Christian McBride, Wallace Roney, Billy Hart, Antonio Hart, Houston Person, and George Coleman, and has performed at venues and festivals around the world.
Chubb also spent more than a decade with Jazz House Kids in Montclair, New Jersey, serving as Director of Music and later Vice President of Jazz Education & Associate Producer, helping expand the organization into one of the country’s leading pre-college jazz education programs.
In May 2026, Chubb will release Live at The Statuary on Circle 9 Records, documenting his quintet inside the community venue he stewards.
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Van Laar Trumpets - Oiram
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