Artist Directory:
Barry Stephenson
Acoustic & Electric Bassist, Composer
New York, NY
New York City-based acoustic/electric bassist and composer Barry Stephenson has been acclaimed as “one of the most sought-after bassists on the scene today.” Released in 2020, Barry’s The Iconoclast was nominated for the NAACP Image Award® for Outstanding Jazz Album (Instrumental), and was notably the only independently-produced album in a category that included work by Jon Batiste, George Burton, Christian Sands, and Immanuel Wilkins. The Iconoclast was also named by Offbeat magazine as one of the Top 50 Albums of 2020.
As with his debut album, 2015’s Basic Truths, The Iconoclast was entirely original music (with the exception of a new arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing”) — a showcase of Barry’s work as a composer that has earned him the Ernest O. and Shirley N. Svenson Jazz Composition Award, and the ASCAP Foundation’s Louis Armstrong Award. Barry has also composed for film, most recently the score for the award-winning short, “Truth, Inc.”
Barry has performed and toured extensively with TV personality, musician, and bandleader Jon Batiste and Stay Human, including regular appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and performances at **a variety of festivals, including the Monterey, Montreaux, Montreal, Newport, North Sea, Umbria, and Playboy Jazz festivals; he has also performed at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. Barry has been featured on recent episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Godfather of Harlem.
Barry has performed with many internationally-recognized jazz, blues, and soul artists, including Nicholas Payton, David Sanborn, Seal, the late Freddie Cole, Diane Schuur, Marc Cary, Jamison Ross, Sullivan Fortner, Jazzmeia Horn, Herlin Riley, the late Henry Butler, Mark Whitfield, Tim Warfield, Russell Gunn, Christian Sands, Cyrille Aimee, Etienne Charles, Marcus Printup, Davell Crawford, Rodney Green, and Theo Croker.
In addition to his work as a musician, Barry currently serves as one of three elected Artist-Owner Representatives on the board of the independent, cooperative music platform Ampled, which Salon called “a punk-inspired collective [beating] the streaming giants at their own game.” Furthermore, Barry is a founding member of the BAMF Collective, which creates sustainable systems for musicians to get started in their careers.
Barry is currently preparing to tour in the fall of 2021 to promote The Iconoclast, and will be making special international appearances with other artists while continuing to produce new music.