Saxophonist Mike Casey is an adept jazz improviser with a knotty, harmonically rich approach to post-bop and cross-genre explorations. He emerged on the East Coast in the 2010s and showcased his sound on his 2017 debut, Surprise: Live at the Side Door.

Born in 1993, Casey grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, where he first began playing saxophone in the fifth grade. By his teens, he was a gifted performer and improvisor, skills he honed while attending the Greater Hartford Academy for the Performing Arts, home to such notable alumni as Jimmy Greene, Josh Evans, and the Curtis Brothers. After high school, Casey earned a full scholarship to the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford's Hartt School. While there, he gained valuable instruction from such luminaries as saxophonist Abraham Burton, trombonist Steve Davis, bassist Nat Reeves, and others. Also during this period, he was selected to participate in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

As a sideman, Casey has worked with a bevy of names, including Charles Tolliver, Benito Gonzalez, Tarus Mateen, Marc Cary, and others. In 2017, he released his debut album, The Sound of Surprise: Live at the Side Door, which he recorded with his trio at the club located in Connecticut's historic Old Lyme Inn. He returned the following year with a follow-up trio album, Stay Surprising: Live at the Side Door. Looking to expand his musical palette, Casey returned to school in 2019, attending Berklee College of Music's master's program in Contemporary Performance and Music Production at their Valencia Spain campus. During his time there, he produced two hip-hop- and DJ-inspired remix collections, Surprise! The Remixes and Surprise! The Remixes, Pt. 2, which found him reimagining selections from his first two live albums. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.