“The first time I saw her play I was sure, at some point, she would be a lead alto sax player.” That was the initial reaction of North Hunterdon (NJ) High School Jazz Ensemble Director Perry Andrews when he saw Kristin Field’s freshman year audition in the fall of 2019.
A Jazz Studies major at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, the 21-year-old Field also remembers that audition. Andrews, she said, “was a voice I could trust. He was very supportive, very kind, and very encouraging. I remember he said, ‘You have such a lead alto sound.'”
Field began playing the saxophone when she was 10 years old. “My fifth grade English teacher had the band teacher in one day to show us different instruments. I think I just chose it because it looked cool, but when I started playing it, I really enjoyed it. When I was in seventh grade, I joined the school’s jazz band, and that kind of kicked it off for me. I also want to shout out to Fred Czarnecki (retired music teacher in the Millburn, NJ, School District). He was my private teacher from seventh grade to the end of high school. He taught me so much about what I know about this music, and he helped push me to become the best version of myself.”
Czarnecki, who now lives in Jupiter, FL, said Field “happens to be one of my favorite students of all time, and I was teaching privately and in the classroom for over 40 years with a full load of private students of 25 a week during all those years.” In addition to alto saxophone, “she also took clarinet lessons from me and started flute later on. She loved playing in the jazz band in the middle school and high school and also loved playing in the pit orchestra in high school for the school plays.”
Field didn’t “really become serious about jazz until my junior year of high school. I did a jazz summer camp at Moravian University in Bethlehem, PA. Then, I really got into improvisation and playing in combos and stuff like that.”
On March 10, Field will be the Emerging Artist in the New Brunswick Jazz Project’s “In the Key of Akiko Women in Jazz” series celebrating Women’s History Month at Tavern on George. The series was previously called “March Women in Jazz”, but it will now be dedicated to the jazz organist, Akiko Tsuruga, who passed away in September. “Akiko performed every year for our series,” explained NBJP’s Virginia DeBerry. (See “Akiko Tsuruga: ‘One of the Best Organ Players in the World’, October 2025 Jersey Jazz).
Field graduates from Rutgers this spring, and her senior recital will be held March 29 at the University’s Shindell Hall. At the recital, she plans to play “some combo tunes such as ‘Blue Rondo a la Turk’. That song has always really stuck with me. I also want to play ‘My Favorite Things.’ I love the Coltrane arrangement of that, and it also ties in with my love of musical theater. And I also want to do an arrangement I wrote of ‘The Girl from Ipanema”, plus two original songs I’ve written.”
At the March 10th Tavern on George performance, Field will be joined by tenor saxophonist Matt Estabrook, trombonist Kyle Courter, and baritone saxophonist Ed Crisonino. Field’s senior recital will feature Seraphina Taylor on piano, Jeff Andolaro on bass, and Logan Bogdan on drums. “I’m also planning to have a horn section,” she said. (Andolaro, a graduate of Shawnee High School in Medford, NJ, was a member of the 2024 New Jersey All-State Jazz Ensemble. He performed with guitarist Sally Shupe’s quintet in the Rising Stars opening act at the March 2024 Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison, NJ).
At Rutgers, Field has studied with saxophonists Abraham Burton and Ralph Bowen. Burton, she said, “is incredible, a joy to work with. He inspires you to get inside of the music. At first, when I was in early high school, I didn’t know if I wanted to go to Rutgers because it was so close. But I did research, and I found that the faculty with the jazz program was world class. My first two years I took lessons with Ralph Bowen. He has so much wisdom and so much knowledge. It’s been truly a blessing to work with this faculty.”
Her alto saxophone heroes of the past include Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Charlie Parker, and Paul Desmond. “As of late, I’ve really dug Cannonball,” she said. “His sound and the way he played is truly awesome. The energy he brings — every time I hear him play, it makes me want to move. Even when he’s playing more technically, there’s still a lot of spirit. It’s like he’s singing through the saxophone. His tone is really beautiful.
“Charlie Parker, of course, particularly Charlie Parker With Strings. That was really beautiful.” Desmond, she added, “was one of the first jazz saxophonists I got into. I’ve kind of grown up in the classical school. Jazz was not the first style I learned. His sound has that classical vibrato-y resonance, a bit like the tone you hear from Johnny Hodges in the swing era. I really like the way he plays, mostly the lyricalness of it. I’ve always gravitated more toward lyrical rather than technical playing. I always find it beautiful when players almost sing through the horn.”
In addition to her jazz prowess, Field is a theatrical composer and pit instrumentalist. She was the writer, composer, and lyricist for Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Unofficial Musical, based on a video game. The musical was performed last June at the Ferrell Studios in Metuchen, NJ. It won the New Jersey Association of Community Theaters (NJACT) Perry Award for Outstanding Production of an Original Musical. The video game, Field explained, “was basically about a haunted Chucky Cheese (called Freddie Fazbear’s Pizza in the musical). It was originally a passion project produced by a bunch of college students. The whole project made me realize how much I liked composition, writing, and putting motifs together.”
After graduation, Field would like to combine her love for jazz and musical theater, staying in the greater New York area. Although alto is her main instrument, she has learned flute, clarinet and the other saxophone instruments, making her a doubler who could play in Broadway pit orchestras as well as jazz combos.
For Perry Andrews, “It’s great to find out that Kristin’s still active in music,” pointing out that he usually doesn’t get to see “the finished project” with regard to his students. He also added that he, too, is a Rutgers graduate. – SANFORD JOSEPHSON