Evan Jagels is a versatile upright and electric bassist. He has shared the stage with such luminaries as Ray Vega, Gerry Weldon, Stacy Dillard, Antonio Hart, Michael Mossman, Ray Anderson, John Stowell, Chuck Lamb, and four-time Grammy-Award winning cellist Eugene Friesen. Other performance highlights include Carnegie Hall, Flushing Town Hall, the Plaza Hotel, the Record Archive, the Blue Note in Germany and the UniJazz Festival in the Czech Republic. He has recorded with Arlen Roth (Ry Cooder, Levon Helm, John Prine), Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Herbie Hancock), Blake Fleming (The Mars Volta, Laddio Bolocko), and for Antonio DeVivo’s Vientos de Madera.

Jagels is cofounder and bassist of Duo Extempore, whose curated improvisations draw from classical and jazz virtuosity, weaving together storytelling, local history, architecture, and audience interaction. Along with pianist Nicole Brancato, Duo Extempore explores every shape of music, through film, technology, performance.

An active voice in modern jazz, Jagels is a founding member and co-leader of Killdeer Trio. Along with guitarist Wyatt Ambrose and drummer Sebastian Green, the trio composes original music which blends deep grooves, folk-like melodies, and improvisation.

In 2024, he made his debut as a composer for theater, both composing and performing an original score for solo upright bass for Franklin Stage Company’s production of An Iliad.

Jagels is cofounder, producer, and artistic directer of the Harmony Garden Concert Series, which features concerts and cultural collaborations with musicians from all over the world, and cofounder of the Improvised Arts Festival.

He has a Masters Degree in Music Performance from the City University of New York, Queens College, where he received the Michael Feinstein Award and has studied bass with Ron Carter, Buster Williams, Nilson Matta, Yoshio Aomori, Tomoya Aomori, and Franz Pillinger. A passionate educator, Jagels has taught for the New York Summer Music Festival, the Oneonta Pop Music Experience, JazzConnect at Flushing Town Hall, SUNY Oneonta, and is currently Lecturer of Music at Hartwick College.