Quantcast
NEWS: Summer Jazz Festival Guide 2008 STORES: CDs/DVDs/Vinyl/Sleeves | Downloads | Posters | Art
jazz
HOME NEWS REVIEWS ARTICLES MUSICIANS PHOTOS FORUMS
  Login   |   MY AAJ Signup  
Intro Site Map Free Daily MP3s Videos Upcoming Releases Guides Editorial Calendar Help Wanted  
Advanced
Contact Us   |   Advertise   |   For Contributors   |   For Musicians



Calendar - Venues
Teachers - Musicians


Storyteller
Rob Mullins
The Swingin' Bassoon
Daniel Smith
Before Love Has Gone
Stevie Holland
You Decide
Rave Tesar Trio
Child In My Heart
Tanja Maritsa
Cover Up!
George Kahn
Advertise Here


Jazz Excursion Radio



"One, Two, Three"
Kenny Wheeler / John Taylor
Where Do We Go From Here?

Listen Now






Featured Visual Artist
Scott Friedlander



Push AAJ Content
AAJ Live | RSS | Widsets

Mythos

Mario Pavone Nu Trio/Quintet | Playscape Recordings (2002)

Discuss  

One of the most prolific yet least recognized bassists on the New York scene today is Mario Pavone. Pavone, six decades into life, has no shortage of energy, and this is reflected on Mythos. Pavone offers 3 quintet tunes and 8 trio tunes, mostly originals, on this outing. The piano trio is always at the center of the music, but a couple horns add nice density up top. As always, Pavone treads the line between swing and punch, structured composition and free improvisation—blending styles in interesting ways without ever getting noisy or pretentious. It's a mix and match affair for the participants, which makes for interesting listening when you have someone as bold as Pavone at the helm. Drummers Matt Wilson and Michael Sarin trade roles, and the difference is not subtle—Wilson loves detail and shimmering counterpoint, while Sarin has more of an ear for space and color.

But the most exciting part of Mythos is Pavone himself. You can take many approaches to listening to this record, but if you make the effort to listen to his lines, you'll hear an unswerving devotion to forward motion. Pavone can walk for years, but he has a flair for drama and angularity which he lets loose with regularity. Admittedly these pieces are in all sorts of weird time signatures, and they often shift styles midstream, but Pavone is clearly the locomotive driving this train: pure diesel power. His lines reveal the contours of the music, rendering each composition logical and coherent. As pianist Peter Madsen moves toward climax on ”Dialect,” for example, Pavone sees the peak ahead and shifts from a cyclical pulse to rapid-fire bursts of energy. Madsen and Pavone have a special relationship both in composition and in performance; Madsen is particularly exciting when he lets go of structure and bursts into the stratosphere, Tayloresque in his flight.

Mario Pavone remains impossible to categorize, with roots all over the map. This is toe-tapping, misty-swirling, percolating, mind-bending, heat-emitting music, all wrapped in one. Jazz. And it works.

Visit Playscape on the web.


Track listing: Diode; Dialect; Odeon; Sky Piece; Mythos; Crutch for the Crab; Dancers Tales; Interlude; Isobars; Fablet; And Then We Wrote.

Personnel: Mario Pavone: bass; Steven Bernstein: trumpet; Tony Malaby: tenor saxophone; Peter Madsen: piano; Matt Wilson: drums; Michael Sarin: drums.

Style: Modern Jazz/Free Improvisation | Published: October 01, 2002


  Discuss   Add to Google  
Still scratching his head and wondering if it's real More about Nils...


More Articles by Nils Jacobson
Malian Strings: Kora & Guitar
Dance: Arabia, Turkey and Beyond
South Africa: A Rough Guide & Vusi Mahlasela
Techari
Nils Jacobson's Best of 2006
Angel of the Presence
West by Northwest: Senegal, Morocco, Mali, Niger

More Recent Reviews
David S. Ware Quartet - Freedom Suite David S. Ware Quartet
Freedom Suite
George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, and Jimmy Cobb - 4 Generations of Miles George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, and Jimmy Cobb
4 Generations of Miles
Joe Zawinul - Faces & Places Joe Zawinul
Faces & Places
Sunny Jain Collective - As Is Sunny Jain Collective
As Is
George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb - 4 Generations Of Miles George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb
4 Generations Of Miles
Greg Adams - Midnight Morning Greg Adams
Midnight Morning



CD Review Search
Artist Name  
Album Title  
Record Label  
Author  
 
Most Read: CD Reviews
Last 30 Days | All Time
Most Read: Articles
Last 30 Days | All Time

Upcoming events for Mario Pavone:



 

More CD Reviews













  Privacy Policy | Dedicated Servers All material copyright © 2008 All About Jazz and/or contributing writers/visual artists. All rights reserved.