Results for "Tony Bianco"

Tony Bianco

Anthony Bianco is a drummer, percussionist and composer born in New York City, the son of a drummer and the grandson of a guitar player. Growing up in New York City he could experience the greatest sounds in jazz. He remembered seeing Elvin, Mingus, Art Blakey, Woody Shaw, Miles, Liebman, Tony Williams, Dexter Gordon, Ron Carter. This intensified his love for this music. He got a steady gig in New York City in a warm-up band in a famous comedy club called Catch a Rising Star. It’s a legendary comic club that a lot of the great comedians came through (Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Richard Belzer). The bass player on the gig was Lloyd Mair. He was a devotee of avant garde music and jazz. He knew some really interesting things about jazz. Tony learned a lot from him. Being at this club Tony played in interesting situations with Edgar Winter, Pat Benatar. In that time Tony explored his own ideas and met a lot of musicians. One became a close friend : tenor player Mac Goldsberry. Mac introduced Tony to a lot of the New York City players even though he was from Texas. Through him Tony played and recorded with Ed Schuller, Herb Robertson and Charlie Elgart. He started to write music at that time and made a recording with John Hart on guitar. At the same time he hooked up with (through Goldsberry) the singer, writer, jazz musician and poet Bob Lennox and his son Adam. Through Adam he first met Dave Liebman. They did a record and gig doing progressive rock music. At this time he also did a recording with Anthony Jackson, the legendary electric bass player and started to play more free jazz. But things in New York for him weren’t really going well. Tony met some musicians from the University of Miami (Mike Gillis, legendary guitar player) and went to Japan for a few months with them. On coming back to the U.S. one of the teachers from the University invited Tony to come to Miami. Dave Liebmann suggests to Tony to move to Berlin where some of his mates went to live and play jazz (Lennox, Goldsberry). Liebman said that he needed to get out of NYC to see himself. Tony moved to Berlin in 1991 and started to work with Alex von Schlippenbach and his wife Aki Takase, and Gerd Dudek. He had an opportunity to play with Reggie Workman on a Schlippenbach gig and learned more about the European free improv scene. At the same time Tony worked with the late legendary bass player Jay Oliver who influenced him in some rhythmic concepts and attitude. He also worked with the late gypsy guitarist Costa Lucas. His rhythmic concepts really took a turn when he worked with Hans Hartman (bass and stick player) and Turkish percussionist Mesut Ali. Tony lived in Berlin until 1995, returned to New York for a few months, then joined his wife in London. He met Loz Speyer who got him a drum set and introduced Tony to a lot of the straighter players. He met Alex McGuire who introduced him to Elton Dean, from where he met the rest of the free scene. He met Paul Dunmall played and recorded some great music together. He came up with a project called Freebeat with Elton Dean and sound engineer, Jon Wilkinson. It was a concept of playing through time signatures but playing also free through it. These ideas interested Dave Liebman. He recorded a similar but different project with Liebmann in Berlin (2003). The CD "In a Western Sense" handles some of these same concepts. Tony moved to London in 1996 and played and recorded with Paul Dunmall, Elton Dean, Simon Picard, Paul Rutherford, Keith Tippett, Paul Rogers, Marcio Matthos and John Edwards.

Faith Brackenbury / Tony Bianco: Wayward Mystic-Improvisations inspired by the music of St.Hildegard von Bingen

by John Sharpe
September 10, 2023

Violin and drum duos are something of a rarity in the jazz and improvised music arena. Swift Are The Winds Of Life (Survival, 1976) by Leroy Jenkins and Rashied Ali, and Bangception (Hat Musics, 1983) by Billy Bang and Denis Charles come to mind, but few others. However, violinist Faith Brackenbury and drummer Tony Bianco make ...

Machine Mass: Inti

by John Kelman
May 9, 2023

One of music's most remarkable qualities is its ability to provide a context for expression of otherwise indescribable feelings. The genesis of Machine Mass Trio came at a time of duress for Tony Bianco, the expat American drummer who, since relocating to Europe in the mid-1990s, has performed with A-list improvising musicians including Elton Dean, Evan ...

Jazz Honors The Beatles

by AAJ Staff
April 13, 2023

All About Jazz is honoring The Fab Four in the year of the 60th anniversary of the release of their first album (Please Please Me). This collective tribute was originally published in September 2009--as a living document, we'll add more quotes & stories over time (see how-to in comments section). We also compiled a companion playlist ...

Wayward Mystic-Improvisations inspired by the music of St.Hildegard von Bingen

By Faith Heleene Brackenbury

Label: Discus Music
Released: 2022
Track listing: Hymn of Hildegard O Fronden Virga O Quam Mirabilis Grace Placement and Resolve O Pastor Animarum Cherubim's Sword O Cruor Sanguinis

Paul Dunmall & Mark Sanders: Unity

by John Sharpe
July 10, 2021

In spite of a decades long association, Unity constitutes only the second time British reed icon Paul Dunmall has appeared on disc in tandem with drummer Mark Sanders. And on the earlier occasion, Pipe And Drum (FMR, 2012), Dunmall restricted himself entirely to bagpipes of various species, so this outing is notable as the first documentation ...

Impressions of Coltrane

by Bob Osborne
September 24, 2019

To mark reaching the 350th edition of World of Jazz a show focusing on the music of John Coltrane with music from the man and also interpretations of his compositions by other jazz artists.... Playlist John Coltrane “Billie's Bounce" from The Prestige Recordings (Prestige) 00:00 Khan Jamal “Blues for P.C." from Impressions of Coltrane (Steeplechase) 10:44 ...

Paul Dunmall's Sunship Quartet: John Coltrane 50th Memorial Concert At Cafe Oto

by John Sharpe
June 12, 2019

If John Coltrane had lived he would have been 90 in July 2019. It's fair to say that there has been no saxophonist anywhere near as influential since his passing in 1967. To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, percussionist Mark Wastell organized a concert headlined by two affirmed devotees of the great reedman, namely ...

Paul Dunmall Brass Project: Maha Samadhi

by Alberto Bazzurro
February 22, 2017

Suite in cinque movimenti, per lo più generosi (quattro superano i dodici minuti), dedicata al mistico indiano del diciannovesimo secolo Sri Ramakrishna e incisa al conservatorio di Birmingham nel giungo 2016, Maha Samadhi vede l'iperproduttivo Paul Dunmall alla testa di un ensemble al cui interno il suo trio si abbina a una brass section di sette ...

Intervista a Roberto Bellatalla

by Daniele Vogrig
September 12, 2016

Se i concetti di fraternità e universalità da sempre caratterizzano il jazz in tutte le sue forme, senza dubbio e a buon diritto Roberto Bellatalla ne può essere considerato uno dei massimi ambasciatori. Amsterdam, Londra, Johannesburg. Quaranta anni di storia (e di storie), poi il ritorno a casa. Ammesso e non concesso che ...