Jazz Articles about David Ambrosio

About David Ambrosio

Live Review

Civil Disobedience at Joe's Pub

by Max Kutner
June 20, 2026

Civil Disobedience Joe's Pub New York, NY June 11, 2026 Civil Disobedience presented a stellar show at Joe's Pub in New York City that covered a uniquely curated set of music taken exclusively from Civil Rights-era recordings on Blue Note Records. Led by bassist, activist, and composer David Ambrosio, the group is a quintet that features an all-star cast of some of the most renowned members of the greater jazz community. The impassioned, attentive dialogue ...

Interview

David Ambrosio Honors The Spirit of the '60s With Civil Disobedience

by John Chacona
May 19, 2026

Social activism and jazz have a long mutual history that arguably reached an apex with the resistance music of the '60s. On record, that music found a home at labels such as Impulse! and ESP-Disk. At the same time, artists in the Blue Note Records stable were assembling a body of work that was inspired by the social and political upheavals of the decade. For a number of reasons, this music has remained somewhat obscure despite its high quality and ...

Album Review

Civil Disobedience: Blue Note In The Progressive Sixties

Read "Blue Note In The Progressive Sixties" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 29, 2026

Bassist and educator David Ambrosio's quintet Civil Disobedience: Blue Note in the Progressive Sixties is both a tribute and a reclamation, a love letter to the music, the musicians and the social movements that shaped a turbulent era. The project was sparked by a student, which led Ambrosio to revisit a body of Blue Note recordings from the 1960s that had been shelved for years. As jazz-rock fusion rose in popularity and Alfred Lion sold the label, many adventurous post-bop ...

Album Review

Tom Gershwin: Wellspring

Read "Wellspring" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 10, 2026

On Wellspring, the fourth album under his name, Vermont-based trumpeter Tom Gershwin resumes his anomalous musical journey, pursuing a path that is for the most part low-key and serene but seldom less than interesting. In so doing, Gershwin wrests the most support he can from every member of his able quintet to unravel eight of his elaborate and expressive compositions and arrangements, two of which--the opening “Let Be" and warmhearted “Belong Here"--are miniatures, designed to provide brief respites ...

In Pictures

David Ambrosio's Civil Disobedience at The Roads Bistro

by Mark Robbins
February 27, 2024

The Roads Bistro--a new restaurant / listening room--has recently opened in Virginia Beach, VA. Located in a strip mall across the street from the Tidewater Community College, one would be surprised to learn it's the current home of some of the best food and best jazz in the area. Owner, Michael Baldwin, has defied the odds and fulfilled his dream of opening a club. Music is performed nightly with Tuesday reserved for a jazz jam but other nights can also ...

Interview

David Ambrosio's Civil Disobedience: 50 Years in the Making

by Paul Rauch
January 20, 2024

Modern jazz has never been more prolific. Nonsense you say? With most recording and touring jazz musicians coming out of institutions of higher learning these days, jazz listeners can encounter top line players in virtually any major city in the United States. What's happening in New York is happening in Seattle, Denver, Detroit or Cleveland in scenes that vary in size but are nonetheless there. With the newest wave comes in-depth compositional skills, the likes of which have never been ...

Album Review

Eri Yamamoto Trio: A Woman With A Purple Wig

Read "A Woman With A Purple Wig" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
January 14, 2023

Pianist Eri Yamamoto was born and raised in Japan. but she has been a resident of New York City for over twenty years. She was there in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the world and then-President Trump began to call the disease a “Chinese flu." One day, while waiting to start an outdoor concert, she was confronted by a stranger who knocked off her hat, stepped on the electric keyboard she was carrying and called her one of the ...