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About David Ambrosio
Andrew Rathbun: Atwood Suites
by Paul Rauch
The mingling of jazz music and poetry is not a new concept. It has always been an amiable, yet at times, uncomfortable fit. From a verse standpoint, it is in many ways liberating. While most vocalized lyrics and spoken word forms rely on rhyme to speak to cadence and rhythm, free verse poetry liberates the narrative from the confinements of structure, and much like an improvising instrumentalist, takes spoken language into a intertwining duality with the melody within harmonic dimension. ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun: Atwood Suites
by Friedrich Kunzmann
In a way, the Atwood Suites have been in the works for almost two decades. When Kenny Wheeler approached Toronto native Andrew Rathbun in search for a band in 2001, the former furthermore inquired if the latter would like a composition of his own penning to be performed beside Wheeler's Suite Time Suite." Consequently, the Power Politics Suite," which makes for the second half of the first CD, was born, with Wheeler's and vocalist Luciana Souza's sound specifically in mind. ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun Large Ensemble: Atwood Suites
by Dan Bilawsky
The marriage between jazz and poetry is having a true moment in the present artistic sphere. The two have long mixed and mingled, oft proving sympathetic and symbiotic in their multidirectional moves, unique cadences, and improvisational capacities. But never before has the connection been so strong and centralized. With drummer Matt Wilson's triumphant encounter with the work of Carl Sandburg, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom's exploration of Emily Dickinson's writing, saxophonist Benjamin Boone's collaboration with Philip Levine, and a handful ...
Continue ReadingDavid Ambrosio: Gone
by Dan Bilawsky
In many ways, bassist David Ambrosio can track his adult life and his musical relationships by his back-and-forth moves between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Ambrosio has called each borough home on more than one occasion over the past few decades, observing the key differences between each scene from the inside. He doesn't discriminate when it comes to choosing a New York City spot to put his bass down and play, and he happily shares his talent(s) wherever he can, but it's ...
Continue ReadingAlbum Review
Dead Cat Bounce: Chance Episodes
by AAJ Italy Staff
Basso, batteria e quattro fiati. Si presentano così i Dead Cat Bounce ensemble fondato nel 1997 da Matt Steckler e giunto con Chance Episodes (lavoro originariamente commissionato dalla Chamber Music America) alla quarta pubblicazione. Potenza e ricchezza espressiva da big band, duttilità da piccolo combo, flessibilità nell'attraversare con leggerezza gli stili e i generi più disparati è la cifra espressiva di Dead Cat Bounce. Che considerano la loro musica una sorta di rielaborazione catartica di storie ed eventi personali sottoposti ...
Continue ReadingGrupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea
by Michael P. Gladstone
A spirited group of Latin jazz players called Grupos Los Santos offers its brand of music on Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea, which translates to What We Are What Will Be . The title of the group could also be loosely translated to mean that they are not playing a singular type of music but bring in many elements, tempo and cultural diversities.
When Rumba in the Bronx" begins, it is with a percussive rumba ...
Continue ReadingGrupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea
by Ernest Barteldes
Grupo Los Santos is a New York-based group that successfully looks at Latin and Brazilian jazz from an American point of view. The result is a mixed sonic bag that allows influences from funk and East Coast jazz into the music without compromising the general sound and feel. At their CD release concert at New York's The Jazz Standard in January, 2008, they opened with Boogie Down Broder," a tune by saxophonist Paul Carlon dedicated to the ...
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