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About Nick Mazzarella
Nick Mazzarella: Siena Sessions
by Troy Dostert
With a fruitful partnership extending back to 2016, Chicago mainstay Nick Mazzarella has played in a variety of contexts with bassist Silvia Bolognesi and drummer Cristiano Calcagnile, but they chose Italy for their first recorded encounter. Mazzarella's tart alto saxophone seems particularly energized by the change of scenery, and his obvious chemistry with his superb partners is evident from start to finish. Mazzarella is one of the most versatile musicians on the scene, equally adept at riding a ...
Continue ReadingBrian Citro: Keep Moving (Home)
by Jack Bowers
The sound of Brian Citro's mellow guitar introduces “Stay Where You Feel," the first of his 14 original compositions on Keep Moving (Home), most of which began life as pieces for solo guitar and were revised by Citro to suit a quartet format. Citro's teammates on this generally pleasing yet largely anodyne session are alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Quin Kirchner. Mazzarella doubles on the seldom-heard Wurlitzer organ. About the only thing that could ...
Continue ReadingSylvia Bolognesi: Jungle Duke
by Glenn Astarita
Silvia Bolognesi, the accomplished Italian double bassist with deep roots in Siena Jazz and Chicago's improvisational scene, leads a dynamic septet through her album, Jungle Duke. This recording offers a spirited and highly successful reworking of Duke Ellington's iconic 1920s “Jungle" era classics, celebrating the centennial of those innovations and the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. Bolognesi intersperses intriguing archival audio clips of Ellington with fresh arrangements that deftly blend historical swing with the band's occasional free jazz explorations. ...
Continue ReadingAlbum Review
Silvia Bolognesi: Jungle Duke
by Neri Pollastri
Nel suo inesausto lavoro creativo, che affianca l'ancor più energica attività di strumentista, Silvia Bolognesi intreccia costantemente e virtuosamente l'antico e il moderno, le sue due “patrie"--la natia Siena e l'adottiva Chicago--e i musicisti con i quali condivide il percorso, talvolta da molti anni attraverso mille collaborazioni, talaltra da poco tempo, perché incontrati nelle aule di Siena Jazz. Così, dopo essersi dedicata lo scorso anno al repertorio di un artista leggendario come Gil Scott Heron, chiamando Eric Mingus ad affiancare ...
Continue ReadingNatural Information Society: Since Time is Gravity
by Danen Jobe
The concept of trance is one of the oldest in the world. Many older music forms embraced trance for their rituals. One is the Gnawa musical tradition originating in Kano, Nigeria and Morocco, which uses double and triple notes repeated sometimes for hours to induce a religious state while the singer sings stories of spirits. It is played on a gimbri (aka sintir or hajhuj), a three stringed instrument featuring one short and two long goat gut strings over a ...
Continue ReadingNick Mazzarella / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Avreeayl Ra: What You Seek Is Seeking You
by Mark Corroto
In a trio format, listeners have come to expect alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella to lead and write all the compositions. He introduced himself to the world with Aviary (Thought To Sound Records, 2010), and followed up with three more trio releases with bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly, four if we count Triangulum (Clean Feed, 2017) from his Meridian Trio (Jeremy Cunningham and Matt Ulery). These albums highlight Mazzarella's ability to compose, perform and, maybe of greater significance, organize ...
Continue ReadingQuin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
by Mark Corroto
Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now, was released in 1979. After sitting for 2 and ½ hours, a viewer might have hoped for theater management to stand at the exits to hand out pamphlets explaining what had just gone down. The conflict had ended 4 years prior, and most war movies, pre- Vietnam, were straight-forward, America-saves-the-world affairs. Goodnight. In between a surf crazed Robert Duval, Playboy Bunnies, and the insane Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando, the movie ...
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