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Jazz Articles about Vinnie Sperrazza
Vinnie Sperrazza: Juxtaposition
by David A. Orthmann
The most intriguing thing about Juxtaposition, Vinnie Sperrazza's recently released recording, is its loose grip on the jazz tradition. The disc's twelve tracks don't come with a set of standard, recognizable references. Not unlike many of today's leading young artists, Sperrazza has absorbed the lessons of the music's past, and is currently interested in doing things on his own terms instead of dwelling in the accomplishments of his elders. The other essential aspect of the record is it's overall disposition--the ...
Continue ReadingVinnie Sperrazza: Apocryphal
by Vincenzo Roggero
Batterista piuttosto indaffarato, richiesto e apprezzato da molti musicisti, co-leader dei 40Twenty con Jacob Sacks, Vinnie Sperrazza debutta da solista con un gran album. Bastano i primi tre minuti di Apocryphal per intuire che questo sarà un disco ad alto tasso di interesse, giocato sui contrasti, sintonizzato su frequenze spesso disturbate che allertano continuamente le antenne degli ascoltatori. Vi è dunque una melodia dai toni pastorali esposta dal sax di Loren Stillman, morbido e rassicurante nel suo ...
Continue ReadingVinnie Sperrazza: Apocryphal
by Dave Wayne
An understated but highly-skilled and insanely versatile drummer in the vein of Kenny Wolleson, Jeff Hirshfield, and Paul Motian, Vinnie Sperrazza has been turning up on all sorts of interesting recordings over the past half-decade or so. Co-leader of 40Twenty with Jacob Sacks, Jacob Garchik, and Dave Ambrosio, Sperrazza is also in a trio with Sacks and bassist Masa Kamaguchi, and is one fourth of Hush Point; a brainy collaboration with veteran trumpeter John McNeil and alto saxophonist Jeremy Udden. ...
Continue ReadingVinnie Sperrazza: Peak Inn
by Clifford Allen
The piano trio is a medium that became immensely popular with Bill Evans' meteoric rise on the international scene in the '50s and has remained an astonishingly equilateral creative outlet for an extraordinary array of harmonic and rhythmic complexity. However, there aren't a lot of groups taking the chances available to them, instead mining the standard fake book or the popular canon in either a neo-romantic or wholly discordant manner. Peak Inn joins Brooklyn-based drummer Vinnie Sperrazza with regular sparring ...
Continue ReadingVinnie Sperrazza & Matt Blostein: Ursa Minor
by Terrell Kent Holmes
The Vinnie Sperrazza/Matt Blostein Band sits boldly on the outer branches of the jazz tree. This group specializes in what might be described as art-house, a style defined by complex, cutting edge compositions and arrangements played at perfect pitch. Ursa Minor displays a balanced and impressive combination of color and substance. These tunes, penned by alto saxophonist Blostein or drummer Sperrazza (and in the case of “Liftoff," both) are poetic in structure, unfolding slowly to reveal a ...
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