Mario Pavone

Bassist/composer Mario Pavone has collaborated with both legendary innovators and today's most respected young musicians to consistently define the cutting edge of jazz for the past 40 years.

He has anchored the trios of Paul Bley (1968-72), Bill Dixon (1980's), and the late Thomas Chapin (1990-97), and co-led a variety of notable ensembles with Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Marty Ehrlich, and Michael Musillami. His list of sidemen past and present includes Steven Bernstein, Gerald Cleaver, Dave Douglas, Peter Madsen, Tony Malaby, Joshua Redman, George Schuller, Michael Sarin, Craig Taborn, and Matt Wilson among many others.

And, unlike most artists whose careers span five decades, his most recent recordings are his most widely acclaimed, appearing on best-of- the- year lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, AllAboutJazz-New York, Coda, Village Voice, and The New York Times among others.

Although a long career in jazz awaited him, Pavone never received formal music training and didn't seriously encounter jazz until his freshman year at the University of Connecticut in 1958. Growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut, he developed a fondness for black R&B vocal groups, as well as the 1940's movie music he heard as a child, but a college friend's jazz record collection—and seeing John Coltrane one fateful night at the Village Vanguard in 1961—set him on the musical path. With legendary guitarist/fellow Waterbury native Joe Diorio's encouragement, Pavone rented a bass in the summer of 1964 and began plucking out the percussive sound that would become his trademark.

He was playing professionally by 1965, though his full- time job was putting his Industrial Engineering degree to work for major corporations. Upon hearing the news about Coltrane's death in 1967, he left his briefcase on his desk, got in the car, and drove to the funeral, where he decided on the spot to dedicate the rest of his life to music.

He toured Europe with Paul Bley in 1968, and performed on the pianist's recording, Canada (Radio Canada), with Barry Altschul. Soon after he met vibraphonist/ composer Bobby Naughton, among others, and became a part of New York's early 70's loft scene with groups like Bill Dixon's Orchestra of the Streets. By 1975, he was a founding member of the New Haven, Connecticut-based Creative Music Improvisers Forum (CMIF), with Naughton, Wadada Leo Smith, Gerry Hemingway, Wes Brown, Reverend Dwight Andrews and others, which produced concerts and recordings that gave musicians more control over their own music.

In 1980, Pavone began an 18-year musical relationship with Thomas Chapin, which would lead to a number of collaborations, most notably Chapin's seminal trio with drummer Michael Sarin. Around the same time, Pavone recorded his first titles as a leader, 1979's Digit and 1981's Shodo on his own Alacra label, crediting Naughton and Smith with motivating him to write his own music and teaching him about open-ended composition.

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...his work has never been less than compelling.
-Ben Ratliff, New York Times

He attacks his acoustic bass, strumming the strings, pulling on them forcefully, as if the music inside was hiding. His melodies erupt from his instrument, usually with the rhythmic pattern set inside so that his cohorts know exactly which direction Pavone wants the song to go.
-Richard Kamins, Hartford Courant

Intense and absorbing music.
-Kenny Mathieson, Jazzwise

Pavone’s music is in constant flux and flow, flying along the outer edge of the envelope but never losing its grip on the basics.
-Fred Kaplan, The Absolute Sound

...his work has never been less than compelling.
-Ben Ratliff, New York Times

Intense and absorbing music.
-Kenny Mathieson, Jazzwise

Pavone’s music is in constant flux and flow, flying along the outer edge of the envelope but never losing its grip on the basics.
-Fred Kaplan, The Absolute Sound

...Deez to Blues is impossible to tune out, impossible to turn down. It demands nothing less than your undivided attention.
-Brent Burton, JazzTimes

His sound is woody, bold, and vibrant and seems to add luster to everyone around him. That’s quite an accomplishment when those around him are so illustrious on their own...
-David Dupont, OneFinalNote.com

His albums come in and they go to the top of the pile that I have to be listening to pretty quickly because they’re inventive, they’re intriguing and he is a fun writer. I recommend this guy a lot.
-Neil Tesser, Listen Here!

As a radio programmer, the difficulty with Mario Pavone’s releases is not how to find a cut worthy of play, but how to determine which cut to play. Always compelling, Mario’s compositions and releases continue to satisfy. He is a consummate bass player, composer and leader.
-Larry Blood, KUSP-FM

The bassist's contrapuntal writing updates the jazz tradition in subtle, inventive ways, bending the rules, rather than breaking them. Pavone's music exudes a living, breathing quality.
-Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com

Bassist Mario Pavone's units are lean outfits built for dancing fast and scrimmaging hard through the leader's challenging yet tuneful book of original compositions.
-Time Out New York

...veteran bassist Mario Pavone has been producing a body of work acclaimed by the jazz cogniscenti, though it doesn’t receive as much attention as it deserves...this set is a fine example of what contemporary jazz should be about.
-Marc Chénard, Coda

Pavone writes pieces full of smart angular swagger and the group nails them with assurance, collectively stretching them with an elastic sense of free swing. [His] stalwart bass provides is in evidence throughout, voicing the themes, playing counterpoint to piano and reeds, and stepping out for trenchant solos. Here is a band steeped in the tradition from bop to freedom, with the smarts and originality to make music that grabs the listener from start to finish.
-Michael Rosenstein, Signal to Noise

A thrilling combination of the oblique and the clearly- stated, Boom is another fine offering from Pavone, who continues to move the tradition forward with every record.
-John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com

Freebop is the bassist-composer’s meaty metier; his tunes are sculpted so swing-based extrapolations have plenty of elbow room, and his bands are staffed to make sure that elbow room is filled with the most inventive sounds possible.
-Jim Macnie, Village Voice

Bassist Mario Pavone continues to offer exciting and stimulating music on this latest work with his quintet and trio. As for the compositions, what makes them so compelling is the spontaneity, despite the written lines, and the high caliber soloists, who consistently provide substance for interested ears. This is a superb release...with both soulful and complex patterns for the multi-faceted listener.
-Jay Collins, Cadence

Pavone's agreeable music should hold appeal for listeners of both inside and outside persuasions, from those enamored of hard bop and post-bop through to those favoring more open-ended styles of jazz exploration. Orange deserves space on the shelf next to classic Blue Note, Prestige, and Riverside releases, as well as jazz discs of more recent vintage from New World, Tzadik, and Knitting Factory, not to mention Playscape. What stronger recommendation could be made?
-Dave Lynch, All Music Guide

...a cutting-edge bassist and composer...
-David Adler, New Music Box

...Pavone’s postbop compositions mix a biting intelligence with a hard- wound feel for the blues.
-Aaron Steinberg, JazzTimes

Orange, the second disc by Pavone's Nu Trio/Quintet, sets the bar extremely high. Nine neatly calibrated originals — four trios, five quintets — are masterful examples of group interplay, rooted in a compelling union of smarts and intuition, predetermined and ephemeral forms. At the heart of things is an extraordinary pulse — sometimes swinging, sometimes grinding and sometimes sliced into pieces.
-Greg Buium, DownBeat

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