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David Ambrosio
David Ambrosio is one of New York City’s finest freelance musicians and educators for the past 20 years. He is the co-leader of two collaborative bands, Grupo Los Santos and 40Twenty, as well as being a part of many groups including George Schuller’s Circle Wide, the Matt Renzi Trio, Eri Yamamoto Trio and the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra led by Jim McNeely. He has also performed with such jazz greats as pianist Kenny Werner, Terry Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco, George Garzone, Joseph Jarmon and Ralph Alessi. David recently released his second recording as leader entitled “MOMENTS IN TIME“ available on the SteepleChase Label.With degrees in Classical composition and Jazz performance, David has a broad musical palate that has become intensified by some unique travel experiences. In 2001 he had the opportunity to perform in Cuba with Grupo Los Santos, Max Pollack’s Rumbatap and local Afro/Cuban folkloric music and dance ensembles. Soon after that he began what has become an 12-year period of intense study of Afro/Cuban Bata drumming with master drummers Miguel Bernal, Carlos Gomez and Carlos Aldama. He has frequently toured in Central and South East Asia on behalf of the US State Department as a performer and clinician.David is currently on faculty of both the New York Jazz Academy and the Queens College Center for Preparatory Studies in Music.
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Civil Disobedience at Joe's Pub
by Max Kutner
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 ...
Continue ReadingDavid Ambrosio Honors The Spirit of the '60s With Civil Disobedience
by John Chacona
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 ...
Continue ReadingCivil Disobedience: Blue Note In The Progressive Sixties
by Mark Corroto
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 ...
Continue ReadingTom Gershwin: Wellspring
by Jack Bowers
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 ...
Continue ReadingDavid Ambrosio's Civil Disobedience at The Roads Bistro
by Mark Robbins
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 ...
Continue ReadingDavid Ambrosio's Civil Disobedience: 50 Years in the Making
by Paul Rauch
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 ...
Continue ReadingEri Yamamoto Trio: A Woman With A Purple Wig
by Jerome Wilson
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 ...
Continue Reading"Ambrosio possesses an unerring sense of groove that's similar to Holland's (Dave)..." - John Kelman, All About Jazz
"Dave Ambrosio is a wealth of musical inventiveness in both technique and note selection" - Chris Imrie, The Guelph Mercury
"Ambrosio has sensitivity to dynamic concerns and an ability to react instantly" - Chris Kelsey, Jazz Times
"Ambrosio stretches and bends like a rubber man".... - Rex Butters, All About Jazz
"This bassist is a powerful melodist who refuses to reside in the back of an ensemble by the sheer strength of his full-frontal polyrhythmic attack" - Raul Da Gama, Latin Jazz Network
Photos
Music
Poinciana
From: Moment's NoticeBy David Ambrosio
Irina
From: Civil DisobedienceBy David Ambrosio
Two Islands III
From: Atwood SuitesBy David Ambrosio
Let It Go
From: GONEBy David Ambrosio
Future Homage
From: Clave HeartBy David Ambrosio
Entre Dongan Y Adren
From: Clave HeartBy David Ambrosio
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David Ambrosio
Location: New York City
Instrument: Bass
Born: April 1, 1968
