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Per Zanussi

Born in 1977, Per Zanussi grew up in Stavanger, Norway with an Italian father and Norwegian mother. He started playing various instruments at five but picked up the bass at 13 playing in rock bands. After discovering jazz he quickly switched to double bass.

In 1996, while still a student in Trondheim he founded the electronic project Wibutee together with Håkon Kornstad and Wetle Holte.This outfit recorded 3 albums with Zanussi and toured most of the world in the following years.

In 2001 he founded his longest lasting project to date, Zanussi 5, playing Zanussi's compositions in an acoustic format. This group has recorded 2 albums and 2 more are on their way: One as a quintet and one as a version of Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, a twelve piece group.

Zanussi has a Masters degree in music from the Conservatory in Trondheim and the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, concentrating on double bass and composition.His compositional work has so far resulted in music for prize winning theatre and dance performances and short films as well as comissions for Trondheim Jazz Orchestra/Zanussi 5 and Stavanger's Kitchen Orchestra

In addition to Zanussi Five he is a member of MZN3, Trespass Trio (with Martin Kuchen and Raymond Strid), Crimetime Orchestra and several other projects.

Zanussi has recorded or played on occasion with Hamid Drake, Louis Moholo, Paal Nilssen-Love, Bobby Bradford, Frode Gjerstad, Sabir Mateen, Franklin Kiermyer, Stephen O'Malley, Axel Dörner, Klas Nevrin, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Bugge Wesseltoft, Sten Sandell, Mats Gustafsson, Seijiro Muriyama, Raymond Strid, Sten Åke Holmlander, Kjetil Møster, David Stackenäs, Kjell Nordeson, Terrie Ex, Kevin Norton, Ivar Grydeland, Ernesto Rodrigues, Tetuzi Akiyama, Håvard Wiik and others.

www.perzanussi.com www.myspace.com/zanussi

Les mer: http://www.myspace.com/perzanussi#ixzz0ue61UG2Z

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5
Album Review

Trespass Trio featuring Susana Santos Silva: Live In Oslo

Read "Live In Oslo" reviewed by John Sharpe


Although Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen is the toast of festival-goers across Europe for the variously sized Angles ensembles he fronts, which revel in sometimes exuberant, sometimes heart-rending riff-fuelled anthems, he also pursues somewhat more somber strands of expression. One involves the sort of adventurous sonic explorations heard on Animal Quotes (Relative Pitch, 2022). But another, and the one heard on Live In Oslo, finds him in small group settings designed to negotiate his often dirge-like compositions. For this ...

5
Album Review

Trespass Trio featuring Susana Santos Silva: Live in Oslo

Read "Live in Oslo" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Adding Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva to Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen's Trespass Trio for the 2018 Blowout Festival in Oslo, Norway was “a no-brainer." The inclusion of her trumpet, which features in ensembles led by Mats Gustafsson, Fred Frith, and Torbjörn Zetterberg, to name but a few, requires little or no thought. It is as if the four previous Clean Feed releases by the Trespass Trio, The Spirit Of Pitești (2017), Human Encore (2013), Bruder Beda (2012), and “---was there ...

1
Album Review

Oyvind Braekke: Wilderness

Read "Wilderness" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Il trombonista Øyvind Brække è uno dei massimi strumentisti norvegesi ed è conosciuto per le incisioni Ecm col quartetto cooperativo The Source, la presenza nella Trondheim Jazzorkester e varie collaborazioni internazionali con Chick Corea, Arild Andersen e col sassofonista scozzese Tommy Smith. A cinquant'anni d'età registra il suo primo disco da leader in un sestetto strumentalmente anomalo comprendente trombone, viola e sax tenore più una ritmica con chitarra come strumento armonico. Anche i partner sono 40/50enni appartenenti al ...

18
Album Review

Øyvind Braekke: Wilderness

Read "Wilderness" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


Best known for his work with fellow countrymen Trygve Seim, Per Oddvar Johansen and Mats Eilertsen on ECM's The Source (ECM 2006), trombonist Øyvind Braekke belongs among Norway's hidden treasures as far as arrangers and composers go. On Wilderness he displays delicate oversight at arranging six voices so that each instrument conveys a unique purpose. From intimate dialogues to orchestral proportions, the sextet covers a large spectrum sonically as well as compositionally—delivering a diversified yet conceptually determined set of exciting ...

2
Album Review

Zanussi 5: Live in Coimbra

Read "Live in Coimbra" reviewed by Vic Albani


Nato a Oslo nel 1977 ma con un papà che sicuramente norvegese non è (e che quasi sicuramente non ha nemmeno a che fare con il famoso marchio di costruttori di cucine italiche), l'energetico contrabbassista italo-norvegese ha avuto la buona idea di registrare i propri interventi live tenuti il 31 maggio e il 1° giugno 2013 al Jazz ao Centro Festival di Coimbra (Portogallo) e di farne poi ascoltare il risultato agli usualmente molto svegli tipi della Clean Feed di ...

40
Album Review

Per Zanussi 5: Live in Coimbra

Read "Live in Coimbra" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Here, Norwegian master bassist Per Zanussi is the leader and director of operations. Recorded live at a Portuguese jazz festival, the three-man reed section weaves mega contrasts and disparate tonalities into the mix with subtle or pronounced variances, contrapuntal phrasings, and sweltering, rough-hewn ostinatos. They embrace Middle Eastern modalities, free bop, funk and other genres via tempestuous solo spots, tuneful choruses and powerful exchanges, equating to a kaleidoscopic exhibition. On the final track “All Wrath," the band dishes ...

62
Album Review

Zanussi 13: Live

Read "Live" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Don't let anyone tell you that size doesn't matter. It does. For a large jazz ensemble, size often dictates sound: its suppleness or lack of. This is not a problem for the malleable Zanussi 13. This live recording from a 2001 performance in Oslo displays an unpretentious big band that deals with size by exploiting its forcefulness, but also by not getting caught up in the trappings of size.Norwegian bassist Zanussi was first noted as a member of ...

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"Zanussi is a fleet and inventive bassist. He gets around on his instrument like a horn player, without sacrificing quality of sound, which can't be said of every bassist I've heard recently."Chris Kelsey, Jazztimes

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Live in Oslo

Clean Feed Records
2023

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Live In Oslo

Clean Feed Records
2023

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Wilderness

Oslo Session Recordings
2020

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Live in Coimbra

Clean Feed Records
2015

buy

Live in Coimbra

Clean Feed Records
2014

buy

Live

Soul Note
2012

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