Flautist and shakuhachi master Geni Skendo does not genre-mash so much as genre-crash, like a late-night interloper joining a lame party and livening it up with exotic sound. It's miraculous, this color he brings to anything, given the drab Iron Curtain he exited under on his flight from his native Albania, traveling to Boston, Massachusetts to study at Berklee College of Music in 2002. Shy but my no means timid, he has rendered his jolt of culture shock into a journey inward and outward through the world of American jazz and beyond.
The most noticeable thing about his music, at first, his is gorgeous, precise, impeccable tone—one that he can modify for the most divergent of styles. That would be enough, but he can improvise skillfully and, in addition, lead an ensemble with confidence and aplomb. Breaking molds with the force of an iconoclast, with one hand, he reshapes them with a deep taste for tradition with the other.
Gordon Marshall spoke with Skendo recently, about the cultural backdrop of his growing-up years, that is an inescapable influence in his music today, and his work with vibraphonist Brian O'Neill and Mr Ho's Orchestriotica.
Check out Geni Skendo: Breaking Free, today at All About Jazz!
The most noticeable thing about his music, at first, his is gorgeous, precise, impeccable tone—one that he can modify for the most divergent of styles. That would be enough, but he can improvise skillfully and, in addition, lead an ensemble with confidence and aplomb. Breaking molds with the force of an iconoclast, with one hand, he reshapes them with a deep taste for tradition with the other.
Gordon Marshall spoke with Skendo recently, about the cultural backdrop of his growing-up years, that is an inescapable influence in his music today, and his work with vibraphonist Brian O'Neill and Mr Ho's Orchestriotica.
Check out Geni Skendo: Breaking Free, today at All About Jazz!
