Articles | Popular | Future

A Focus on Mario Pavone & More

By Bob Osborne

This week a focus on master bassist Mario Pavone who, after a life of partnerships with the likes of Paul Bley, Bill Dixon, Thomas Chapin, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Marty Ehrlich and others of similar status, has come to the fore in recent years with his own releases as leader. In addition a selection of new releases, and some picks from the archive. Playlist Brom “Plunge Into an Ice Hole" from Sunstroke (Trost) 00:00 Burak Bedikyan “Magic Carpet" from ...

Mario Pavone: Vertical

By Don Phipps

The moody, complex, witty, playful and abstract music found on Vertical can only result from the combined genius of six talented musicians. And Mario Pavone has assembled just such an ensemble for this release. Pedigree aside, this music explores gentle improvisation and abstractions, a formless within form approach that echoes the work of Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, and Charles Mingus. All tracks open in clever and interesting ways. Take the initial piece, “Ellipse," with its syncopated bop start. ...

Mario Pavone Dialect Trio: Chrome

By Dan McClenaghan

Piano trios seeking a level of parity of instrumental input are common. Those who achieve a high level of piano/bass/drums democracy develop a group sound born of a melding of musical personalities. With strong personalities all around--as on the Mario Pavone Dialect Trio--a beautiful tumult is born. Chrome is bassist Pavone's second Dialect Trio release, following 2015's Blue Dialect (Playscape Recordings). A big part of the allure of Chrome is the head-bumping and elbow throwing between the three ...

Mario Pavone: Blue Dialect

By Mark Corroto

Gone are the days where a jazz trio maintains a three month residency, playing nightly in a club. Nor are there world traveling units that refine their skills nightly on the road, working and reworking material. There will be no more piano trios led by the likes of Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans. But have no fear, there are combinations, encounters, and partnerships that come together with just the players to make special music. Bassist Mario Pavone's new ...

Mario Pavone: Street Songs

By Mark Corroto

Listing an accordion in a jazz sextet's lineup evokes either thoughts of avant-garde leanings or maybe kitschy hipsterism. Not so for bassist Mario Pavone. Street Songs includes Adam Matlock's bellows-driven squeezebox, not as a gimcrack ornament, but a link to the immigrant working class neighborhood music of Pavone's post-WW II youth. The musician's history is significant because his bass has anchored modern music including bands by innovators such as Paul Bley, Bill Dixon, Thomas Chapin, Anthony Braxton, and ...

Mario Pavone Orange Double Tenor: Arc Suite t/pi t/po

By Nic Jones

This release is something of a milestone for bassist and leader Mario Pavone. Now in his 70th year, he's also in his 45th year in music, which in a lot of cases would understandably mark a slowing down or restatement of established values. But Pavone is nothing if not forward-looking. So while looking back to the 1960s for inspiration for this music, he's succeeded in putting together a program alive with contemporary values.In order for this to happen, ...

Mario Pavone Double Tenor Quintet: Ancestors

By Nic Jones

This is bassist Mario Pavone's second release of 2008 and it's every bit as strong as the earlier Trio Arc, also on Playscape. In marked contrast to the piano trio featured there, the quintet fronted by two tenor saxophones here is a more heated, volatile affair. The resulting contrast is as good an example as any of the amount of ground Pavone covers.

He's aided in that respect by having big ears. There are times here, as with the febrile ...

Mario Pavone Double Tenor Quintet: Ancestors

By Troy Collins

Ancestors marks the debut of bassist Mario Pavone's Double Tenor Quintet. A tireless bandleader and endlessly resourceful composer, Pavone's nineteenth release as a leader is his tenth recording for guitarist Michael Musillami's Playscape label. Dedicated to iconic masters Andrew Hill and Dewey Redman, Pavone pays homage to their legacies with a robust, unflagging set rich in soulful intensity and harmonic complexity.

Longtime associate pianist Peter Madsen and veteran drummer Gerald Cleaver join Pavone as unassailable rhythm section partners, ...

Mario Pavone Double Tenor Quintet: Ancestors

By Mark Corroto

It might be cliche to say that the recording Ancestors by Mario Pavone's Double Tenor Quintet has caught lightning in a bottle, but this is indeed a potent feat of extraordinary music making. The bassist/leader became famous as the primary accompanist for the late saxophonist Thomas Chapin. In the ten years since Chapin's death in 1998, Pavone has distinguished himself with his own groups such as Trio Arc, with Paul Bley and Matt Wilson, his various quartets and quintets, plus ...

Mario Pavone: Trio Arc

By Robert Iannapollo

Bassist Mario Pavone's first recording was as a member of pianist Paul Bley's trio on the little-heard 1968 release Canada (Radio Canada International). This was when Bley's trio was at the peak of its acoustic glory, but Pavone's tenure was short-lived as Bley moved into an electronic phase shortly after. Pavone would go on after to release a number of fine recordings of his own forward-looking music as well collaborating with such players as Bill Dixon, Anthony Braxton and Thomas ...

Mario Pavone: Trio Arc

By Nic Jones

This is a meeting of minds. Bassist Mario Pavone first worked with pianist Paul Bley some forty years ago, but there's something about the music they produce in this trio setting with drummer Matt Wilson that renders the issue of time irrelevant. What makes it so is the underlying impression that this is music destined never to be resolved, as if the musicians making it are so clear in their innate understanding both of each other and their collective musical ...

Mario Pavone: Trio Arc

By Troy Collins

Trio Arc is bassist Mario Pavone's 18th recording as a leader, and the first to consist entirely of totally improvised music. Reuniting with his former mentor, legendary pianist Paul Bley, for the first time in 35 years, this freewheeling session recalls the halcyon days of the early Loft Era of the 1970s.

Pavone made his recording debut on Bley's Canada (Radio Canada, 1968) and continued to tour with the pianist in trio formation with drummers Barry Altschul and Laurence Cook ...