On November 9th, Playscape Recordings will release acclaimed bassist/composer Mario Pavone's 20th title as a leader, Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po (PSR#061010), the studio recording of his new five-part suite of the same name. Pavone composed this extended work for his latest group, Orange Double Tenor, after receiving a commission from Chamber Music America's 2009 New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development program funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Joining Pavone in this sextet are trumpeter Dave Ballou, saxophonists Tony Malaby and Jimmy Greene, pianist Peter Madsen and drummer Gerald Cleaver. This studio recording of the suite, which the band has been performing live since June, is being released the week of Pavone's 70th birthday.
“As I am in my 70th year (and 45th year in music)," Pavone explained in his original proposal for the project, “I have reflected on the 1960's—a time of incredible change and transformation—and as such I was THERE and experienced first-hand not just the musicality of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Charles Mingus, but the physical presence of these giants and the sociopolitical issues their work addressed. I look to re-envision and re-interpret in today's idiom, and in my compositional systems, the feeling, ethos and energy of that time and those players." Helping him bring this vision to life are special guest arrangers, and longtime collaborators, Steven Bernstein and Michael Musillami who, along with Pavone and Ballou, each arranged individual movements within the suite.
“Pavone, who earned his engineering degree from the University of Connecticut, thinks in imaginative, mathematical terms that are open-ended and poetic and never merely formulaic," wrote the Hartford Courant's Owen McNally in his preview of Orange Double Tenor's August 7th performanceat the Litchfield Jazz Festival. “His conceptions seem inspired by a liberating form of musical calculus that is all about change and motion, range and emotion. At the same time, this master engineer of aesthetic balance allows structure to reign but never restrain his own or his collaborators' surging spontaneous creativity." In his review of the performance for the same paper, Chuck Obuchowski recalled, “Pavone and his Orange Double Tenor ensemble offered a bold presentation of the recently commissioned Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po. The 69-year-old Connecticut bassist/composer still sounded vital and utterly unique."
For more than four decades, Pavone has consistently helped define jazz's cutting edge, first as a sideman to such legendary figures as Paul Bley, Thomas Chapin and Bill Dixon, and most recently as a highly regarded bandleader in his own right. Known to critics as “one of the very best—and when on his game, by far the best—small-group composer/leaders working on the East Coast" (Brian Morton, Point of Departure), he has been called “a smart composer" (Nate Chinen, New York Times) and “a protean bassist" (Paul Blair, Hot House) who “never fails to implant an effective hook" (Bill Shoemaker, DownBeat) and “continues to move the tradition forward with every record" (John Kelman, All About Jazz). When not leading or composing for his own groups, or collaborating with members of the latest generation of creative improvisers, such as saxophonist Pete Robbins and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, Pavone is an avid photographer and President of Litchfield Performing Arts, presenter of the annual Litchfield Jazz Festival and Litchfield Jazz Camp.
“As I am in my 70th year (and 45th year in music)," Pavone explained in his original proposal for the project, “I have reflected on the 1960's—a time of incredible change and transformation—and as such I was THERE and experienced first-hand not just the musicality of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Charles Mingus, but the physical presence of these giants and the sociopolitical issues their work addressed. I look to re-envision and re-interpret in today's idiom, and in my compositional systems, the feeling, ethos and energy of that time and those players." Helping him bring this vision to life are special guest arrangers, and longtime collaborators, Steven Bernstein and Michael Musillami who, along with Pavone and Ballou, each arranged individual movements within the suite.
“Pavone, who earned his engineering degree from the University of Connecticut, thinks in imaginative, mathematical terms that are open-ended and poetic and never merely formulaic," wrote the Hartford Courant's Owen McNally in his preview of Orange Double Tenor's August 7th performanceat the Litchfield Jazz Festival. “His conceptions seem inspired by a liberating form of musical calculus that is all about change and motion, range and emotion. At the same time, this master engineer of aesthetic balance allows structure to reign but never restrain his own or his collaborators' surging spontaneous creativity." In his review of the performance for the same paper, Chuck Obuchowski recalled, “Pavone and his Orange Double Tenor ensemble offered a bold presentation of the recently commissioned Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po. The 69-year-old Connecticut bassist/composer still sounded vital and utterly unique."
For more than four decades, Pavone has consistently helped define jazz's cutting edge, first as a sideman to such legendary figures as Paul Bley, Thomas Chapin and Bill Dixon, and most recently as a highly regarded bandleader in his own right. Known to critics as “one of the very best—and when on his game, by far the best—small-group composer/leaders working on the East Coast" (Brian Morton, Point of Departure), he has been called “a smart composer" (Nate Chinen, New York Times) and “a protean bassist" (Paul Blair, Hot House) who “never fails to implant an effective hook" (Bill Shoemaker, DownBeat) and “continues to move the tradition forward with every record" (John Kelman, All About Jazz). When not leading or composing for his own groups, or collaborating with members of the latest generation of creative improvisers, such as saxophonist Pete Robbins and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, Pavone is an avid photographer and President of Litchfield Performing Arts, presenter of the annual Litchfield Jazz Festival and Litchfield Jazz Camp.
