Mario Pavone - Trio Arc

Bassist/composer Mario Pavone has collaborated with both legendary innovators and today's most respected young musicians to consistently define the cutting edge of jazz for the past 40 years. He has anchored the trios of Paul Bley (1968-72 & 2008), Bill Dixon (1980's), and the late Thomas Chapin (1990-97), and co-led a variety of notable ensembles with Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Marty Ehrlich, and Michael Musillami. His list of sidemen past and present includes Steven Bernstein, Gerald Cleaver, Dave Douglas, Peter Madsen, Tony Malaby, Joshua Redman, George Schuller, Michael Sarin, Craig Taborn, and Matt Wilson among many others. And, unlike most artists whose careers span five decades, his most recent recordings are his most widely acclaimed, appearing on best-of-the-year lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, AllAboutJazz-New York, Coda, the Village Voice, and the New York Times among others. Although a long career in jazz awaited him, Pavone never received formal music training and didn't seriously encounter jazz until his freshman year at the University of Connecticut in 1958. Growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut, he developed a fondness for black R&B vocal groups, as well as the 1940's movie music he heard as a child, but a college friend's jazz record collectionâ€"and seeing John Coltrane one fateful night at the Village Vanguard in 1961â€"set him on the musical path. With legendary guitarist/fellow Waterbury native Joe Diorio's encouragement, Pavone rented a bass in the summer of 1964 and began plucking out the percussive sound that would become his trademark. He was playing professionally by 1965, though his full-time job was putting his Industrial Engineering degree to work for major corporations. Upon hearing the news about Coltrane's death in 1967, he left his briefcase on his desk, got in the car, and drove to the funeral, where he decided on the spot to dedicate the rest of his life to music. He toured Europe with Paul Bley in 1968, and performed on the pianist's recording, Canada (Radio Canada), with Barry Altschul. Soon after he met vibraphonist/composer Bobby Naughton, among others, and became a part of New York's early 70's loft scene with groups like Bill Dixon's Orchestra of the Streets. By 1975, he was a founding member of the New Haven, Connecticut-based Creative Music Improvisers Forum (CMIF), with Naughton, Wadada Leo Smith, Gerry Hemingway, Wes Brown, Reverend Dwight Andrews and others, which produced concerts and recordings that gave musicians more control over their own music. In 1980, Pavone began an 18-year musical relationship with Thomas Chapin, which would lead to a number of collaborations, most notably Chapin's seminal trio with drummer Michael Sarin. Around the same time, Pavone recorded his first titles as a leader, 1979's Digit and 1981's Shodo on his own Alacra label, crediting Naughton and Smith with motivating him to write his own music and teaching him about open-ended composition. Since Chapin's untimely death in 1998, Pavone has recorded exclusively with his own bands, with the exception of his son Michael's 2001 debut, Trio (Playscape). His discography now features 17 recordings as a leader/co-leader, including his acclaimed 2006 release, Deez to Blues, on Playscape Recordings, the label he has called home since 1999. In addition to his ongoing activities as a bandleader, Pavone's artwork and photography have graced the covers of dozens of recordings since the mid 90's, and he currently serves as an educator, administrator and board member for the Litchfield Jazz Festival and Litchfield Summer Jazz Camp in Litchfield, Connecticut. Trio Arc Featuring: Mario Pavone - bass w/ special guest, Paul Bley - piano Matt Wilson - drums Rave Reviews: Top 10 of 2008 list - â€" David R. Adler, Jazzhouse.org **** 1/2...There’s a sense that the tracks on Trio Arc are not so much seven discrete recordings but part of a continuum that is tuned into from time to time, snapshots representing facets of a greater whole...unlike many free-form dates, there’s no time wasted on searching for common ground or playing tug-of-war between divergent visions. Each of the six trio pieces (the disc ends with a brief solo performance by Bley) is concise and focused. â€" Shaun Brady, DownBeat The six spontaneous group inventions provide evidence of the trio’s synergy, which produces music full of free-spiritedness and open thinking. Bley is the chief catalyst, luminously restless, tossing forth glistening melodies and elliptical motifs with an eye for momentum. Bley’s partners are right at his back, with Pavone’s electrifying pizzicato work stoking excursions like the bouyant “Slant.' Wilson’s joyously propulsive drums enliven each cut... â€" Jay Collins, Signal to Noise Bley never gives a bad performance and here he’s on top of his form...what’s truly special about this session is that Pavone and Wilson clearly just did their own thing, while Bley found a way to fit in and fill the spaces. Listen to the excellent 'Lazzi' and the lovely shape-shifting 'Sweet.' They seem to define everything that’s so good about this album. â€" Duncan Heining, Jazzwise The resulting trio creates vibrant, interactive improvisations that can stand comparison with that great late-'60s Bley group. The conversational give-and-take between the three players is fresh and exciting. This is 'free' jazz in the best sense of the word, free of agenda or ideology, and totally committed to collective creativity without preconceptions or limits. â€" Ted Gioia, Jazz.com (Song of the Day 6/25/08) What a reunion, and Wilson fits right in. The symbiosis of Pavone and Wilson is remarkable. It is a beautiful amalgam of sounds, and it leaves the listener wanting more. â€" Steve Greenlee, JazzTimes The energy of this record is restless; the music searches, explores and stretches. It is the sound of three minds listening to each other's ideas with such intensity as to make the ensemble sound irresistibly tense and compellingâ€"an aural cliffhanger. â€" Craig Schum, Beyond Race Recommended New Release (July 2008) â€" David Adler, AllAboutJazz-New York Recommended New Release (June 2008) â€" Laurence Donohue-Greene, AllAboutJazz-New York The teamwork between the three is nothing short of breathtaking, the empathy enormous, and the music itself at a very high level. A must have for lovers of this kind of spontaneous composition; this is not so much a throwback to the â€-60s as a modern update, and a welcome one indeed. â€" Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide There are many moments to savor...Trio Arc is a disc of music as timeless and innovative as only a piano trio can be. â€" Robert Iannapollo, AllAboutJazz-New York Sensitive and probing, Pavone's bass playing is graced with collective empathy and individual melodic inventions that create arias amid even the most airborne flights...Bley explores resonant new corners with varied tonal colors, wry dissonance, surprising intervals, muted timbres in the bass and even, briefly, by plucking the piano's inside strings. Brilliant throughout, Wilson works with a rich palette of colors, always a painter, never a pounder. â€" Owen McNally, Hartford Courant This is my favorite piano trio disc of 2008, without any doubt. â€" Owen McNally, Hartford Courant Recorded with no rehearsal or discussion about the possible outcome, these seven tunes demonstrate the trio's intuitive abilities as they modulate between fervid expressionism and restrained finesse; their excursions offer a concise balance of instrumental sonorities, sensitive interplay and dynamic range. A modern classic, Trio Arc is a superlative and timeless example of free improvisation. â€" Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com The surprise here is that Trio Arc is a freely improvised session. Once or twice, I detected echoes of Pavone's early 'Bass Ballad' and even a snatch in the bass of Tom Chapin's 'Aeolus', but for the most part, these are flowing, organic ideas