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Albey Balgochian

Relentlessly pursuing his love for his instrument, NYC bassist Albey Balgochian captures the pure essence of soul in his playing. Synchronistically introspective and extrospective, he explores self-expression, uncovering sounds of profound beauty. He ventures out beyond musical constraints, bending notes inside out, making them talk, sing and squeal. Most often melodic, each piece tells a short story, invoking images of animated characters as he captivates you with rhythmic, harmonic, melodic and percussive variations of strings and wood and fingers and bows and silence. Drawing from his vast musical roots, Balgochian's musical inspiration is the conversation of life's colors, textures, sounds and emotions, known and unknown.
A part of the downtown music scene since the 1970s, his public profile has escalated since joining with the Cecil Taylor Trio & Big Band. Best Performances '05 & '09 Cecil Taylor Trio & Big Band - All About Jazz

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120
Album Review

Miguel Algarin and Albey Balgochian: Soul To Sol

Read "Soul To Sol" reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni


A truly remarkable meeting of spoken poetry and improvised double bass playing. Puerto Rican mastermind and poet Miguel Algarin is a prolific and influential literary figure in the United States and Latin America, founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, and editor of an important compilation of Nuyorican Poetry. Albey Balgochian is a resourceful and inventive bassist who has collaborated with Cecil Taylor and Dom Minasi. Algarin is a unique storyteller, with a rich, expressive voice. He reads ...

125
Album Review

Miguel Algarin and Albey Balgochian: Soul To Sol

Read "Soul To Sol" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Miguel Algarin is a Puerto Rican poet, founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café and Emeritus Professor of English at Rutgers University. Albey Balgochian is an improvising bassist who's worked with guitarist Dom Minasi and Cecil Taylor, in the pianist's trio and big band. Together for the first time on Soul To Sol Algarin and Balgochian spark off each other, words and music combining superbly on a series of duets between double bass and human voice. Algarin clearly ...

Read more articles
Balgochian's exploration of the underbelly of the bass is a study in the flexibility of the instrument and its alter-ego to depict the world of the dark andmysterious psyche. Susan Frances - Jazz Review.com
"Balgochian on bass, no frills just thrills, with taste and style" Off Beat Magazine, New Orleans Music & Arts
"he's all over the music like a man with the most vibrant lust for life" - Nic Jones, All about Jazz
"Be prepared to go places you've never been before" - Bass Inside Mag

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Soul To Sol

Ruby Flower Records
2011

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Taxi Of Reality

Unknown label
2002

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