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Dave Pietro

A native of Southboro, Massachusetts, Dave Pietro has been on the New York jazz scene since 1987. His talents as a gifted saxophonist, composer, and educator have made him an in-demand musician leading to performances at jazz clubs, jazz festivals, schools and concert halls in more than 30 countries throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America.

From 1994-2003 Dave played lead alto saxophone and recorded six CD’s with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. He has also toured and/or recorded with the bands of Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Maria Schneider, The Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, John Fedchock, Arturo O’Farrill and Jim Widner among others. In addition Pietro has performed with may other well known musicians such as Paul Anka, Louis Bellson, Blood Sweat & Tears, Bobby Caldwell, Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, Harry Connick Jr., Michael Feinstein, Chaka Khan, Liza Minnelli, James Naughton and John Pizzarelli. Dave also studies East Indian music and has performed with various groups led by Indian tablist Sandip Burman.

As a leader, Dave has released five CD’s with musicians such as Dave Holland, Kenny Werner, Ben Monder, Bill Stewart, Brian Blade, Scott Colley, David Berkman, Scott Wendholt, Duduka De Fonseca, Helio Alves and Pete McCann. "Now Becoming Then" (1999 A-Records) was called a “rich feast for listeners” by Bill Bennett of Jazz Times. “Standard Wonder-The Music of Stevie Wonder” (A-Records) was voted one of the top 10 jazz CD’s of 2001 by Bob Blumenthal of the Boston Globe and Bill Milkowski of Jazz Times and received 4 stars from Downbeat magazine. Pietro’s fifth CD “Embrace: Impressions of Brazil” (2004 A-Records) “is a triumph...one of the most satisfying Brazilian jazz mixes since the first bossa nova tsunami” according to Judith Schlesinger of AllAboutJazz.com.

Dave was selected as a semi-finalist for the first two Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Saxophone Competitions (1991 & 1996) and was a finalist in the 1995 JAZZIZ Magazine "Woodwinds on Fire" talent search. In 1996 he was the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2002 he was selected as runner-up in the Second Annual Jazzconnect.com International Jazz Competition. In 2005 he was the recipient of a grant from Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation Program and recently recorded his newly commissioned piece “The Chakra Suite” with Gary Versace, Rez Abbasi, Todd Isler, Johannes Weidenmueller and Adam Cruz. It is due to be released in October 2008.

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Album Review

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Read "Dynamic Maximum Tension" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Precursore nel 2009 (con l'innovativo Infernal Machines) del nuovo rinascimento orchestrale nel jazz, Darcy James Argue approda all'etichetta Nonesuch e pubblica il nuovo album in studio: un doppio CD realizzato con i consueti partner della Secret Society più l'aggiunta della cantante Cecile McLorin Salvant e della violinista Sara Caswell. A differenza degli ultimi due dischi, Dynamic Maximum Tension non è un'opera multimediale ma conserva la spinta visionaria animata dalla costante riflessione socio-politica. Spinta che si traduce in ...

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Album Review

Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Read "Dynamic Maximum Tension" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Darcy James Argue's superb double-album Nonesuch debut offers compositions written throughout his career. He turns to twentieth-century thinkers for “ideas that can help us in the present, that we can reexamine and reconfigure for our own purposes." These include futurist designer Buckminster Fuller, cryptanalyst-computer scientist Alan Turing, composer-arranger Bob Brookmeyer, actress-screenwriter Mae West, trumpeter-mentor Laurie Frink, and musician-beyond-category Duke Ellington, among others. Like West, Argue seems to control his own path. He may not yet be the tycoon she was, ...

5
Album Review

The Peter Leitch New Jazz Orchestra: New Life

Read "New Life" reviewed by Jack Bowers


After what Canadian-born guitarist Peter Leitch has been through in the last eight years, it's little wonder he named the ensemble he now leads the New Life Jazz Orchestra. Diagnosed in 2012 with stage 4 lung cancer, Leitch faced the choice of throwing in the proverbial towel or undergoing career-ending cancer treatment. He chose the latter, reluctantly setting aside his instrument of choice and continuing his musical career as a composer, arranger and conductor of an orchestra whose library consists ...

3
Album Review

Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords

Read "Data Lords" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


C'è molto da dire sul nuovo album di Maria Schneider ma la prima e più importante considerazione riguarda la musica: sorprendente per ricchezza e novità di soluzioni, tensione narrativa e sintesi tra ricerca e tradizione. È uno dei suoi dischi più avvincenti e innovativi. L'incubazione del progetto è durata alcuni anni (il precedente The Thompson Fields è del 2015) e si lega alla presa di coscienza della bandleader sui pericoli connessi alla raccolta dei dati personali dalle società dell'universo digitale. ...

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Album Review

Maria Schneider: Data Lords

Read "Data Lords" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Well someone doesn't seem too happy with the digital world. But that's nothing new for Maria Schneider. The Grammy-award winning composer and bandleader has been an outspoken critic of copyright abuses in the digital and streaming world of music for the biggest part of the last decade. On her newest effort, she sets her justified quarrels with the industry to music by juxtaposing the cold world of ones and zeroes, comprised on the first CD titled “The Digital World," in ...

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Album Review

Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords

Read "Data Lords" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Composer Maria Schneider has long been writing and speaking about the dangers of the omnipresent digital universe, intellectual property theft, gathering and manipulation of personal data by big tech companies, the unchecked proliferation of false and misleading material, and so on. Those concerns form the basis of her latest musical project, Data Lords, a 2 CD set examining the conflicting realities of the digital and real worlds. The two CDs are labeled “The Digital World" and “Our Natural ...

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Album Review

Maria Schneider: Data Lords

Read "Data Lords" reviewed by Doug Hall


Maria Schneider, jazz pianist, orchestral composer and 2019 NEA Jazz Master, has just released a new double-album, Data Lords (artistShare, 2020), which creates poignant musical imagery about our data-driven world. Schneider, who has been an active advocate for musicians' rights and copyright, has followed-on this impact, citing “big data" companies as manipulators of music, culture and privacy. This collection of uniquely and emotionally rendered original compositions addresses the conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, featuring Schneider's orchestra of ...

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Recording

Dave Pietro's ArtistShare Debut "New Road: Iowa Memoirs" For Grammy Nomination Consideration

Dave Pietro's ArtistShare Debut "New Road: Iowa Memoirs" For Grammy Nomination Consideration

Source: Brian Camelio

A gifted saxophonist/composer and key member of the Multi-Grammy Award winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, Dave Pietro spent many months in Iowa working with young students in music programs all around the state as artist-in-residence. Throughout his residency, sponsored by the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditiorium, New York-based Pietro experienced the new environment, culture, and customs of the Great Midwest. Deeply inspired by the tight-knit communities, lush landscapes, and even new ways of completing every-day tasks, Pietro composed new pieces and ...

Education

Dave Pietro to Present Free Master Class This Thursday, June 14 at Saxquest

Dave Pietro to Present Free Master Class This Thursday, June 14 at Saxquest

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Saxophonist Dave Pietro (pictured) will present a free master class at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday, June 14 at Saxquest, 2114 Cherokee St. Pietro has released six albums of his own as a leader, and has received composing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and from Chamber Music America's New Works Program. He's also the former lead alto saxophonist for the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, spending nearly a decade with that band and recording six CDs with them. A ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Regina Carter's Reverse Thread, Banu Gibson, Dave Pietro, Christopher McBride, and More

Jazz This Week: Regina Carter's Reverse Thread, Banu Gibson, Dave Pietro, Christopher McBride, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

This week's jazz and creative music offerings in St. Louis would seem to have something of a nostalgic bent, with several shows recalling early New Orleans or Swing Era jazz, and one headliner who's reaching all the way back to the music's African roots. However, there also are some more modern sounds happening around town; you just have to know where to look. So, let's go to the highlights: Tonight, violinist Regina Carter (pictured) opens a four-night stand at Jazz ...

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Performance / Tour

Dave Pietro to Play Thursday, November 4 at Highway 61 Roadhouse

Dave Pietro to Play Thursday, November 4 at Highway 61 Roadhouse

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Alto saxophonist Dave Pietro (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform with the Webster Groves High School Evening Jazz Combos at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 4 at the Highway 61 Roadhouse, 34 S. Old Orchard Ave. Pietro has released six CDs as a leader and toured or recorded with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Maria Schneider, the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Arturo O'Farrill, and numerous others. The WGHS jazz combos, directed by Kevin Cole, have ...

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Performance / Tour

Dave Pietro's Banda Brazil at Detour Tonight Thursday March 25th 9:30pm - 1am

Dave Pietro's Banda Brazil at Detour Tonight Thursday March 25th 9:30pm - 1am

Source: All About Jazz

Dave Pietro's Banda Brazil celebrating their new A-Records release Embrace-Impressions of Brazil.

Featuring: Dave Pietro - saxophones Pete McCann - guitars Mike Holober - piano Leonardo Cioglia - bass Adriano Santos - drums Valtinho Anastacio - vocals & percussion Thursday March 25th 9:30pm - 1am No Cover Detour 349 East ...

"A fine fiery saxophonist and a talented arranger. An adventerous yet lyrically reflective musician who opts for open-ended fresh compositions and group empathy." John Murph - Jazz Times Magazine

"...a superb saxophonist...a very accomplished composer." Paul Evoskevich - Saxophone Journal

"Pietro has great chops and a profound imagination, and possesses a warm, accessible, lyrical sound..." Lee Lowenfish - New York Jazz Newsletter

"Though gifted with virtuosic technique, Pietro makes his point with a lyrical sensibility grounded in the soul of evocatively crafted charts. Pietro voices clearly delineated lines with one of the most appealing alto sounds in jazz. Eschewing theatrics, he swings with a postbop abandon in which every note, every phrase, every solo rings true." Chuck Berg - Jazz Times Magazine

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, alto

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

New York University adjunct faculty (1999-present). Hofstra University adjunct faculty (2001-present). For more information go to www.davepietro.com.

Clinic/Workshop Information

Dave is a Conn-Selmer artist and has given concerts and workshops at hundreds of schools across the country. For more information go to www.davepietro.com.

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Dynamic Maximum...

Nonesuch Records
2023

buy

New Life

Jazz House
2021

buy

In Flight

Red Piano Records
2020

buy

Data Lords

ArtistShare
2020

buy

Hypersphere

ArtistShare
2020

buy

Hiding Out

Zoho Music
2019

buy

Compelled

From: Hiding Out
By Dave Pietro

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