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Matt Pavolka

Matt Pavolka is, like, a dude who plays the bass. Some people think that he's totally awesome. He started out as a trombonist but couldn't take the derision. He thought chicks would dig him if he played the bass. He had it confused with the guitar. He is a redneck from the State of Indiana. He was born in Muncie. His parents went to college there with David Letterman. He grew up in Bloomington. Not far from there is a town called Raccoon, and another one called Needmore. He went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, mostly to get the hell out of Indiana. He played a lot of music there. He met many of the musicians that he works with to this day. He met his future wife. He wrote some music. He won some awards. He drank lots and lots of coffee, smoked lots and lots of cigarettes, ate bad pizza and didn't sleep much. He's much healthier now. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with his beautiful and talented wife Akiko. He makes a lot of great music with amazing musicians in New York City and abroad. He occasionally makes mediocre music with mediocre musicians, for money. He has a band that plays sporadically in the New York area, called “The Matt Pavolka Band”. They have one album out on Tone Of A Pitch Records, entitled "Something People Can Use". If someone gives them some money, they may make another one at some point. He recently formed a second band, called “The Horns Band”. It is kind of like the first band but the music is different. And the musicians. And there are horns. They have a record coming out on June 24th, 2014 on Fresh Sound New Talent Records entitled “The Horns Band”. Someone gave them money.

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Album Review

Russ Lossing: Alternative Side Parking Music

Read "Alternative Side Parking Music" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo


Oltre a riflettere la musica del proprio tempo, i progetti dei jazzisti sono direttamente collegati alla quotidianità delle loro esistenze. Paradigmatica è in tal senso la scrittura per questo CD, pensata durante le ore impiegate da Russ Lossing per parcheggiare la propria automobile nei giorni in cui la sosta è consentita in un solo lato della strada. E non è un caso se lo spigoloso brano d'apertura, quasi monkiano, evoca con il suo andamento asimmetrico la strada percorsa ...

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Album Review

Pete McCann: Without Question

Read "Without Question" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Guitarist and composer Pete McCann pulls out all the stops on Without Question, his seventh album as leader, unveiling his singular talents on everything from burners ("Without Question," “Trifecta") to ballads ("I Can Remember," “January," “Lost City"), blues ("Blues for O.M."), burlesque ("Conspiracy Theory"), biting commentary ("Erase the Hate") and borrowed themes ("Lovely Thing"). McCann, a native of Wisconsin who has been a fixture on the New York scene for more than thirty years, is also smart--smart enough, that is, ...

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Album Review

Russ Lossing: Alternate Side Parking Music

Read "Alternate Side Parking Music" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Russ Lossing is not one to let imposed downtime go to waste. The imposition comes from New York City's regulations concerning alternate side parking which requires, only one day per week, that cars park on one side of the street, for street cleaning purposes. The evening car-moving causes jostling. Sometimes open spots are not readily available. Parallel parking is often required, as is (temporary, we can assume) double parking. Time in the driver's seat results. Lossing put this time ...

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Album Review

Michael Sarian: New Aurora

Read "New Aurora" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Giunto al quarto album da leader, Michael Sarian esplora una direzione espressiva diversa da quanto evidenziato col settetto Michel Sarian & the Chabones e con la big band The Big Chabones. Ispirandosi allo stile di trombettisti come Kenny Wheeler, Tomasz Stanko ed Enrico Rava, il trombettista—di famiglia armena, canadese di nascita, argentino di formazione e newyorchese da una decina d'anni—accentua l'estetica impressionista già evidente in Leon con brani lenti ed evocativi, talvolta legati alla tradizione musicale armena. ...

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Album Review

Ohad Talmor: Long Forms

Read "Long Forms" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


New York City-based tenor saxophonist, composer, arranger Ohad Talmor and associates provide all the 'jazz' news fit to hear on this superb effort, comprised of thorny time signatures, shifting detours and offbeat mini-grooves, enamored with the leader's whizzing solos and more goodness. Acclaimed due to his arrangements for the late sax great Lee Konitz and affiliations with top-shelf musicians on a global basis, Talmor's multidirectional works often proceed with a semblance of micro-suites, embedded with simmering, odd-metered passages, and fluctuating ...

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Album Review

Michael Sarian: New Aurora

Read "New Aurora" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Trumpeter Michael Sarian leads two large-sized groups, The Chabones and The Big Chabones, that utilize multiple horns and electronic sounds in high energy arrangements. This quartet recording is a different story. Sarian is the lone horn here, playing trumpet on the first track and flugelhorn on the rest, while the music itself is strictly acoustic. Much of it has a gentle, folkish presence, although the leader's wilder impulses also make their presence known. The music's quiet side emerges ...

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Album Review

Michael Sarian: New Aurora

Read "New Aurora" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


With New Aurora, Canadian trumpeter Michael Sarian takes a few steps down a different path to his past projects, leaving bigger ensembles and electric instrumentations behind to focus on ten arrangements carried out in an acoustic quartet setting. In this more dynamic light, the trumpeter is given space to unfold and spread his melodic voice and personal language. Sarian takes advantage of this in a minimal way. A heightened sense of sophistication can be heard as a result, leaving the ...

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Performance / Tour

Christian Scott plus Matt Pavolka Band in Brooklyn

Christian Scott plus Matt Pavolka Band in Brooklyn

Source: All About Jazz

WHAT: The 6th installment of the “what is jazz" series “Real. Live. Music."

WHO: Grammy-nominated Trumpeter CHRISTIAN SCOTT and his band

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MATT PAVOLKA BAND Ben Monder (guitar) Pete Rende (piano) Ted Poor (drums) Matt Pavolka (bass)

WHEN: Wednesday Sept 17th, 8 PM

WHERE: Public Assembly (formerly Galapagos Art Space) 70 N 6th St | Brooklyn, NY 11211 SUBWAY: L to Bedford Ave

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Performance / Tour

Sten Hostfalt/Matt Pavolka at Louis 649 NYC Friday August 11

Sten Hostfalt/Matt Pavolka at Louis 649 NYC Friday August 11

Source: All About Jazz


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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Alternate Side...

Aqua Piazza Records
2023

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Without Question

Self Produced
2023

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Alternative Side...

Aqua Piazza Record
2023

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Anything Mose!

‎Jinsy Music
2021

buy

Little Pieces

Chant Records
2020

buy

In Flight

Red Piano Records
2020

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Videos

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