Born: November 11, 1940 Primary Instrument: Bass
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), 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, 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 collection--and seeing John Coltrane one fateful night at the Village Vanguard in 1961--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 19 recordings as a leader/co- leader, including his acclaimed 2008 releases Trio Arc and Ancestors 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.
-Ben Ratliff, New York Times
He attacks his acoustic bass, strumming the strings,
pulling on them
forcefully, as if the music inside
was hiding. His melodies erupt from his instrument,
usually with the
rhythmic pattern set inside so
that his cohorts know exactly which direction Pavone
wants the song to
go.
-Richard Kamins, Hartford Courant
Intense and absorbing music.
-Kenny Mathieson, Jazzwise
Pavone’s music is in constant flux and flow, flying along
the outer edge of the
envelope but never
losing its grip on the basics.
-Fred Kaplan, The Absolute Sound
...Deez to Blues is impossible to tune out,
impossible to turn
down. It demands nothing less
than your undivided attention.
-Brent Burton, JazzTimes
His sound is woody, bold, and vibrant and seems to add
luster to everyone
around him. That’s quite an
accomplishment when those around him are so illustrious
on their
own...
-David Dupont, OneFinalNote.com
His albums come in and they go to the top of the pile that
I have to be
listening to pretty quickly
because they’re inventive, they’re intriguing and he is a
fun writer. I
recommend this guy a lot.
-Neil Tesser, Listen Here!
As a radio programmer, the difficulty with Mario Pavone’s
releases is not how
to find a cut worthy of
play, but how to determine which cut to play. Always
compelling, Mario’s
compositions and releases
continue to satisfy. He is a consummate bass player,
composer and
leader.
-Larry Blood, KUSP-FM
The bassist's contrapuntal writing updates the jazz
tradition in subtle,
inventive ways, bending the
rules, rather than breaking them. Pavone's music exudes
a living, breathing
quality.
-Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com
Bassist Mario Pavone's units are lean outfits built for
dancing fast and
scrimmaging hard through the
leader's challenging yet tuneful book of original
compositions.
-Time Out New York
...veteran bassist Mario Pavone has been producing a
body of work acclaimed
by the jazz cogniscenti,
though it doesn’t receive as much attention as it
deserves...this set is a fine
example of what
contemporary jazz should be about.
-Marc Chénard, Coda
Pavone writes pieces full of smart angular swagger and
the group nails them
with assurance,
collectively stretching them with an elastic sense of free
swing. [His] stalwart
bass provides is in
evidence throughout, voicing the themes, playing
counterpoint to piano and
reeds, and stepping out
for trenchant solos. Here is a band steeped in the
tradition from bop to
freedom, with the smarts and
originality to make music that grabs the listener from start
to finish.
-Michael Rosenstein, Signal to Noise
A thrilling combination of the oblique and the clearly-
stated,
Boom is another fine offering
from Pavone, who continues to move the tradition
forward with every
record.
-John Kelman, AllAboutJazz.com
Freebop is the bassist-composer’s meaty metier; his
tunes are sculpted so
swing-based extrapolations
have plenty of elbow room, and his bands are staffed to
make sure that elbow
room is filled with the
most inventive sounds possible.
-Jim Macnie, Village Voice
Bassist Mario Pavone continues to offer exciting and
stimulating music on this
latest work with his
quintet and trio. As for the compositions, what makes
them so compelling is
the spontaneity, despite
the written lines, and the high caliber soloists, who
consistently provide
substance
for interested ears.
This is a superb release...with both soulful and complex
patterns for the
multi-faceted listener.
-Jay Collins, Cadence
Pavone's agreeable music should hold appeal for
listeners of both inside and
outside persuasions, from
those enamored of hard bop and post-bop through to
those favoring more
open-ended styles of jazz
exploration. Orange deserves space on the
shelf next to classic
Blue Note, Prestige, and
Riverside releases, as well as jazz discs of more recent
vintage from New
World, Tzadik, and Knitting
Factory, not to mention Playscape. What stronger
recommendation could be
made?
-Dave Lynch, All Music Guide
...a cutting-edge bassist and composer...
-David Adler, New Music Box
...Pavone’s postbop compositions mix a biting
intelligence with a hard-
wound feel for the blues.
-Aaron Steinberg, JazzTimes
Orange, the second disc by Pavone's Nu
Trio/Quintet, sets the
bar extremely high. Nine neatly
calibrated originals -- four trios, five quintets -- are
masterful examples of
group interplay, rooted in
a compelling union of smarts and intuition, predetermined
and ephemeral
forms. At the heart of things
is an extraordinary pulse -- sometimes swinging,
sometimes grinding and
sometimes sliced into
pieces.
-Greg Buium, DownBeat
Digit (Alacra, 1979)
Shodo (Alacra, 1981)
Sharpeville (Alacra, 1988; reissued Playscape,
2000) - Purchase
Toulon Days (New World/Countercurrents, 1992)
Song for (Septet) (New World/Countercurrents,
1995)
Dancer's Tales (Knitting Factory, 1997)
Remembering Thomas (Knitting Factory, 1999)
Totem Blues (Knitting Factory, 2001)
Mythos (Playscape, 2002) - Purchase
Orange (Playscape, 2003) - Purchase
Boom (Playscape, 2004) - Purchase
Deez to Blues (Playscape, 2006) - Purchase
As co-leader with Anthony Braxton:
Nine Duets (Music and Arts, 1993)
Seven Standards (Knitting Factory, 1994)
As co-leader with Michael Musillami:
Op-Ed (Playscape, 2000) - Purchase
Motion Poetry (Playscape, 2001) - Purchase
Pivot (Playscape, 2002) - Purchase
With Thomas Chapin:
Third Force (Knitting Factory, 1990)
Insomnia (Knitting Factory, 1991)
Anima (Knitting Factory, 1992)
Menagerie Dreams (Knitting Factory, 1994)
Haywire (Knitting Factory, 1996)
Sky Piece (Knitting Factory, 1998)
Nightbird Song (Knitting Factory, 1999)
Alive (8-CD set) (Knitting Factory, 1999)
Ride (Playscape, 2006) - Purchase
With Bill Dixon:
November 1981 (Soul Note, 1981)
Thoughts (Soul Note, 1985)
Son of Sisyphus (Soul Note, 1988)
With Others:
Samm Bennett :: Knitting Factory Tours Europe
1991
(Knitting Factory, 1991)
Sangeeta Michael Berardi :: Divine Song (New
Pulse Artists, 1979)
Paul Bley :: Canada (Radio Canada, 1968)
Paul Bley and Annette Peacock :: Dual Unity
(Tokuma, 1971)
Creative Improvisers Orchestra :: The Sky Cries
the Blues (CMIF,
1982)
Vernon Frazer :: Sex Queen of the Berlin Turnpike
(Woodcrest,
1988)
Motation :: Live At Hillside (Alacra, 1988)
Michael Pavone :: Trio (Playscape, 2001) - Purchase
Dan Rose :: Close Opposites (Alacra, 1979)
Anthony Braxton / Dave Douglas :: Splash (2005)
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