Home » Jazz Musicians » Paul Giallorenzo

Paul Giallorenzo

Originally from Long Island, NY, Paul Giallorenzo is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, producer, and sound designer using piano, synthesizer, keyboards, and electronics in a diverse range of contexts with a wide array of Chicago and international musicians in improvised, avant-jazz, experimental, and electro/acoustic music, performing regularly locally and throughout North America and Europe.  

Giallorenzo’s work has been praised for its “inside-out” nature – his ability to push the boundaries of “conventional” jazz toward more freedom but also, on the other side, to bring a measure of structure to more avant-garde material. Writing in the online journal Point Of Departure, John Litweiler said, “His solos and aggressive duets are gems of after-Bop, after-Bley melody,” while AllAboutJazz.com lauded music that “smudges the lines between the tradition and the avant-garde.”

His work can be found on the Chicago-based Delmark Records and Austin-based Astral Spirits labels, as well as various other imprints including Leo Records (UK), Not Two Records (Poland), and 482 Music (NY). 

Paul is the Artistic Director of the multi-arts organization Homeroom and a co-founder and programmer of the music venue/art gallery Elastic Arts, producing hundreds of creative music concerts and art events in Chicago since 2001.

Current Projects include: 
PG Trio (Delmark) piano trio with Joshua Abrams - bass, Mikel Avery - drums
Hearts and Minds (Astral Spirits) synthesizer/electric piano trio with Jason Stein - bass clarinet, Chad Taylor - drums
RedGreenBlue (Astral Spirits) pump organ/electronics in minimal experimental group with Ben LaMar Gay, Ryan Packard, Charlie Kirchen
SOTOL synthesizer/electronics duo with Ingebrigt Haker Flaten - e bass/electronics; 
Scanlines (Vimeo) synthesizer/electronics with Kim Alpert - video, Cristal Sabbagh/Jasmine Mendoza - movement, Anton Hatwich - bass; 
GitGO (DelmarkLeo482 Music) piano quintet including: Josh Berman - cornet, Jeb Bishop - trombone, Anton Hatwich - bass, Quin Kirchner - drums, Dave Rempis - saxophones, Marc Riordan - drums, Frank Rosaly - drums, Mars Williams - reeds 

Past Projects include: 
Gregorio/Giallorenzo Duo (Peira) piano/prepared piano duo with Guillermo Gregorio - clarinet
PG 3 (Nottwo Records) piano trio with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - bass, Tim Daisy - drums; 
Breakway (Peira) with synthesizer trio with Brian Labycz - synthesizer, Marc Riordan - drums 
Masul (Creative Sources) synthesizer duo with Thomas Mejer - contrabass saxophone

photo by Harvey Tillis


Tags

12
Album Review

RedGreenBlue: The End And The Beginning

Read "The End And The Beginning" reviewed by Chris May


RedGreenBlue sound like they have emerged from the same synapse-snapping dope bunker that La Monte Young and Jon Hassell exited with their Theatre Of Eternal Music in the 1970s, whacked out on opium, hashish and mescaline, dazed but not confused. RedGreenBlue may or may not indulge in the same psychotropic self-medication as their Lower East Side ancestors, but their strange and beautiful debut album, The End And The Beginning, suggests they do, and that is what counts. ...

2
Album Review

Paul Giallorenzo's Git Go: Force Majeure

Read "Force Majeure" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Pur essendo assai attivo sulla scena di Chicago non solo come pianista e compositore per teatro, danza, cinema ma anche come promotore culturale e creatore di eventi, Paul Giallorenzo è figura poco nota al di fuori dei patri confini. Pianista che fonde in uno stile originale la lezione di Thelonious Monk con quella di Cecil Taylor, le introspezioni di Paul Bley con l'esuberanza di Alex von Schlippenbach, Giallorenzo si rivela particolarmente interessante anche come compositore ed il quintetto denominato GitGo ...

9
Album Review

Paul Giallorenzo's Git Go: Force Majeure

Read "Force Majeure" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Pianist Paul Giallorenzo's Force Majeure, his second album with his ensemble GitGo, covers a wide variety of motifs but maintains a consistently stimulating, darkly hued ambience. This and Giallorenzo's unique style and modal harmonies give the disc its cohesive character. The music ranges from the free flowing, five-way conversation on “A Tone" to the undulating, reggae influenced “Roscoe Far I." On the former the members of the quintet create their simultaneous monologues out of sparse notes, honks, thrums ...

3
Album Review

Paul Giallorenzo Trio: 3

Read "3" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The Paul Giallorenzo Trio with Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Tim Daisy recorded this Chicago session in 2007. Since then, individual members have joined other bands and associations, but this disc documents a short lived yet musically significant project.Giallorenzo has previously released the quintet sessionGet In To Go Out (482 Music, 2009) and he also plays in electric/acoustic improvised settings in Chicago.Employing the standard piano trio format, Giallorenzo's compositions bounce between composed melodies and ...

306
Album Review

Paul Giallorenzo: Get In To Go Out

Read "Get In To Go Out" reviewed by Troy Collins


The 15th album in 482 Records' Document Chicago Series, Get In To Go Out is the debut of pianist Paul Giallorenzo's quintet. One of the few free-leaning pianists working in the Windy City's vital new music scene, Giallorenzo's angular approach towards writing and improvising draws inspiration from the seminal Post-War innovations of such pianists as Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and early Cecil Taylor.

As co-founder and director of the creative non-profit Elastic Arts, Giallorenzo entertains a range of ...

297
Album Review

Paul Giallorenzo: Get In To Go Out

Read "Get In To Go Out" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Pianist Paul Giallorenzo locates the jazz he makes with his quintet somewhere in the early 1960s, when post-bop was getting ready to explode into free jazz and its pioneers were rooted in swing, but thinking outward thoughts. Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch (Blue Note, 1964), Ornette Coleman's Tomorrow Is The Question (Contemporary, 1959), and Andrew Hill's Point Of Departure(Blue Note, 1964) come to mind.

Even the sound on Get In To Get Out hints at a Blue Note session, with ...

Read more articles

"Stunning", Chicago Reader's Peter Margasak  
The Paul Giallorenzo Trio releases a stunning new album that highlights the
pianist’s lean, rhythmic acuity

"Maybe Flow can redefine what jazz minimalism is all about", Elmore Magazine's Peter Lindblad

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The End And The...

Astral Spirits
2022

buy

Sketches

ear&eyes Records
2020

buy

Flow

Delmark Records
2017

buy

Force Majeure

Delmark Records
2015

buy

Force Majeure

Delmark Records
2014

buy

3

NotTwo Records
2013

buy

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.