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Jasper Dutz

Multi-instrumentalist, gamer, and composer Jasper Dütz was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and is currently based in NYC. He began playing music at the age of seven after receiving his father’s $20 yard-sale purchased clarinet. Coming from an artistic family, he was exposed to the music of Copland, Ives, Dolphy, and Coleman(Ornette) very early on which may or may not have led to his low-key erraticism. His interest in gaming also began around this time when his friend gave him Pokémon Sapphire and a used gameboy for his 9th birthday. He began playing jazz in middle school after convincing his band teacher to let him try a baritone saxophone in exchange for singing the muppet show theme song to his classmates. Jasper aims to project and promote creative sincerity not only in music, but in all mediums of art. As a performer, he seeks to push the boundaries of all his instruments and speak with a unique voice that can be identified as his own in any setting regardless of genre. As a composer, he chooses to write music that conveys stories that evoke feelings of nostalgia and mysticism. Outside of music, Jasper finds inspiration in nature, video games, science, and the lore of fictitious universes (eg. Lord of the Rings, Pokémon, Starcraft, Star Wars). A few of his creative influences include; Hayao Miyazaki, Björk, Junichi Masuda, Yasunori Mitsuda, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Stan Lee. Jasper attended the Los Angeles County High School for the arts where he had the opportunity of learning from and performing alongside many acclaimed artists including; Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow, Diane Reeves, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Christian McBride. Jasper also graduated from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music on a full tuition scholarship. He has since performed at venues such as The Jazz Gallery, Jazz Standard, Blue Note NYC, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood bowl and Monterey Jazz Festival. Jasper has studied with artists such as Lee Konitz, Walter Smith III, Marty Ehrlich, Gary Foster, and Ben Wendel.


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Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: A Thousand Pebbles

Read "A Thousand Pebbles" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Ben Rosenblum's Nebula Project is a group which incorporates sounds from all over the world. Gospel, Brazilian rhythms, European folk dances, and other kinds of music all mix freely with jazz in this exciting and unpredictable set. The horn players, trumpeter Wayne Tucker and reed players Jasper Dutz and Xavier Del Castillo, all do excellent work in realizing the leader's freewheeling concepts. “Bulgares" has Tucker's trumpet and Dutz's bass clarinet darting out in a whirling Bulgarian rhythm over ...

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Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: A Thousand Pebbles

Read "A Thousand Pebbles" reviewed by Jack Bowers


This is music for the open-minded. On A Thousand Pebbles, his fourth album as leader, New York-based pianist & accordionist Ben Rosenblum's seven-member Nebula Project traverses a number of musical landscapes, from Bulgaria to Brazil, Ireland to Israel, and realms beyond, offering a pleasurable smorgasbord of contemporary jazz that is always engaging and never shopworn. Rosenblum the composer wrote all of the album's eleven numbers save one, Antonio Carlos Jobim & Chico Baurque's melodious “Song of the ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: A Thousand Pebbles

Read "A Thousand Pebbles" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Il giovane pianista e fisarmonicista (qui più la seconda della prima pelle, diremmo, almeno come incidenza sul sound d'insieme) newyorchese Ben Rosenblum firma con questo A Thousand Pebbles il quarto album a suo nome e il secondo alla testa del Nebula Project, sestetto (qui rinforzato da Xavier Del Castillo) versatile e capace di generare un clima solare e spesso festoso, intriso di umori latini e comunque popolari in senso lato (Rosenblum, che non di rado si sovrappone su entrambi i ...

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Album Review

Bishu Chattopadhyay: Kolkata Stories

Read "Kolkata Stories" reviewed by Jim Trageser


Given this album's title, the fact that the leader's previous album was titled Harlem Meets Hooghly (self-produced, 2020), and even the song titles on this release, it's not unrealistic to be looking for an Indo-jazz fusion release in the vein of John McLaughlin, Warren Senders or simakDialog. But despite the Indian album and song titles, this is a straight-ahead post-bop album, closer to Monty Alexander than McLaughlin. Only in an occasional passage does one hear influences from the ...

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Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill: Virtual Birdland

Read "Virtual Birdland" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Whenever an obstacle presents itself--even one as devastating and disruptive as a global pandemic--it's a sure bet that musicians will find a way around it, a way to keep making music even in the most grievous circumstances. Jazz musicians have been especially creative during the Covid-19 scourge, using social media, the internet and any other means at their disposal to share their music with the world. True, the paychecks aren't as large or as regular as once they were, but ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Si parte con un episodio che potremmo definire post-bop, “Cedar Place," uno dei sette a firma di Ben Rosenblum, integrati da “Somewhere" di Leonard Bernstein, “Philadelphia" di Neil Young e un tradizionale bulgaro, ma in fondo è una falsa rivelazione, perché a seguire questa che è l'opera prima del giovane pianista e fisarmonicista newyorchese si sdipana su toni decisamente variegati, in cui il grande ceppo jazzistico è certo perfettamente avvertibile, ma i vari episodi sono più compositi, qua e là ...

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Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Ben Rosenblum uses a lot of different instrumental elements on this release. For starters, he himself plays both piano and accordion, and his sextet also features trumpet, reeds and guitar. In addition, vibraphone and trombone show up on some tracks. That creates a blend of various textures and sounds which bring variety to this program of bright jazz compositions. Rosenblum's accordion flows together nicely with the sounds of Wayne Tucker's trumpet, and Jasper Dutz's bass clarinet on the ...

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Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A Thousand Pebbles

Self Produced
2023

buy

Virtual Birdland

Zoho Music
2021

buy

Kolkata Stories

Uhsib Cisum Music
2021

buy

Kites and Strings

One Trick Dog Records
2020

buy

Implicit Attitude

From: A Thousand Pebbles
By Jasper Dutz

Midnight Rickshaw with Reni

From: Kolkata Stories
By Jasper Dutz

Izpoved

From: Kites and Strings
By Jasper Dutz

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