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Marco Eneidi

Born on All Saints Day, 1956 in Portland, Oregon, Marco Eneidi's life in music began at the age of nine playing the clarinet while growing up in the San Francisco East Bay area of California. During high school he started playing the guitar in the finger picking style of the southern blues legends, played gut bucket bass in a jug band, and played clarinet in a Dixieland band which performed at nursing homes and the local pizzeria. At the age of twenty, Marco decided to get serious about music and finally began to practice upwards of twelve hours a day. In 1978 he got his first real job in music. He was hired to be part of a C.E.T.A. sponsored band, playing swing and jazz standards twice a day at various nursing homes, schools and hospitals throughout Sonoma County in Northern California. It lasted one year, until he was accused of trying to sound like Ornette Coleman, then John Coltrane, and then fired for not wearing socks. In 1981, Marco decided to move to New York and look up Jimmy Lyons who he had met several years earlier at San Francisco's Keystone Corner with the Cecil Taylor Unit. Within several days of moving into the Lower East Side, Marco met Jemeel Moondoc along with the members of his band which included Denis Charles, William Parker and Roy Campbell. He began an everlasting relationship with some of the most important musicians of the time. Many other relationships and collaborations soon followed. They include Don Cherry, Jim Pepper, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Earl Cross, Clarence "C" Sharpe, Dewey Redman and Wilbur Morris. With the release of his trio LP recording "Vermont Spring" in 1987, Marco formed Botticelli Records which has since seen several releases on CD. These releases have included many of the most important creative jazz musicians in the field: Denis Charles, William Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, Glenn Spearman, Peter Broetzmann, Wilbur Morris, Karen Borca and Jackson Krall. After returning to California in 1995, Marco, along with Glenn Spearman formed the Creative Music Orchestra. It was the first of many large recent orchestral works that were composed on an even larger scale, leading to the creation of the American Jungle Orchestra, which has varied in size from fifteen to fourty over the years.


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5
Interview

Marco Eneidi: Pallettes of Color & Sound

Read "Marco Eneidi: Pallettes of Color & Sound" reviewed by Anna Poczatek


Marco Eneidi seems to become a forgotten artist. Which is odd, at the very least, because his improvisation workshops are attended by the first seat of the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, and because, in just the past few years, the saxophonist has played with artists including pianist Cecil Taylor, guitarist Joe Morris, reed multi-instrumentalists Roscoe Mitchell, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark, cornetist Butch Morris, and drummers/percussionists Andrew Cyrille, Michael Zerang, Paul Lovens, and Han Bennink.Yet, despite his rare musical skills, ...

7
Album Review

Vinny Golia / Marco Eneidi / Lisa Mezzacappa / Vijay Anderson: Hell-Bent In The Pacific

Read "Hell-Bent In The Pacific" reviewed by John Sharpe


Ever since moving to Austria in 2004, Bay Area alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi has flown beneath the radar, particularly in terms of recorded output. His discography boasts some heavy duty entries, including late trumpeter Bill Dixon's Thoughts (Soul Note, 1986) and bass maestro William Parker's Sunrise In The Tone World (Aum Fidelity, 1996), in addition to several appearances with legendary pianist Cecil Taylor, so it's a real pleasure to find him in the company of three other West Coast residents ...

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Interview

Marco Eneidi: Still Here

Read "Marco Eneidi: Still Here" reviewed by Taran Singh


Alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi is one of contemporary creative music's unsung heroes. He studied with Jimmy Lyons and Sonny Simmons and has played and recorded with illustrious musicians including Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, William Parker and Glenn Spearman.Each of his albums is a special treat. Despite a significant discography ranging from trio to large orchestra to his name, Eneidi's work suffers from an inexplicable obscurity. That's a loss not only for the artist but for music lovers who ...

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Album Review

Marco Eneidi/William Parker/Donald Robinson: Cherry Box

Read "Cherry Box" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Listening to the 1998 recording Cherry Box is akin to spending an hour in dedicated meditation. After the intensity of the primary experience fades away, one finds oneself awash in spiritual calm. The trio of Eneidi, Parker, and Robinson use their shared experience to their advantage, ensuring coherence and cohesion. But spirituality is their main stock in trade.

Cherry Box pays open tribute to the spiritual music of Coltrane's small groups. In both the unpretentious intensity of the saxophone improvisations ...

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Album Review

Marco Eneidi, William Parker, and Donald Robinson: Cherry Box

Read "Cherry Box" reviewed by Micah Holmquist


Marco Eneidi, William Parker, and Donald Robinson recorded Cherry Box live in concert on September 20, 1998 at the Mills College Concert Hall in Oakland, California. Parker is the best known of the three musicians and most readers of this review probably don't need an introduction to the bassist's considerable work both as a leader and as a member of bands lead by leading figures in creative improvised music such as Cecil Taylor and David S. Ware. Eneidi and Robinson ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

For Our Children

Botticelli
2014

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Hell-Bent In The...

NoBusiness Records
2012

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Ghetto Calypso

Not Two Records
2006

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American Roadwork

CIMP Records
2004

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Cherry Box

Eremite Records
2001

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Cherry Box

Eremite Records
2000

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