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Nick Mazzarella

Saxophonist and composer Nick Mazzarella has been described as "continuing the approach taken by like-minded trailblazing altoists Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake, and Gary Bartz” by “seeking to embody the history of the music while pushing it forward into new realms” (All About Jazz). He has been a consistent presence in Chicago's music scene since the early 2000s where his continuous performance schedule has made an aesthetically unique contribution to the city’s rich culture of jazz and improvised music. His working trios and quintet have served as the primary vehicles for his endeavors as a composer and bandleader, while as a collaborator or sideman he has performed and recorded with such artists as Tomeka Reid, Joshua Abrams, Rob Mazurek, Geof Bradfield, Dana Hall, and Makaya McCraven. Recordings of his original music have been released by Nessa, Clean Feed, International Anthem, Astral Spirits, and Spacetone, and he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Africa and the Middle East.

In addition to his activities as a performing musician, Mazzarella has contributed to the vibrancy of the Chicago jazz community by working as a concert series presenter since 2008. He currently curates two ongoing concert series in Chicago—the Anagram Series, presented weekly at Elastic Arts in Avondale, and the Ratchet Series, presented monthly at Cafe Mustache in Logan Square.

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3
Album Review

Natural Information Society: Since Time is Gravity

Read "Since Time is Gravity" reviewed by Danen Jobe


The concept of trance is one of the oldest in the world. Many older music forms embraced trance for their rituals. One is the Gnawa musical tradition originating in Kano, Nigeria and Morocco, which uses double and triple notes repeated sometimes for hours to induce a religious state while the singer sings stories of spirits. It is played on a gimbri (aka sintir or hajhuj), a three stringed instrument featuring one short and two long goat gut strings over a ...

7
Album Review

Nick Mazzarella / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Avreeayl Ra: What You Seek Is Seeking You

Read "What You Seek Is Seeking You" reviewed by Mark Corroto


In a trio format, listeners have come to expect alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella to lead and write all the compositions. He introduced himself to the world with Aviary (Thought To Sound Records, 2010), and followed up with three more trio releases with bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly, four if we count Triangulum (Clean Feed, 2017) from his Meridian Trio (Jeremy Cunningham and Matt Ulery). These albums highlight Mazzarella's ability to compose, perform and, maybe of greater significance, organize ...

11
Album Review

Quin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light

Read "The Shadows and The Light" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now, was released in 1979. After sitting for 2 and ½ hours, a viewer might have hoped for theater management to stand at the exits to hand out pamphlets explaining what had just gone down. The conflict had ended 4 years prior, and most war movies, pre- Vietnam, were straight-forward, America-saves-the-world affairs. Goodnight. In between a surf crazed Robert Duval, Playboy Bunnies, and the insane Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando, the movie ...

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Album Review

Quin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light

Read "The Shadows and The Light" reviewed by Kevin Press


Add Chicago's Quin Kirchner to the growing list of young jazz artists who've dropped impressive multi-disc releases in recent years. It has become a kind of rite of passage for a new breed of heavy hitters, these double-and triple-album sets. They are not vanity projects. Not the good ones, anyway. They come from deep pools of creativity. The kind a very few young artists have accessible to them in the early prime of their careers. Kirchner's follow-up to ...

3
Album Review

Nick Mazzarella Trio: Counterbalance

Read "Counterbalance" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Although he is well-accustomed to working in other settings, alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella is perhaps at his strongest in a trio format: specifically, the sax-bass-drums configuration that allows for both maximum harmonic freedom and focused rhythmic interaction. In 2017 his Meridian Trio (featuring bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Jeremy Cunningham) released Triangulum (Clean Feed), an excellent free-bop outing with razor-sharp improvisations and engaging compositions. On Counterbalance he's working with bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly. This unit goes back ...

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Album Review

Meridian Trio: Triangulum

Read "Triangulum" reviewed by Troy Dostert


2017 is proving to be something of a breakout year for alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella. He recently released Signaling, a superb freely-improvised duo recording with cellist Tomeka Reid, and now he's followed it up with this excellent outing from the Meridian Trio, where he is joined by his colleagues Matt Ulery on bass and Jeremy Cunningham on drums. Whereas on Signaling we are given a glimpse of Mazzarella's substantial prowess as a sympathetic partner in an unstructured context, here the ...

10
Album Review

Nick Mazzarella and Tomeka Reid: Signaling

Read "Signaling" reviewed by Troy Dostert


On this captivating, fully-improvised duo recording by alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and cellist Tomeka Reid, we find a superlative example of two leading-edge musicians who continue to draw vital inspiration from their forbears. Reid, a contributing member of the hugely influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), has previously paid tribute to some of the titans of that organization--figures such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, and Fred Anderson--with Artifacts, her superb 2015 trio release with ...

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"Continuing the approach taken by like-minded trailblazing altoists like Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake, and Gary Bartz, Mazzarella seeks to embody the history of the music while pushing it forward into new realms."
– Troy Dostert, All About Jazz

"[Mazzarella is a] student of jazz’s deep history and a freedom seeker unwilling to let rules hold back expression."
– Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

"Anyone who follows jazz in Chicago knows that Mazzarella can summon tremendous power on his instrument."
– Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

"Mazzarella’s prowess stems from his billowing timbre and clarity of thought.”
– Neil Tesser, chicagomusic.org

"To hear Mazzarella play saxophone is to bear witness to an exquisite young talent.”
– Kenneth Preski, Newcity Magazine

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Since Time is Gravity

Eremite Records
2023

buy

What You Seek Is...

Astral Spirits
2021

buy

The Shadows and The...

Astral Spirits
2020

buy

Counterbalance

Astral Spirits
2019

buy

Signaling

Nessa Records
2017

buy

Triangulum

Clean Feed Records
2017

buy

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