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Vicente Archer

Vicente was born in Woodstock, NY, and here he embraced the rich cultural arts of this historical town by listening to local great jazz artists Dave Holland, Jimmy Cobb, Jack DeJohnette, among many others. He began his musical career on guitar at age sixteen primarily self-taught, learning from his parents Wes Montgomery and George Benson records. During those years he began making a name for himself playing in the Hudson Valley region with variety of ensembles from Albany to New York City. Upon graduation from high school, Vicente was accepted to The New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston, MA, where he majored in Jazz Studies. Some of his instructors included guitarist Gene Bertoncini, saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, and Latin/Jazz marvel pianist Danilo Perez. After his first year at NEC, Vicente transferred to Boston's Northeastern University where he switched from guitar to acoustic bass. Within one year of switching to the bass, the powerful alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, a long-time champion and discoverer of young talent, asked Vicente to join his group. Donald thought so highly of Vicente skills that he used him on his Impulse! release, Free to Be. While still in college, Vicente also began performing in the Eric Reed Trio. After earning a business degree in Management Information Systems and Business Management in June 2000, Vicente moved to New York City where he soon began performing and touring with the likes of Kenny Garrett, Terence Blanchard, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard, Mark Whitfield, Roy Haynes, Geri Allen, Wycliffe Gordon, Craig Handy, Janis Siegel, Lewis Nash, Carl Allen, and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra w/ Wynton Marsalis, among many others.

Vicente Archer has emerged as one of today's profound new voices on the bass. He presently divides his duties playing with Louis Hayes' Cannonball Legacy Band, Grammy nominated Mingus Big Band, Stefon Harris and Nicholas Payton.

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Album Review

John Scofield: Uncle John's Band

Read "Uncle John's Band" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Dopo la parentesi del primo disco realizzato in completa solitudine, il chitarrista John Scofield torna alla formazione per lui più abituale del trio, ma non lo stesso con cui aveva inciso Swallow Tales sempre per la label tedesca. Al posto di Steve Swallow troviamo infatti il contrabbassista Vicente Archer, mentre alla batteria siede nuovamente il fido Bill Stewart. È una nuova formazione per Scofield, anche se i tre insieme al pianista e organista Gerald Clayton avevano registrato Combo 66 nel ...

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Album Review

John Scofield: Uncle John's Band

Read "Uncle John's Band" reviewed by Ian Patterson


John Scofield's entire oeuvre can be roughly divided into groove-based or straight-ahead recordings. Yet even in maximum groove propulsion, as on A Go Go (Verve, 1998), to cite one stellar example, Scofield's grounding in straight-ahead jazz is never far from the surface. On the flip side, his most conventional jazz is always rhythmically vital. Uncle John's Band, the guitarist's third ECM album as leader, following Swallow Tales (2020) and John Scofield (2022), falls squarely in the latter category. And it ...

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Album Review

John Scofield: Uncle John's Band

Read "Uncle John's Band" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead's bassist for over 30 years, claimed their basic inspiration came from the musical unions he saw in the Miles Davis Quartet along with the John Coltrane Quartet from the early 1960s. John Scofield and Lesh have played together on many occasions. So perhaps it is no surprise that the Grateful Dead anthem, “Uncle John's Band," written by guitarist Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter, originally released on their album, Workingman's Dead (Warner Bros. 1970), should serve ...

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Album Review

Vicente Archer: Short Stories

Read "Short Stories" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Bassist Vicente Archer may be a Grammy winner with a long grand vintage (Nicholas Payton, John Scofield, Kenny Garrett, Norah Jones) but he has not revealed his own particular harvest as he does on the amicable and resilient Short Stories. Accompanied on what is technically his debut, fellow Scofield and Payton alum, drummer Bill Stewart and ever curious pianist Gerald Clayton bring to these stories a captivating, unified narrative. The soft, insistent tannins of “Mirai" opens Short Stories ...

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Album Review

Jeremy Pelt: Soundtrack

Read "Soundtrack" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Although Soundtrack is the name of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's latest album (more about that in a moment), there is another selection that more readily summarizes Pelt's lyric philosophy: “I Love Music." And while there is ample contrast, camaraderie and color on the album, there is no doubt that Pelt's clear and creative commentaries are the focal point. As for that title, “Soundtrack" is simply the name of a twenty-year-old ballad written for but never recorded by one of Pelt's earlier ...

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Album Review

Orrin Evans: The Magic of Now

Read "The Magic of Now" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


The pandemic brought with it a shift in sensibilities for many musicians as they navigated new and unfamiliar waters. There were pros and cons of all this activity, with many streaming events and weighty recording projects taking place. Few of the albums coming from that period speak with such authority and freshness as the set at hand. Pianist Evans assembled a trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Bill Stewart back in 2014 for a festival performance and hoped to ...

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Album Review

Orrin Evans: The Magic of Now

Read "The Magic of Now" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Timing is everything, the old masters teach. So pianist/composer/bandleader Orrin Evans drops the brazen The Magic of Now just in time. Just in time for the world to open up, renew its commitment, and move forward. Just in time for all to engage in those necessary conversations about civil upkeep. Put plainly, The Magic of Now is the music to lead the charge. A whirlwind of perpetual buoyancy and boundless risk aversion, the eight easeful dances defining The ...

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Short Stories

Cellar Live
2023

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Uncle John's Band

ECM Records
2023

buy

Soundtrack

HighNote Records
2022

buy

Dedication

Origin Records
2022

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Reflections

Smoke Sessions Records
2022

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The Magic of Now

Smoke Sessions Records
2021

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Uncle John's Band

From: Uncle John's Band
By Vicente Archer

George's Dance - for George Perry

From: Dedication
By Vicente Archer

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