New new faces of European Jazz:
Boris Netsvetaev - Keys
Philipp Steen - Bass
Kai Bussenius - Drums
www.hammerklaviertrio.com
Monday, April 4, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Meet: Javier Moreno Sanchez - Improvisational Jazz
by: Pati Gaitan
Watching Javier Moreno perform for the first time was an unexpected but most pleasant surprise. He has a style that is very hard to ignore; his body language, facial expression and raw passion draw you in and usher you to the world of sound that emanates from his bass even when he is performing as a sideman.
I came to Cornelia’s Café that night to attend the Gerald Cleaver Uncle June’s ‘Be it as I See It’ CD Launch party. The performance was just amazing. (I will write about this piece of music in a future post) Moreno was playing the bass that night; his solos were so captivating, it was virtually impossible to take my eyes off of him. As I found out later, Moreno started playing the bass relatively late in life (he was 22 when he first picked up the upright bass), though he is an incredibly serious composer. It turns out, Moreno has played with some remarkable people like George Garzone, Gerald Cleaver, Rez Abbasy, Tony Moreno, Joe Morris, and Jerry Gonzalez.
Moreno will be releasing his first solo album this spring, the simply and aptly named Brisa. Javier had a very humble beginning, and with no formal music training before he was 20 he has had to work very hard to get to where he is now. His career has taken him through varieties of music genres — from rock/psychedelic to flamenco — but on Jazz, he’s winnowed away the extras, working many of his complex compositions to their marrow and playing them as a leader for the first time. It’s a beautiful, moving record, and, curious about the propulsion behind its origins, I sat with Moreno to find out more.
So, we connected one day in late February by skype, I was sitting at a desk by a window on a Monday afternoon, my laptop on and a cup of tea on hand. He was somewhere in Bolivia on tour.
When did you first play the Bass?
I started playing music on an electric bass when I was 16, and bought my acoustic bass when I was 22 (He now plays a 15 year old Rumano Nagi Bela Bass).
When did you decide to do an album of your own?
I decided to make a solo album almost three years ago, when I first moved to NY on a scholarship. Somehow, is something that I wanted to do to complete my stay in New York. At that time, I thought I would be staying in NYC for a period of two years. I have now the opportunity to stay here for a bit longer.
Why did you choose improvisational Jazz?
I have liked to improvise ever since I picked up the electric bass. I had a psychedelic rock band, and we were improvising the entire repertoire. It was a lot of fun, but no one in the band had a serious musical education. Soon after that, I started to have more interest in jazz, so I just had to trust my intuition and adapt to different concepts, learning the “formal” rules.
Do logistics dictate much of how you think about music?
Not really, I like to follow my heart when I perform, not my mind.
What does it feel like to perform your own music?
Having the opportunity to play whatever I want with the people I want, creating long improvisational suites in every performance, gives me a wonderful feeling of freedom.
I came to Cornelia’s Café that night to attend the Gerald Cleaver Uncle June’s ‘Be it as I See It’ CD Launch party. The performance was just amazing. (I will write about this piece of music in a future post) Moreno was playing the bass that night; his solos were so captivating, it was virtually impossible to take my eyes off of him. As I found out later, Moreno started playing the bass relatively late in life (he was 22 when he first picked up the upright bass), though he is an incredibly serious composer. It turns out, Moreno has played with some remarkable people like George Garzone, Gerald Cleaver, Rez Abbasy, Tony Moreno, Joe Morris, and Jerry Gonzalez.
Moreno will be releasing his first solo album this spring, the simply and aptly named Brisa. Javier had a very humble beginning, and with no formal music training before he was 20 he has had to work very hard to get to where he is now. His career has taken him through varieties of music genres — from rock/psychedelic to flamenco — but on Jazz, he’s winnowed away the extras, working many of his complex compositions to their marrow and playing them as a leader for the first time. It’s a beautiful, moving record, and, curious about the propulsion behind its origins, I sat with Moreno to find out more.
So, we connected one day in late February by skype, I was sitting at a desk by a window on a Monday afternoon, my laptop on and a cup of tea on hand. He was somewhere in Bolivia on tour.
I started playing music on an electric bass when I was 16, and bought my acoustic bass when I was 22 (He now plays a 15 year old Rumano Nagi Bela Bass).
When did you decide to do an album of your own?
I decided to make a solo album almost three years ago, when I first moved to NY on a scholarship. Somehow, is something that I wanted to do to complete my stay in New York. At that time, I thought I would be staying in NYC for a period of two years. I have now the opportunity to stay here for a bit longer.
Why did you choose improvisational Jazz?
I have liked to improvise ever since I picked up the electric bass. I had a psychedelic rock band, and we were improvising the entire repertoire. It was a lot of fun, but no one in the band had a serious musical education. Soon after that, I started to have more interest in jazz, so I just had to trust my intuition and adapt to different concepts, learning the “formal” rules.
Do logistics dictate much of how you think about music?
Not really, I like to follow my heart when I perform, not my mind.
What does it feel like to perform your own music?
Having the opportunity to play whatever I want with the people I want, creating long improvisational suites in every performance, gives me a wonderful feeling of freedom.
What compels you to make music?
The need for sublimation, the need to be in touch with myself (in practice and composition), and the need to be in touch and interact with my fellow musicians. I need to be calm and to believe in what I am doing at that moment. Minds should be free of egos and contamination. The most difficult thing to achieve in music is a perfect state of mind.
What’s exciting to you about music now?
Probably the fact that you don’t have to strictly decide what style to play. Especially in NY, now there is a very open concept in terms of “Style”, you can find a lot of different people playing in different situations and different kinds of musical settings.
In my musical world with my compositions, the most exciting thing is that I can mix extremes: melody with atonality, piano with forte, fast and very slow...
What’s exciting to you about the group of people who collaborated with you on this album?
It is exciting that every performance can be a totally different world; my fellow musicians really can change the repertoire every time we play, creating almost a new piece of music.
The need for sublimation, the need to be in touch with myself (in practice and composition), and the need to be in touch and interact with my fellow musicians. I need to be calm and to believe in what I am doing at that moment. Minds should be free of egos and contamination. The most difficult thing to achieve in music is a perfect state of mind.
What’s exciting to you about music now?
Probably the fact that you don’t have to strictly decide what style to play. Especially in NY, now there is a very open concept in terms of “Style”, you can find a lot of different people playing in different situations and different kinds of musical settings.
In my musical world with my compositions, the most exciting thing is that I can mix extremes: melody with atonality, piano with forte, fast and very slow...
What’s exciting to you about the group of people who collaborated with you on this album?
It is exciting that every performance can be a totally different world; my fellow musicians really can change the repertoire every time we play, creating almost a new piece of music.
Javier Moreno’s new album ‘Brisa’ is now available on pre-sale.
To learn more about Javier Moreno visit: http://javiermorenojazz.com/
To learn more about Javier Moreno visit: http://javiermorenojazz.com/
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Monday, December 6, 2010
A Well Known Angel
www.tonygrey.com
Tony Grey is perhaps my most admired composer, bassist, singer a truly multi-instrumentalist artist, that I have the honor of knowing. I love to analyze music and its interpreters, creators and listeners. For some time I have been doing some serious observations at how people receive and interpret music - Starting with me, personally.
This album is so intimate - it is amazingly difficult not to fall in love with the beautiful bass movements, both composition and interpretation, all that comes packaged in this person who's life story is as amazing as his voice.
There is so much more than technique in Tony's new "Unknown Angels" album. It is multidimensional, full of emotion and it goes beyond the storyline of these 9 tracks to masterfully arranged compositions that are evocative, fusing from harmonics to that beautiful unsuspected voice. Truly a masterpiece!
Pati-G
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
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