Paul Giallorenzo Trio to release βPlayβ on Delmark Records Oct. 10th, expanding avant jazz in extraordinary directions.
βRepeated listens have opened up my ears; Giallorenzoβs key inspirations go back five decades, but the way he evokes Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and particularly early Cecil Taylor doesnβt sound the last bit dated.β β Chicago Reader
His brand new trio album, βPlay,β out October 10th on Delmark Records, illustrates his evolution as an artist and devotion to jazz forms. Giallorenzo is joined by Joshua Abrams on double bass and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums....
read more
Paul Giallorenzo Trio to release βPlayβ on Delmark Records Oct. 10th, expanding avant jazz in extraordinary directions.
βRepeated listens have opened up my ears; Giallorenzoβs key inspirations go back five decades, but the way he evokes Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and particularly early Cecil Taylor doesnβt sound the last bit dated.β β Chicago Reader
His brand new trio album, βPlay,β out October 10th on Delmark Records, illustrates his evolution as an artist and devotion to jazz forms. Giallorenzo is joined by Joshua Abrams on double bass and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums.
The Trio will celebrate the release of βPlayβ at Elastic Arts on October 12th.
From liner notes by Neil Tesser:
As kids, most of us often heard our parents tell us, whether out of concern for us getting enough fresh air β or simply to get us out of their hair β to βplay outside.β Pianist Paul Giallorenzo still does it.
Giallorenzo plays beyond the theme-and-variations format, happy to skip beyond the well-worn phrases of silky piano trios, ready to take the game in an oblique direction at every turn. Plenty of musicians have explored such areas: the jazz avant-garde evolved thanks to the legendary artists who βplayed outside.β Most of those musicians were adept at playing βinsideβ as well; itβs said that Ornette Coleman, for example, could sound exactly like Charlie Parker when he chose.
And todayβs post-freedom musicians sometimes surprise ardent avant-garde fans with their mastery of music that they have supposedly jettisoned from their repertoire. But not so many artists can adeptly merge these approaches into one theory of mind, and such βinside-outsideβ musiciansβthe category that certainly includes Giallorenzoβs trioβare a separate gang. They infuse the tradition into their edgier romps, and vice-versa; more to the point, they inhabit both territories at the same time. So while the music in βPlayβ can grab the ear of musical adventurers, it also wonβt frighten those just dipping their toes into this particular stream. These players find a middle groundβnot by compromising the new or the old, but by elevating the virtues of each.
Itβs not so easy to make music this demanding and yet so deceptively fluid. β¦ These performances arise from a combination of focus and intensity, dedication and rigor. But they sure donβt sound like βwork.β Whether outside or in, the message remains the same: Play
Originally from Long Island, NY, Paul Giallorenzo is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, producer, and sound designer using piano, synthesizer, keyboards, and electronics in a diverse range of contexts with a wide array of Chicago and international musicians in improvised, avant-jazz, experimental, and electro/acoustic music, performing regularly locally and throughout North America and Europe.
Giallorenzoβs work has been praised for its βinside-outβ nature β his ability to push the boundaries of βconventionalβ jazz toward more freedom but also, on the other side, to bring a measure of structure to more avant-garde material. Writing in the online journal P_oint Of Departure, John Litweiler said, βHis solos and aggressive duets are gems of after-Bop, after-Bley melody,β while AllAboutJazz.com_ lauded music that βsmudges the lines between the tradition and the avant-garde.β
Delmark Records is proud to release this new album by Paul Giallorenzo as its 70th anniversary year jazz feature.
Other Delmark releases by Paul include: Paul Giallorenzo Trio β Flow, Paul Giallorenzoβs GitGo β Force Majeure
Other albums of interest: Josh Abrams β Cipher (Delmark 546)
Paul is the Artistic Director of the multi-arts organization Homeroom and a co-founder and programmer of the music venue/art gallery Elastic Arts, producing hundreds of creative music concerts and art events in Chicago since 2001.
show less