DINO MASSA / CHRIS BURNETT GROUP - Dino Massa, an Italian Jazz pianist from Naples, Italy, is coming to Kansas City to perform with his friend, American Jazz saxophonist, Chris Burnett. The Dino Massa / Chris Burnett Group will appear in The Blue Room at the American Jazz Museum on Friday, May 8th; and, at the new Take Five Coffee + Bar on Saturday, May 9th ... Massa and Burnett used to perform regularly together twenty years ago when Burnett lived in Napoli serving with the NATO Jazz Band.
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DINO MASSA
Born September 26, 1964, earned his undergraduate degree in composition in 1990, earned graduate degrees with honors in piano and jazz music in 2000, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples, under the guidance of M Bruno Tommaso....
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DINO MASSA / CHRIS BURNETT GROUP - Dino Massa, an Italian Jazz pianist from Naples, Italy, is coming to Kansas City to perform with his friend, American Jazz saxophonist, Chris Burnett. The Dino Massa / Chris Burnett Group will appear in The Blue Room at the American Jazz Museum on Friday, May 8th; and, at the new Take Five Coffee + Bar on Saturday, May 9th ... Massa and Burnett used to perform regularly together twenty years ago when Burnett lived in Napoli serving with the NATO Jazz Band.
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DINO MASSA
Born September 26, 1964, earned his undergraduate degree in composition in 1990, earned graduate degrees with honors in piano and jazz music in 2000, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples, under the guidance of M Bruno Tommaso.
From 84 performs in concerts both as a jazz musician and performer of classical, which alternates to the profession of teaching jazz piano at various music schools including the CPM network Space Music Pomigliano d'Arco (Na).
'84 Winner of the competition organized by musical Euterpe of Pompeii as a pianist jazz composer, has participated in numerous exhibitions both nationally (Naples, Salerno, Orsara, Pomigliano, Benevento, Teramo, Isernia, Campobasso, Martina Franca, Camerota, Ischia , Portici, S. Antonio Abate, etc.), however, playing for the international associations F. Chopin and A. Scarlatti of Naples.
Besides being an active composer of jazz, is the author of transcriptions of classical pieces for choir and orchestra performed in various concerts since '91.
In '94 affect on his behalf the so-called "Wandering" by which gets two reports in the competition organized by the magazine Top 94 Jazz Jazz Music category for new talent.
In '96, the so-called "Traits of Extraordinary Encounters" made with the group Agca is judged one of the best albums of the year by the newspaper L'Unità.
In the same year, with the group Agca, participates in the TV Trying Trying on Rai Due.
In '98 he joined the Jazz Orchestra of the Conservatory San Pietro a Majella in Naples, directed by Bruno Thomas, with whom he performed in several festivals, collaborates with the music magazine Basimedia already Panastudio News, for which a cure didactic column entitled "The piano in jazz" and in the same year, her second CD in his name with the title "Doctor Dei Pazzi" jazz reinterpretation of the Neapolitan song.
In '99 the public method "For Piano Jazz Language" published by Sagi Music and distributed by Carisch, and in 2000 he published for the same publishing house, a book of songs for piano and soprano sax on "Jazz Duet".
In 2001 he released his third album, "Viewpoints", recorded solo piano.
He has collaborated and still collaborates with various musicians including Maurizio Giammarco, Bruno Tommaso, Piero Leveratto, Mario Raja, Maria Pia De Vito, Gianpaolo Casati, Andrea Braido, Daniele Sepe, Antonio Onorato, Pietro Condorelli, Franco D'andrea, with this' last in teaching.
Discography:
1994 - GIROTONDO (M.A.P. - L.T. CD 0109)
1995 - CASE OF EXTRAORDINARY MEETINGS - Agca (South Pole - PS005)
1998 - THE DOCTOR OF CRAZY (Panastudio - CDJ1010-2)
1999 - THE GREATEST HITS OF Panastudio JAZZ MUSIC (CDJ1051-2)
2000 - POINT OF VIEW (Panastudio - CD 1073-2)
2004 - UN PO '... HOW WE (Panastudio - CD 1073-2)
forthcoming DUKE 2001 with the jazz ensemble of the Conservatory of Naples directed by Bruno Tommaso.
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CHRIS BURNETT
How are jazz careers made?
Many have remarked on the big historical shift: musicians used to apprentice on the road with masters and learn the language firsthand, but those cultural conditions are fading, and the bandstand has been replaced by the graduate degree. There’s truth in that narrative, and yet it fails to account for the full variety of paths that players are taking as they strive to find their voice in this music.For alto saxophonist Christopher Burnett, the journey involved spending 22 years as a musician in the U.S. Army.
He left the service in 1996 — “I’ve been out nearly as long as I was in,” he says — and resettled in 2001 in his native Kansas City metropolitan area. Two years earlier, in 1999, he had released his debut recording, Time Flies, and in 2008 he followed up with Theme Music, both on the Artists Recording Collective (ARC) label that he cofounded with saxophonist Erica Lindsay and pianist Sumi Tonooka. Now at age 58, Burnett reaches another level of achievement with Firebird, showcasing a fine working quartet and a set of compositions rich in beauty, subtlety and sophistication.
There’s a remarkable lyrical ease and harmonic savvy in the compositions that make up Firebird, not least of all on the title track with its layered flutes and Latin-tinged rhythmic feel. Burnett’s legato eloquence and depth of expression on the slow 4/4 “Ballad for An Optimist” is another highlight. His choice of the inspired, metrically shifting “A Risk I Take,” by French horn virtuoso and colleague Mark Taylor, tells us much about his refined taste and interpretive abilities.
Excerpt from the forthcoming liner notes by:
David R. Adler
New York, August 2014
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A native of the Kansas City Area, award-winning composer and saxophone artist, Chris Burnett began his prolific professional start and rose to prominence while leading, touring and recording with US military bands from 1974-1996.
During this era, Army band organizations required leaders to direct and manage all operations of a military company – fiscal, finance, administration, training, marketing and publicity. All of these business duties were mastered during the course of a career and performed in addition to and in conjunction with the daily conduct and performance of hundreds of professional musical engagements and concerts each year by the military band companies he was posted with.
Subsequently, Mr. Burnett is the 1995 5-Star Award of Merit Winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs for his original composition and arrangement for big band titled, Daedalus. He has also received numerous awards, letters and decorations for superior military service performance.
As an artist/businessman and modern thinker, Mr. Burnett was an early explorer of the digital music landscape. Through skillful and innovative promotion and marketing tactics, Burnett garnered more than a half million music downloads and sold CDs to fans in 38 countries via the original MP3.com (1999-2003). This was before most musicians had figured out that there were other ways than major record label contracts and brick-and-mortar retail stores to reach listeners with their products.
Burnett founded a retail music store business immediately after his military career and held an adjunct position as director of the jazz band program at Missouri Science & Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla). He currently is Marketing Communications Manager for the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, a professional jazz artist educator and businessman.
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