Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po: Mario Pavone Orange Double Tenor
[PSR#061010]
PERSONNEL
Mario Pavone – bass
Tony Malaby – tenor & soprano sax
Jimmy Greene – tenor sax
Dave Ballou – trumpet, cornet
Peter Madsen – piano
Gerald Cleaver – drums
Steven Bernstein – slide trumpet (track 12)
TRACKS
1. Continuing
2. East Arc
3. Poles
4. Nokimo
5. West of Crash
6. Half Dome (For Bill Dixon)
7. The Dom
8. Silver Point
9. Dome
10. T/Pi T/Po
11. Mid Code
12. 17 Note
about
Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po, veteran bassist/composer Mario Pavone's 20th release as a leader/co-leader, is the recorded debut of his latest group, Orange Double Tenor. The sextet performs a new book of original music Pavone composed specifically for this line-up after receiving a commission from Chamber Music America's 2009 New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development program funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. This studio recording of that music, which the band has been performing live throughout the Northeast since June 2010, is being released the week of Pavone's 70th birthday.
 
 
Reviews
Top 10 of 2010
— Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com + Village Voice
Best New Release 2010: Honorable Mention
— AllAboutJazz-New York
Our fave jazz discs of 2010
— Destination: Out
Top 10 Int'l Jazz Recordings of 2010
— François Dunlop, CISM-FM
As a bandleader, composer and confident creative force in his own right, Pavone – going strong at 70 – exerts a special brand of relaxed intensity, as heard once again on a rich and adventurously probing suite project with his Orange Double Tenor sextet...complex "new jazz" at once intellectual and swinging, investigative and declarative. Not incidentally, it is also formidably played by his ace group, including the double tenor sound of Tony Malaby (also injecting some soprano action) and Jimmy Greene, the commanding trumpeter Dave Ballou, drummer Gerald Cleaver and pianist Peter Madsen, in close, empathetic dialogue with the man in the center. All aboard deliver on the tricky structured sections, and easily free up according to the leader's venturesome plan.
— Josef Woodard, DownBeat
Pavone makes room for open-form soloing – and his cohorts take cunning advantage of the latitude – but he situates these free-jazz-informed statements in tightly conceived formats. This contrast between individual expression and the polished – but nonrestrictive – writing is invariably exhilarating...contrast, expertly wielded, keeps Arc Suite vivid from start to finish. Pavone, who turned 70 in 2010, creates a lovely milestone with this superlative recording.
— Steve Futterman, Jazziz
Pavone's compositions give this music a strong and powerful Mingus like feel, with the colors of a little big band and the nimbleness of a smaller ensemble. This was an energetic album full of music that is fresh, exciting and alive. Pavone's bass playing and his compositions are exemplary and deserve wider recognition on the modern jazz scene.
— Tim Niland, Music and More
Pavone employs the all-star sextet in a dense piece of interwoven lines and textures, a quilt of powerful sound.
— Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper
Top 10 of 2010: Honorable mentions
— Hank Shteamer, Jazz Journalists Association
Over the decades since he took up the bass (when he was in his mid-20s), Mario Pavone has continued to move forward, not slowed by the vagaries of the music business or lack of imagination. His creative music marries rhythm and melody in original ways that make one sit up and pay attention.
— Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
This sextet is a little big band, and it's easy to dig both their gentility and gumption. Throughout the new Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po, the bassist's designs demand that his team deliver punch after graceful punch. From Dave Ballou's trumpet spin-outs to Gerald Cleaver's cymbal peppering, they rise to the challenge.
— Jim Macnie, Village Voice
Una musica cromaticamente brillante e con la scrittura in continuo dinamismo ritmico, che si apre a soluzioni impreviste e all'estro dei solisti. Tra i momenti più coinvolgenti ricordiamo il concitato "West of Crash" e il solenne "Half Dome," dedicato alla memoria di Bill Dixon.
— Angelo Leonardi, AllAboutJazz-Italia
At 70, Mario Pavone continues to blaze the path he embarked on in the late '60s, bridging the dissonant, structurally open world of the avant-garde and the swinging accessibility of jazz tradition. Like Dave Holland, he's a prolific leader and composer and a monster bassist, with a raft of recent standouts on the Playscape label to his credit. The latest, Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po, seems to merge the quintet from 2003's Orange with the twinned tenor sax lineup of 2008's Ancestors (hence "Orange Double Tenor"). The results are punchy, furious at times, yet finely calibrated at the core. Watch for Pavone's secret weapon, the underrated pianist Peter Madsen, whose advanced harmony does wonders for these wry, twisted compositions.
— David R. Adler, Philadelphia Weekly
Filled with passion and the sound of surprise, Arc Suite is another example of the Waterbury native's mastery of small-group composition. From first intro to final coda, the CD unfurls adventurous but accessible material. And in the tradition of Charles Mingus, Pavone's music not only stakes out fresh, new turf, but also swings and evokes genuine feelings.
— Owen McNally, Hartford Courant
A steadfast leader, Pavone guides the sextet through his labyrinthine themes, steering them through jagged passages that veer inside and out, regularly returning to episodes of joyous swing. Nudging the tradition incrementally forward, Arc Suite T/Pi T/Po is a superb demonstration of Pavone's authoritative writing and leadership skills.
— Troy Collins, Point of Departure
Mario Pavone at 70 is as vital as ever. He surrounds himself with top people and provides them with music that hearkens back to his avowed influences (Coltrane, Ornette, Mingus, Cecil), but is filtered through his own compositional originality and contemporary vocabulary. Pavone and his Orange Double Tenor band make music the old-fashioned way, marked by tight ensemble performance and bruising interplay, but never let you forget that this group is playing the music of today.
— Jeff Stockton, AllAboutJazz-New York
Mario Pavone is one of those master bass players and bandleaders very much in the tradition of a Charles Mingus. So, a really really good player, but also a really good composer...it's a very very rousing, very energetic sound, which I think the likes of Mingus would be very proud of. A very very powerful band.
— Kevin Le Gendre, BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3
Just under one hour in length and consistently astonishing! No doubt another contender for this year's best discs.
— Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
...the disc is loaded with playing that's emotionally charged and intellectually stimulating.
— Glen Hall, Exclaim!
In view of how far jazz/improvised music has come, carving out fresh territory in the small group area is a feat in itself, but Pavone and his group do it with aplomb. The result is fresh, invigorated, compelling music-making.
— Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com