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Nick Mazzarella
In addition to his activities as a performing musician, Mazzarella has contributed to the vibrancy of the Chicago jazz community by working as a concert series presenter since 2008. He currently curates two ongoing concert series in Chicago—the Anagram Series, presented weekly at Elastic Arts in Avondale, and the Ratchet Series, presented monthly at Cafe Mustache in Logan Square.
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Brian Citro: Keep Moving (Home)
by Jack Bowers
The sound of Brian Citro's mellow guitar introduces “Stay Where You Feel," the first of his 14 original compositions on Keep Moving (Home), most of which began life as pieces for solo guitar and were revised by Citro to suit a quartet format. Citro's teammates on this generally pleasing yet largely anodyne session are alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Quin Kirchner. Mazzarella doubles on the seldom-heard Wurlitzer organ. About the only thing that could ...
Continue ReadingSylvia Bolognesi: Jungle Duke
by Glenn Astarita
Silvia Bolognesi, the accomplished Italian double bassist with deep roots in Siena Jazz and jny: Chicago's improvisational scene, leads a dynamic septet through her album, Jungle Duke. This recording offers a spirited and highly successful reworking of Duke Ellington's iconic 1920s “Jungle" era classics, celebrating the centennial of those innovations and the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. Bolognesi intersperses intriguing archival audio clips of Ellington with fresh arrangements that deftly blend historical swing with the band's occasional free jazz ...
Continue ReadingSilvia Bolognesi: Jungle Duke
by Neri Pollastri
Nel suo inesausto lavoro creativo, che affianca l'ancor più energica attività di strumentista, Silvia Bolognesi intreccia costantemente e virtuosamente l'antico e il moderno, le sue due “patrie"--la natia Siena e l'adottiva Chicago--e i musicisti con i quali condivide il percorso, talvolta da molti anni attraverso mille collaborazioni, talaltra da poco tempo, perché incontrati nelle aule di Siena Jazz. Così, dopo essersi dedicata lo scorso anno al repertorio di un artista leggendario come Gil Scott Heron, chiamando Eric Mingus ad affiancare ...
Continue ReadingNatural Information Society: Since Time is Gravity
by Danen Jobe
The concept of trance is one of the oldest in the world. Many older music forms embraced trance for their rituals. One is the Gnawa musical tradition originating in Kano, Nigeria and Morocco, which uses double and triple notes repeated sometimes for hours to induce a religious state while the singer sings stories of spirits. It is played on a gimbri (aka sintir or hajhuj), a three stringed instrument featuring one short and two long goat gut strings over a ...
Continue ReadingNick Mazzarella / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Avreeayl Ra: What You Seek Is Seeking You
by Mark Corroto
In a trio format, listeners have come to expect alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella to lead and write all the compositions. He introduced himself to the world with Aviary (Thought To Sound Records, 2010), and followed up with three more trio releases with bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly, four if we count Triangulum (Clean Feed, 2017) from his Meridian Trio (Jeremy Cunningham and Matt Ulery). These albums highlight Mazzarella's ability to compose, perform and, maybe of greater significance, organize ...
Continue ReadingQuin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
by Mark Corroto
Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now, was released in 1979. After sitting for 2 and ½ hours, a viewer might have hoped for theater management to stand at the exits to hand out pamphlets explaining what had just gone down. The conflict had ended 4 years prior, and most war movies, pre- Vietnam, were straight-forward, America-saves-the-world affairs. Goodnight. In between a surf crazed Robert Duval, Playboy Bunnies, and the insane Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando, the movie ...
Continue ReadingQuin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
by Kevin Press
Add Chicago's Quin Kirchner to the growing list of young jazz artists who've dropped impressive multi-disc releases in recent years. It has become a kind of rite of passage for a new breed of heavy hitters, these double-and triple-album sets. They are not vanity projects. Not the good ones, anyway. They come from deep pools of creativity. The kind a very few young artists have accessible to them in the early prime of their careers. Kirchner's follow-up to ...
Continue Reading– Troy Dostert, All About Jazz
"[Mazzarella is a] student of jazz’s deep history and a freedom seeker unwilling to let rules hold back expression."
– Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
"Anyone who follows jazz in Chicago knows that Mazzarella can summon tremendous power on his instrument."
– Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
"Mazzarella’s prowess stems from his billowing timbre and clarity of thought.”
– Neil Tesser, chicagomusic.org
"To hear Mazzarella play saxophone is to bear witness to an exquisite young talent.”
– Kenneth Preski, Newcity Magazine
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Nick Mazzarella
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
Born: July 15, 1984
Publicist: Lydia Liebman Promotions
