Bassist/composer Mario Pavone has collaborated with both legendary innovators
and today's most respected young musicians to consistently define the
cutting edge of jazz for the past 50 years. He has anchored the trios
of Paul Bley (1968-72), Bill Dixon (1980's), and the late Thomas Chapin
(1990-97), and co-led a variety of notable ensembles with Anthony Braxton,
Wadada Leo Smith, Marty Ehrlich, and Michael Musillami. His list of
sidemen past and present includes Steven Bernstein, Gerald Cleaver,
Dave Douglas, Peter Madsen, Tony Malaby, Joshua Redman, George Schuller,
Michael Sarin, Craig Taborn, and Matt Wilson among many others. And,
unlike most artists whose careers span five decades, his most recent
recordings are his most widely acclaimed, appearing on best-of-the-year
lists from Slate.com, AllAboutJazz.com, AllAboutJazz-New York, Coda,
the Village Voice , and the New York Times among others.
Although a long career in jazz awaited him, Pavone
never received formal music training and didn't seriously encounter
jazz until his freshman year at the University of Connecticut in 1958.
Growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut, he developed a fondness for black
R&B vocal groups, as well as the 1940's movie music he heard as
a child, but a college friend's jazz record collection—and seeing
John Coltrane one fateful night at the Village Vanguard in 1961—set
him on the musical path. With legendary guitarist/fellow Waterbury native
Joe Diorio's encouragement, Pavone rented a bass in the summer of 1964
and began plucking out the percussive sound that would become his trademark.
He was playing professionally by 1965, though his
full-time job was putting his Industrial Engineering degree to work
for major corporations. Upon hearing the news about Coltrane's death
in 1967, he left his briefcase on his desk, got in the car, and drove
to the funeral, where he decided on the spot to dedicate the rest of
his life to music. He toured Europe with Paul Bley in 1968, and performed
on the pianist's recording, Canada (Radio Canada), with Barry Altschul.
Soon after he met vibraphonist/composer Bobby Naughton, among others,
and became a part of New York's early 70's loft scene with groups like
Bill Dixon's Orchestra of the Streets. By 1975, he was a founding member
of the New Haven, Connecticut-based Creative Music Improvisers Forum
(CMIF), with Naughton, Wadada Leo Smith, Gerry Hemingway, Wes Brown,
Reverend Dwight Andrews and others, which produced concerts and recordings
that gave musicians more control over their own music.
In 1980, Pavone began an 18-year musical relationship
with Thomas Chapin, which would lead to a number of collaborations,
most notably Chapin's seminal trio with drummer Michael Sarin. Around
the same time, Pavone recorded his first titles as a leader, 1979's
Digit and 1981's Shodo on his own Alacra label, crediting
Naughton and Smith with motivating him to write his own music and teaching
him about open-ended composition. Since Chapin's untimely death in 1998,
Pavone has recorded exclusively with his own bands, with the exception
of his son Michael's 2001 debut, Trio (Playscape). His discography
now features 25 recordings as a leader/co-leader, including his acclaimed
2006 release, Deez to Blues, on Playscape Recordings, the label
he has called home since 1999. In addition to his ongoing activities
as a bandleader, Pavone's artwork and photography have graced the covers
of dozens of recordings since the mid 90's, and he currently serves
as an educator, administrator and board member for the Litchfield Jazz
Festival and Litchfield Summer Jazz Camp in Litchfield, Connecticut.