ALBERT VILA QUARTET FEAT. LUIS PERDOMO (ES/FI/VE)
Albert Vila – guitar, Luis Perdomo – piano, Marko Lohikari– double bass, Marc Miralta– drums
Albert Villa, the leading Spanish jazz guitarist living in Brussels, presents his new band. Four years ago, he performed at JazzFest Brno with Dutch saxophonist Cyrille Oswald, and this time he has put together an international group with the prominent Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo. This tour was preceded by the recording of Albert’s original music which is also his fourth CD. Albert made a few necessary steps for the album to succeed. He recorded it in New York, the very center of contemporary jazz, and invited some of the most in demand American jazzmen Jeff Ballard, Aaron Parks and Doug Weiss for his dream to come true. Entitled The Unquiet Sky, the record will be introduced to wider public in an intense European tour with a band featuring Marko Lohikarri, Marc Miralta and Luis Perdomo.
Perdomo´s biography boasts of one significant cooperation after another. He has been and still is an integral part of projects led by John Patitucci, Jack Dejohnette, David Gilmore, Ravi Coltrane and many others. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Sir Roland Hannawas as his mentor. Perdomo´s style is inspired by Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner, among other influences.
Albert Vila began his musical studies at the „Taller de Musics“ in Barcelona. In 1999 he was accepted into the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jesse Van Ruller as his main teacher. In 2004 he was awarded the first prize in the Dutch Jazz Competition, the following year he was provided with a scholarship to join the graduate program at the prestigious „Manhattan School of Music“ in New York.
In 2007 after completing his post graduate studies he decided to return to his hometown, Barcelona. Once there, he decided to put together a new project: Albert Vila Quintet. With this group he won the national competition in Donosti ”Debajazz” in 2007, and in the same year the record label Fresh Sound New Talent released his debut album „Foreground music“.
In 2011 came the release of his second album on Fresh Sound New Talent, entitled „Tactile“. Tactile is just that. It’s comprised of carefully constructed, compositions moving from intimate to energetic, from melodic to rhythmic, from contemplation to outbursts – travelling through a wide range of musical landscapes along the way. Hard to grasp, exciting to listen to.
On his next album Standards in a trio format, he surrounded himself with the great drummer Jorge Rossy and bassist ReinierElizarde “El Negrón” to offer new renditions of some serious gems from the Great American Songbook. The most recent outing The Unquiet Sky indicates Albert´s inclination back to the quartet format and an original repertory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQHOHBJfCjg
TOMASZ STAŃKO QUARTET (PL/US/CU)
Tomasz Stańko – trumpet, David Virelles – piano, Reuben Rogers – double bass, Gerald Cleaver – drums
Tomasz Stańko hails from neighboring Poland but performs in the Czech Republic way too rarely, even though his trumpet’s unique sound may be heard at the most prestigious venues throughout the world and on records produced and released by renowned, Munich-based ECM Records. He debuted at the end of the 1950s in Krakow. Joachim Ernst Berendt considered him the first free-jazz trumpeter in Europe. In the 1960s Stańko joined Krzysztof Komeda’s quintet, soon became its mainstay, and recorded with it a masterpiece of European jazz, LP Astigmatic.
In the early 1970s, at the helm of Tomasz Stańko Quintet, he came to the forefront of the free jazz scene and was featured at major European festivals. His subsequent projects reinforced this stature: Unit with Polish pianist Adam Makowicz, and a quartet co-led with Norwegian drummer Edward Vesala that in 1975 attracted the attention of ECM’s Manfred Eicher. Stańko’s ECM debut, Balladyna, has become a legend on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. In the 1980s Stańko was enlisted by Cecil Taylor to his line-ups, and led his own C.O.C.X. and Freelectronic bands that incorporated reggae, Latino, electronic, and rap inspirations.
The 1990s saw Stańko’s return to the jazz summit and another phase of his liaison with ECM label. His new quartet featuring pianist Bobo Stenson, bassist Anders Jormin, and drummer Tony Oxley was hailed as the best jazz group of the decade. Released in 1997, Litania, a tribute to the music of Krzysztof Komeda, became his first global bestseller. The subsequent Stańko ECM releases of Soul of Things and Suspended Night recorded with a young Polish quartet at the beginning of the new century brought him to the orbit of the American market, where he has been touring regularly ever since.
Stańko as a leader has released 37 albums, has also composed music for numerous films and theatrical productions. He has been a NYC Manhattan resident since 2008. His previous CD, Dark Eyes, was recorded in 2009 with a new quintet of young Scandinavian talent. He currently works also with New York City musicians, such as Lee Konitz and Craig Taborn.
2013 brought a new album, “Wisława”. Like his early hero Miles Davis, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko has a gift for shaping great bands, and this one, formed in the world’s jazz capital, overflows with promise. The bass and drums team of Reuben Rogers and Gerald Cleaver is one of the most sensitive in contemporary improvising, and Cuban-born pianist David Virelles, inspired by ritual music as well as by Thelonious Monk and Andrew Hill, seems particularly well-attuned to the brooding darkness and sophisticated dread of Stańko’s free ballads. In the uptempo pieces all four players seem to enter new territory, with very exciting results. The double-album program of Stańko´s new compositions is inspired also by the poetry of Wisława Symborska, the Polish poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate, who died in 2012. As Stańko writes in the CD booklet, “Reading Wisława Szymborska’s words gave me many ideas and insights. Meeting her and interacting with her poetry also gave impetus for this music, which I would like to dedicate, respectfully, to her memory.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H51xGk0lMwk
