# Mario Pavone has collaborated with both legendary innovators … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/11/11/mario-pavone-has-collaborated-with-both-legendary-innovators-video/
- Published: 2017-11-11T00:03:25+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**11.11. – Happy Birthday !!! 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 40 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_, _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 19 recordings as a leader/co- leader, including his
acclaimed 2008 releases _Trio Arc_ and _Ancestors_ 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.

![Image result for Mario Pavone](http://www.trbimg.com/img-574de68b/turbine/hc-mario-
pavone-trio-firehouse-12-new-haven-0602-20160531)

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