NICK MAZZARELLA TRIO
Photo by Kate Joyce. To date, the group has released two albums, both critically praised, and both featuring Mazzarella's original compositions: Aviary, and This is Only a Test: Live at the Hungry Brain. Find more information on these recordings below. Click HERE to read a feature article on the Nick Mazzarella Trio written by critic Devin Hurd for New Music Box, e-magazine of the American Music Center.
Click HERE for a photo set of the Nick Mazzarella Trio in performance taken by Peter Gannushkin of downtownmusic.net.
 Alto saxophonist and composer Nick Mazzarella has been a participant in Chicago’s jazz, free jazz, improvised music, and rock scenes as a bandleader, sideman, and presenter since 2002. After completing his formal music education at DePaul University (Bachelor of Music 2006, Master of Music 2009), he began performing regularly with his own groups and with projects led by his peers at venues throughout the city and the United States. His efforts have been especially concentrated around the activities of his primary working band, the Nick Mazzarella Trio, the musician and presenter collective Umbrella Music, and the Ratchet Series, a grass roots effort to establish a performance haven for free jazz on the south side of Chicago. Equally at home in the worlds of the traditional and the avant-garde, Mazzarella maintains a continuous performance schedule encompassing a variety of musical contexts, but focuses the majority of his energy on the areas of composition-based free jazz and free improvisation. It is through his work in these stylistic mediums that Mazzarella has developed a distinctive voice. ANTON HATWICH | bass Bassist and composer Anton Hatwich has been active in Chicago's musical community since 2002. Although he occasionally appears as a sideman to various songwriters and rock bands, Hatwich is best known for his work amongst the post-Vandermark generation of Chicago improvisors. He maintains a nearly constant pace of performing, composing, teaching, recording, and touring throughout the year. In addition to his work with the Nick Mazzarella Trio, he performs regularly in groups led by Keefe Jackson, Josh Berman, Aram Shelton, Paul Giallorenzo, and Nick Broste. FRANK ROSALY | drums Since 2001, drummer and composer Frank Rosaly has been navigating a fine line between the vibrant improvised, indie-rock, experimental, and jazz communities in Chicago. Rosaly is currently active in over twenty musical projects based in Chicago, New York, and Europe, performing, composing, teaching, and touring domestically and internationally on a regular basis. In addition, he organizes the Ratchet Series at the Skylark in Chicago, a weekly showcase of creative music. Tuesday, May 28, 2013. 9:00 PM.
NICK MAZZARELLA TRIO at Skylark.
NICK MAZZARELLA TRIO at Observatory. 3036 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. 2149 S Halsted Street, Chicago.
Saturday, August 31, 12:30 PM. NICK MAZZARELLA TRIO at 35th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival. North Promenade Stage, Millennium Park. 155 N Michigan Avenue, Chicago. RECORDINGS  BY THE NICK MAZZARELLA TRIO (SELF-PRODUCED, 2011) TRACKS
1. This is Only a Test
2. Do Not Disturb
3. Sundown
4. Newsprint
5. Clockwork
6. For Henry
7. Boarding Pass
8. A Memory for Faces
9. Circumstantialism
PERSONNEL
Nick Mazzarella, alto saxophone & compositions (BMI 2011) Anton Hatwich, bass Frank Rosaly, drums Todd Carter, recording engineer Nick Broste, mixing engineer Griffin Rodriguez, mastering engineer Jonathan Krohn, graphic design PURCHASE From iTunes HERE (MP3s) From CD Baby HERE (CDs)
"Saxophonist Nick Mazzarella comes into his own on his second trio album, This Is Only a Test: Live at the Hungry Brain. Bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly keep a tight rein on the songs, maintaining a lithe, crisp drive. Many of Mazzarella's compositions borrow Ornette Coleman's ebullient, jaunty melodicism, but he often changes the mood when he takes an extended solo - his dark, visceral phrasing and strident tone recall fire breathers like Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler." - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader "Nick Mazzarella's second album within a year, a breezy live document from two sets at the Hungry Brain, is titled This is Only a Test, though it adds up to much more than that. Mazzarella possesses a joyfully keening alto saxophone tone with the impact of Ornette Coleman’s upbeat existentialism. But on the closing track he also reveals a capacity for cage fighting fury and fluent abstraction, ably abetted by the superior rhythm section of drummer Frank Rosaly and bassist Anton Hatwich." - Michael Jackson, Chicago Sun Times
 BY THE NICK MAZZARELLA TRIO (SELF-PRODUCED, 2010)
TRACKS 1. Quarantine 2. Pistachio (for my bird) 3. Eternal Return 4. Pescador 5. Free Dance 6. Aviary
PERSONNEL Nick Mazzarella. alto saxophone & compositions (BMI 2010) Anton Hatwich, bass Franks Rosaly, drums Nick Broste, recording and mixing engineer Griffin Rodriguez, mastering engineer Johnathan Crawford, graphic design
PURCHASE From iTunes HERE (MP3s) From CD Baby HERE (CDs) PRESS "First albums shouldn't be this good."
- Bill Meyer, DownBeat
"An auspicious debut. This saxophonist promises great things in the future."
- Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader |