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, and the Village Voice 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 16 recordings as a leader/co-leader, including his acclaimed 2004 release, Boom, 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 Music Institute in Litchfield, Connecticut.


PROJECTS:
Mario Pavone's Nu Trio
Mario Pavone's Orange Band
Mario Pavone's Deez Group
Mario Pavone's Double Tenor Quintet

 

SELECTED
DISCOGRAPHY:
Digit (Alacra) 1979
November 1981/with Bill Dixon (Soul Note) 1981
Third Force/with Thomas Chapin (Knitting Factory) 1990
Nine Duets/with Anthony Braxton (Music and Arts) 1993
Seven Standards/with Anthony Braxton (Knitting Factory) 1994
Alive, 8 CD set/with Thomas Chapin (Knitting Facotry) 1999
Remembering Thomas (Knitting Facotry) 1999
Pivot/with Michael Musillami (Playscape Recordings) 2002
Mythos (Playscape Recordings) 2002
Orange (Playscape Recordings) 2003
Boom (Playscape Recordings) 2004
Deez to Blues (Playscape Recordings) 2006

Trio Arc (Playscape Recordings) 2008

Ancestors (Playscape Recordings) 2008