Venue: The Buttonwood Tree
Admission: $10
Mike Baggetta – Guitar & Electronics
Jason Rigby – Saxophones
Cameron Brown – Bass
George Schuller – Drums & Percussion
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“On ‘Thieves and Secrets’ (Fresh Sound), the New York jazz guitarist Mike Baggetta makes stealthy, mysterious music, with electric and acoustic guitar, and some electronics. He’s played his share of standard jazz repertory, and can improvise fast and fluidly, showing all kinds of learning. (His solos here on the title track and on “Country Wisdom” make that plain.) But this is something else. Mr. Baggetta is into making clearly delineated music, melodies and chord patterns and actual songs, but he’s also into sound and space and texture. He’s a soloist, but interested in the whole area of a piece of music: backgrounds and middle grounds as much as foregrounds. What’s especially good here — in a set of calm, slow songs with the saxophonist Jason Rigby, the bassist Eivind Opsvik and the drummer George Schuller — is that he’s trying to do something personal with collective improvisation without ever getting in the way of beauty.” – Ben Ratliff, NY Times
“…beguilingly atmospheric…” – Hank Shteamer, Time Out New York
“There are plenty of guitarists with chops but few whose fingers can write and paint pictures this musically.” – Mark F. Turner, All About Jazz
“This is a superb band…outstanding, and the performances are totally compelling.” – Andy Hamilton, Jazz Journal (UK)
“When Baggetta solos, his penchant for unspooling melodies in interesting, less-traveled directions is clear. His works feel more like contemplative musical voyages than the merely technical displays that can sink jazz efforts… a sophisticated, often beautiful listen, the product of a fertile musical sense that hails from the jazz world but employs a much broader palette.” – James Heflin, Valley Advocate
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MIKE BAGGETTA
Mike Baggetta is a guitarist and composer living in New York City. It has been said that he is “a guitarist of slippery proficiency” (The New York Times), “his melodic sense is truly beautiful” (Jazzreview.com) and that “each piece he performs creates new worlds of possibilities” (The Hartford Courant). His third and most recent release on the Fresh Sound New Talent label with his quartet is titled “Thieves and Secrets”.
Baggetta has performed in various venues and festivals throughout the US, Canada and Europe and has worked with Tom Harrell, Adam Kolker, Billy Mintz, Cameron Brown, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Dominique Eade, Jamie Baum, Jeff Hirshfield, Jeremy Udden, Jerome Harris, John Lindberg, Jon Irabagon, Joseph C. Philips’ Numinous, Donny McCaslin, Kevin Norton and Tyshawn Sorey among many others. He has received an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award and is an Endorsing Artist for D’Addario Strings.
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JASON RIGBY
Jazz tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby is known for his compelling inside-outside style of improvising. A saxophonist who displays an influence of the masters from Rollins to Coltrane, Shorter to Dewey Redman, Rigby is noted for his distinctively big and warm sound and intuitive creativity.
Having performed at major venues in the US and Europe as both leader and sideman, Rigby has appeared on numerous critically-acclaimed recordings. Jazz Improv magazine states that the saxophonist “brings a fresh, creative spirit to the forum, opening the door to a world in need of musical rejuvenation.”
His recent efforts include leading a trio with bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Gerald Cleaver, playing as a core member of drummer Mark Guiliana’s newest quartet, and performing with Cameron Brown’s band Dannie’s Calypso.
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CAMERON BROWN
Bassist, composer and educator Cameron Brown began his career in the mid-sixties, recording in Europe with George Russell and Don Cherry. Beginning in 1975, Mr. Brown anchored some of the most important ensembles of the seventies, eighties, nineties, and into the current century. Sheila Jordan, Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp and Beaver Harris were other early mentors and bandleaders. He has enjoyed special relationships with master drummers: Art Blakey, Dannie Richmond, Philly Joe Jones, Edward Blackwell, Eddie Moore, Idris Muhammad, Billy Hart, Lewis Nash and Matt Wilson as well as Mr. Harris.
The Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet, featuring Dannie Richmond, developed into an intense and rewarding partnership which lasted nearly ten years. In addition to this quartet, Beaver Harris’s 360 Degree Music Experience, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the Sextet and Big Bands of George Russell, the Dannie Richmond Quintet, the Dewey Redman Quartet, and various ensembles led be Mr. Shepp, Mr. Cherry, Mr. Rudd, Don Byron and Joe Lovano, Mr. Brown has performed and/or recorded with Donald Byrd, Booker Ervin, Ted Curson, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Terumasa Hino, Betty Carter, Houston Person, Etta Jones, Lou Donaldson, Jim McNeely, George Cables, Joe Locke, Salvatore Bonafede, Tony Malaby, Jeremy Steig, and Marc Copland.
He is on the faculty of the New School University and teaches at the summer workshop near Venice, Italy co-sponsored by the New School. At present, Mr. Brown performs and records in duo with Sheila Jordan, with various ensembles led by Joe Lovano, Don Byron, Jay Clayton, Jane Ira Bloom and Jason Rigby, as well as with Ben Riley, Lisa Sokolov, Archie Shepp, Dave Ballou, Steve Slagle, Marco Tamburini and Carl Stormer. He leads two ensembles: “Cameron Brown and the Hear and Now” and “Cameron Brown and Dannie’s Calypso,” and records for the Omnitone record label. He has appeared on more than 200 recordings.
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GEORGE SCHULLER
Drummer, composer, arranger and producer George Schuller has released several albums as a leader including Listen Both Ways (Playscape), Life’s Little Dramas (Fresh Sound) and JigSaw (482 Music). He leads several groups (Circle Wide, Schulldogs, George Schuller Trio) and co-leads several others (including Conference Call & Trio This). Schuller appears on Joe Lovano’s Rush Hour (Blue Note, 1995) and has also recorded and/or produced CD’s with Orange Then Blue, Ran Blake, Luciana Souza, Armen Donelian, Mike Musillami, Lisa Thorson, Ballin’ The Jack, Yard Byard, Russ Johnson, Mike Baggetta, Burton Greene, Peter Yarrow, Jason Robinson and Gunther Schuller.
Currently Schuller has been touring with legendary alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. Since graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1982, he has performed with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nnenna Freelon, Jaki Byard, Dave Douglas, George Adams, Fred Hersch, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Mose Allison, J Geils, among many others. He was also a co-producer for the 2007 film documentary “Music Inn,” which was screened at the Tribeca, Berkshire, Galway, Munich & Prague Film Festivals.
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