Duende
468 19th Street Oakland
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The Cosmopolitans: Mimmo-Blunt-Golia-Mezzacappa

Gianni Mimmo (IT), soprano saxophone
Alison Blunt (UK), violin
Vinny Golia (LA), winds
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass

New and old friends from Italy, London, Los Angeles and the Bay Area meet for an evening of electrifying improvised music.
On tour from Europe, Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo and UK violinist Alison Blunt join Bay Area bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and Los Angeles winds player Vinny Golia in their first meeting as a quartet. Mimmo, “one of the most inventive and virtuosic soprano saxophonists on the scene today,” (All About Jazz), was once a student of Steve Lacy, and shares that master’s proclivities for angular, architectural lyricism, enriched by a rich pallet of timbral effects and extended techniques. Among Europe’s most acclaimed improvising string players, Blunt has collaborated with Viv Corringham, Gino Robair, Elisabeth Harnik, Tristan Honsinger and Tony Marsh, among others, and has performed with the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra and the London Improvisers Orchestra.

Their first duo CD, Lasting Ephemerals, was released this spring, and documents their unique improvisational approach - an elegant, immersive blend of chamber music and jazz-inflected improvisation, lyrical and abstract at once. Golia is unmatched in his mastery of dozens of wind instruments and the intensity and virtuosity of his performances, and Mezzacappa has been hailed as “one of the most imaginative figures on the Bay Area creative jazz scene” (San Jose Mercury News).

VIDEO
Blunt and Mimmo:
http://youtu.be/HMN7SesJ-bk
Golia and Mezzacappa:
http://youtu.be/RtgRPoZMkNU

Audio samples in which musicians at this event play:

Videos featuring musicians playing at this event