(originally posted on Jan. 30, 2014)
Welcome to the new PaoloLattanzi.com!
It took quite a while but it’s finally here. What you see is the fruit of my hard work, so I hope you like it!
I’ve added a couple of new sections to the website, including the “Meditations” page where I report things that other people said…and feel so cool about it.
The “Blog” section (where you are right now) is the only place in the site where I talk about what I am up to and share my thoughts about music and other subjects in a direct, personal and intimate way.
The Italian version of the site is still under construction and hopefully it will be live soon.
Before closing this little intro to my first post I would like to show some appreciation to Vishesh Sharma, Simone Baldassarri, Sonal Beri and Gabe Imlay for their pictures.
Now let’s talk music.
I moved to New York City two years ago – time flies — and I have been soaking up as much great music as I can.
Lately I have been playing with a quartet called “Confluence”. We play improvised music with minimal or no agreed terms, the idea is to play spontaneous compositions. It’s a fun gig because it takes a lot of listening, creativity and interplay. We played a few shows including a couple at Pianos in the Lower East Side.
I have also played a number of more traditional jazz gigs at Caffè Vivaldi in the West Village with the Fred Guilde ensemble.
I have also participated in a variety of other collaborations with various musicians that have not surfaced publicly yet, although they have good potential. I look forward to talking more about these ventures soon.
Speaking of collaborations, I have joined forces with a few fellow musicians and created New York Ensemble Classes, which is an idea that I had earlier this year and am glad it is finally real. Anybody interested in taking jazz lessons that go beyond the boundaries of their instrument should definitely check it out: it’s a hands-on approach to playing jazz that is meant to be as close as it gets to the “real world.”
On the personal side, I am continuing to work on a set of new compositions. I feel like it is time for a new recording. In the four years since Multitude was published, I feel like my playing and music concept have evolved a lot, so it would be nice to “take another picture” and frame it.
Some other, older news is that my composition “Out There (On The Streets)” made it to the semifinals in the International Songwriting Competition. There were thousands of participants worldwide, so I guess it was cool.
Time to wrap this up and let you look around, please make yourself at home, I hope you’ll enjoy listening and reading the things that I have been doing.
Until next time,
Paolo
