Pianist, composer, and improviser William Tatge was born of
American parents in Umbria, Italy in 1978 and lived in Todi and Florence until
2008, when he moved to New York City. Tatge began studies on violin and piano
at age six, and after a storied career as a student (studying classical piano
and graduating summa cum laude in 2000 from the L. Cherubini Conservatory of
Florence, followed by studies in composition, orchestration and conducting,
earning a second degree in 2006, also summa cum laude). During these years
Tatge explored improvisation and jazz and from '96 to '99 he studied privately
with Stefano Bollani and attended the Siena Jazz summer workshops. Later
studies included instruction with Enrico Pieranunzi, Franco D'Andrea and Paolo
Birro. He also participated in Stefano Battaglia's Solo Piano and Piano Trio
winter seminars in Siena in 2004 and 2005.
Tatge has gone on to fruitful career in the States,
releasing two albums (Mutable Enclosures and Borderlands), and performing in
clubs, concert venues and festivals throughout Europe, South America, Japan,
Canada and the U.S. in solo concerts as well as with several groups, both as
leader and sideman. He has collaborated with such diverse artists as bassist
Felix Pastorius, visual artist Christine Meisner, clarinetist Massimo Carrozzo,
drummer Jeff Hirshfield and many others. Tatge now proudly announces his debut
recording for Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, and the first album to feature
his NYC-based trio of Pablo Menares on bass and Nick Anderson on drums, General
Cargo, to be released on June 15.
The music on General Cargo, composed over a six-year period
between 2010-2015, following Tatge's move to NYC, aims to reference personal,
cultural and historical cargo the artist attempts to protect and carry forward.
Tatge explains further, "perhaps this music is the result of finding
myself in the strange state of a repatriated expat torn between two continents
and aesthetic traditions, unable to truly leave either of them behind."
The writing and playing reflect a strong connection to jazz
as well as to 19th and 20th century classical music, with an occasional wink at
rock and other influences. "I have always been fascinated by the way
musical ideas, approaches and behaviors can travel through history and between
styles, being transformed, reinterpreted or distorted, acquiring new purpose
and meaning," said Tatge. To that end, the pieces are all rather extended
in duration, highly structured in form, and contain more through-composed
material than is usually found in the jazz piano trio context. The harmonic and
rhythmic structure of the improvisational sections often shift from soloist to
soloist, and there are rarely perfect recapitulations of thematic material.
"My intention was to create larger pieces that could hold up structurally
while maintaining a sense of openness and unpredictability, leaving enough
space for interpretation and improvisational freedom," explained the
composer. "Much of the material on this record is deeply indebted to the
music and literature of late romanticism and early modernism; times of
transition, great discoveries and linguistic breakdowns, but also times of
desperate nostalgia towards a disappearing world."
The coming together of these different elements in the music
on General Cargo is not always a smooth process. Sometimes it results in stark
contrasts, perhaps in a sense of unresolved conflict; but ultimately, like any
art with depth and significance, it can offer the creator, and the attentive,
invested listener, a rewarding, enriching experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment