Thursday, March 19, 2009

Mike Longo & Santi Debriani Duo, tomorrow, @ Smalls, NY

Get ready for some more heavy swing with the Mike Longo/Santi Debriano duo on Friday, March 20 at SMALLS, 183 West 10th Street at 7th Avenue. There will be two shows at 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. Cover of $20 includes drink of choice. For more information call 212-252-5091.

Pianist/Composer/Arranger Mike Longo has performed with a list of jazz legends that include saxophone great Cannonball Adderley, Henry Red Allen, Coleman Hawkins, George Wettling, Gene Krupa, Nancy Wilson, Gloria Lynn, Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, James Moody and bossa singer Astrud Gilberto, among many others. It was in the mid-60s when Longo’s trio was playing at the Embers West, that Roy Eldridge told Dizzy Gillespie about this new pianist he had heard. Dizzy came to hear him play and soon asked him to become his pianist. This started a life-long musical relationship and friendship.

From 1966 through 1975, Longo worked as Dizzy’s pianist and musical director. Mike left the Gillespie group officially in 1975 to venture out on his own, but continued to work for Gillespie on a part-time basis until his death in 1993. Since that time Mike has recorded numerous albums and CDs on various labels with some 45 recordings with artists such as Gillespie, James Moody, etc. At present he has over 20 solo albums to his credit. He is sought after as a music instructor and is in demand for jazz clinics and concerts at universities and music schools throughout the world, and has appeared at the Lincoln Center’s new jazz room “Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.” Longo is founder and President of Consolidated Artists Productions (CAP), an independent recording label, dedicated to allowing artists to pursue the types of projects that are in line with their career objectives.

The son of a Panamanian composer, Santi Debriano is one of the busiest jazz bassists in the New York area. In addition to leading his own bands, Debriano has been a member of the Don Pullen Trio, the Pharoah Sanders Group, the Sonny Fortune Group, the Billy Hart Band, the Louis Hayes Quintet, the Larry Coryell Group, and the Archie Shepp Quartet. As a sideman, Debriano has performed with Chucho Valdés, Hank Jones, Cecil Taylor, Randy Weston, and Freddie Hubbard. A member of the Archie Shepp Quartet in the late '70s, he was featured on four albums and appeared in the documentary film "Imagine the Sound." Moving to Paris, Debriano spent three years with the Sam Rivers Trio.

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