O’s Notes: Saxophonist Dino Govoni leads a quintet with Alex Sipiagin (t), Henry Hey (p), Michael Pope (b) and Jeff “Tain” Watts (d). The music was mostly original, composed by Paul Nigel (4) with Hey (2), Pope (1), and Govoni (1) along with a swinging cover of Hal Crook’s “Thinkers Anonymous”. The band maintains that energy, especially on “Stories Passed”. Dino’s best illustrations are on “Ask Again” And “Apels to Apples”, overflowing with passion.
“Hiding in Plain Sight” is a jazz album featuring Dino Govoni on tenor saxophone, Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flugelhorn, Henry Hey on piano, Michael Pope on acoustic and electric bass, and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts on drums. The smooth, versatile, evocative music takes the listener on an auditory pleasure cruise. Hiding in Plain Sight is a treasure for jazz connoisseurs, highly recommended. The tracks are Stories Passed, Cobalt, Falling Ahead, Thinkers Anonymous, Ask Again, Sublimate, Point Turn, Appels to Apples, and Edge Walker.
Tenor saxophonist Dino Govoni is best known as a longtime professor at the famous Berklee College in Boston and an excellent session musician. So on our site until now, his name has appeared as a participant in the recordings of other performers. But he also has his own leadership records. He does not often release his own albums, mainly on Whaling City Sound. And his last album, the third on this label, appeared here after a long break.
Hiding in Plain Sight was recorded in Brooklyn in January 2020 as a quintet. For this project, Dino put together an excellent team. The second brass voice in the quintet was the trumpet player Alex Sipiagin, one of the most successful representatives of the Russian jazz diaspora in the States, the place at the piano was taken by Dino’s main assistant on the project, Henry Hey, Michael Pope played the bass, and one of the most popular modern ones sat at the drums. jazz drummers Jeff “Tain” Watts.
Together they performed a program of nine songs. Dino’s greatest interest was aroused by the music of the jazz veteran Paul Nagel, who worked with Robben Ford, Bobby McFerrin, Boz Skaggs: the album included as many as four of his compositions. Hey brought two plays to the project, one each by Pope and Govoni himself. Stylistically, the music of Hiding in Plain Sight is a typical neo-pop mainstream with a stable structure of pieces, developed solo performers and a relatively regular rhythm. For those who love this direction, Hiding in Plain Sight is just perfect, given the high class of performers. For me personally, the favorite of the album was Nagel’s play Falling Ahead with its somewhat mysterious atmosphere and catchy melody. But this is already a matter of tastes.
As for Dino Govoni himself, Hiding in Plain Sight gave me an interesting observation. Today in American jazz there is a whole cohort of the most talented tenor saxophonists of Italian-American origin. And next to the giant Joe Lovano, next to Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone (by the way, Dino’s teachers), Dino Govoni also occupies a worthy place in it.
Musicians are always trying to reach the next level as instrumentalists, as composers or as band leaders. Tenorist Dino Govoni states that he has finally found his own voice in this album, which will be released on 10.15.2021 via the Whaling City Sound label. This time, he was very satisfied with the sound of the album, he performed without worrying about how he should approach each piece. On this album, he is accompanied by Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flugelhorn, Henry Hey on piano, Michael Pope on acoustic and electric bass and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums.
When you look at his background, two strong voices stand out at the basis of Govoni’s education. These are Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone. These two important names will be a strong reference for music lovers who know jazz well to understand how solid the background of Govoni is.
In “Hiding In Plain Sight”, we will witness that Govoni is a versatile composer, a unique session player, as a long-time faculty member at Berklee College of Music. Pianist Henry Hey’s elegant touch, Sipiagin’s bright-toned trumpet and Jeff “Tain” Watts’ cymbals make the listener jump, increasing the tempo of the music. Extremely thunderous performances, astonishing solo scores are connected with each other with smooth transitions. If you haven’t heard the name Dino Govoni before, this album is a good showcase for him.
For more information please visit the record company.
Master Class hour invitation from Westport Community Band.
An opportunity to get to know jazz performer/educator Greg Abate in a forum that brings him into your living rooms.
IMPORTANT CALL GUIDELINES:
As always, there will be a waiting room as you login to the zoom class. This room will be admitted to our main room at 8:00 EST
Please make sure that your microphone is OFF before entering the room. (I will also disable your microphones in my settings). This way we can ensure that when I bring everybody into the room you will have an opportunity to see and hear Mark without distractions. I am going to suggest that you also set your zoom screen to “speaker view” as opposed to “gallery view”. That way you will be able to see both Greg and me as we discuss his music, his musical upbringing, and his thoughts regarding Jazz performance, education, and anything else that the hour brings. In the meantime, between now and Monday, please feel free to think of questions that you might want to ask of him. You can either email them to me or send them in the chat feature during the interview. I will keep track of what chats are being shared and will try to get everyone’s question in our time together. Unfortunately, I will not be able to open up questions from everyone but promise to bring as much of your input into the interview as possible.
Topic: The Westport Community Band Meets Greg Abate
Time: Feb 22, 2021 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Meeting ID: 829 2182 7407
Passcode: 301628
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Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
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Music industry consultant and publicist Ginny Shea has garnered international exposure for her clients through radio and video promotion, print media, and her vast industry network.
