// biography
Born in Napoli (Italy) in 1978. Mostly self-taught. He has collaborated with several musicians such as Giancarlo Schiaffini, Eugenio Colombo, Alvin Curran, Tristan Hosinger, Fabrizio Puglisi, Laurence D. "Butch" Morris, Francesco Cusa, Paolo Sorge, Vincenzo Vasi, Antonio Coatti, Federico Squassabia, Alberto Capelli, Alma Jazz Orchestra, Arthur Miles, Nicola Guazzaloca, Roberto Bartoli, Mirko Sabatini, Lullo Mosso, Marco Dal Pane, Luisa Cottifogli, Vonn Washington, Maisha Grant, April Randall, Roberto Rossi, Fernando Tchika, Steve De Swath and others. He has played at several jazz festivals well known in the international jazz scene like the Jazzy Jam, Cassero Jazz Festival, Dozza Jazz, Crossroads, Jazz in It (Vignola), Clusone Jazz Festival, Angelica Festival, Trentennale del Treno di Cage, Festival Brasiliano, Avantgarde Jazz to quote some of the most famous. He has played with various bands as leader and sessionman in Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Finland, Sweden, Estonia.
// discography
1990 - AA.VV. - Romagna Posse
2000 - Gaspare De Vito Trio - Armageddon
2005 - AA.VV. - Italian Street Blooze Caravan
2007 - Gaspare De Vito Solo - 5 songs and 1 story
2008 - AA.VV. - Antivatican coalition against the hippies resistance
2008 - Gaspare De Vito Passing Notes
// new releases
PASSING NOTES
1. The fish from London
2. Sunrise (first day)
3. Looking for the roots
4. Morning prayer
5. Monk's cream
6. The fanfare
7. Too easy to love
8. Kalakuta
9. Sunrise (day after)
Vincenzo Roggero in All About Jazz Italia
A successful synthesis of the various souls that populate De Vito's thought. Melodically attractive, rhythmically unusual and with a compositional vein as sober as it is formally beyond criticism, Passing Notes is a disc where the musicians succeed in achieving such communion of execution that the work is permeated with a deep spirituality. A little gem.
Olindo Fortino in Sound Contest
Passing Notes is the triumph of sound and rhythm in their genuine nature and essentiality, the transit of revolutionary musical languages and primordial roots that have fed and continue to ensure survival of the desire for experimentation and musical inquiry at the heart of the culture of encounter: yesterday the names were Miles, Roscoe Mitchell, Don Cherry and Ornette; today they are Steve Coleman, William Parker, Rob Mazurek and Gaspare De Vito.
Piercarlo Poggio in Blow Up
In each piece the progressive dilation of the structures makes the material rise upwards, following enchanting scrolls and spirals. De Vito demonstrates a brilliance of inspiration in his long solos, quiet, transparent and never screamed, often sustained in unison by Nijen Antonio Coatti's precious trombone. Between Santerìa and post-Coltraneism.
Gianpaolo Cristofaro in Audiodrome
Gaspare De Vito's Passing Notes is a disc of considerable artistic breadth. For once the past and noble inspirations have been settled up with, while maintaining a strong personality and the ability to create a jazz disc without, as happens all too often, going onto automatic pilot... involved and completely seduced by the overall sound produced.
Marco Maiocco sul Giornale della Musica
The whole is condensed into an intriguing, personal and serenely measured language. De Vito's compositions shine, together with his improvisational vein and the whole band's research into tone-colour. A little gem.
Sergio Paquandrea in Jazz It
A disc that succeeds in uniting considerable melodic appeal with great instrumental and compositional expertise, but above all the fruit of a decidedly unusual musical personality.
Mark Corroto in All About Jazz Usa
Sitting still for this music is not an option. This is world music, not watered down bookstore background music, but attention deserving music akin to that of Don Cherry, Steve Coleman, or Adam Rudolph. Africa might be the genesis and Cuban the hothouse, but Italy has become playground for the jazz of Gaspare De Vito.
Ivan Masciovecchio in Rock Shock
Music without masters, emotions without limits. Imbued with the sun and sounds of Cuba, this young Neapolitan musician amazes and convinces with his maturity and the originality of his music.
Mark Corroto in All About Jazz Usa
A sanguine, gutsy jazz, engaging, never taken for granted and with decidedly ethnic colorations. In fact right from the first three compositions you get the clear sensation that De Vito wants to take his listener on a transcontinental journey, with his alto sax soaring above, balanced between Ornette Coleman and Archie Shepp.
5 SONGS AND 1 STORY
1. Looking for the climax
2. Circle song
3. Waiting
4. Anthony Braxton
5. City flag
6. The sea and the man
Making a debut as a solo artist is not for everyone. Saxophonist and flautist, Gaspare De Vito, has expressive honesty and courage and uses five songs and a story to show it: a musician with a varied background - ranging from collaboration with Giancarlo Schiaffini to overseas experience with several African musicians – De Vito seems to have “metabolized” the different languages into a single instrumental sound which is, at once, disturbing and inquiring. The first song “Looking for the Climax”, in which the lyrics owe much to a lesson from Evan Parker, begins submissive but as it moves on and the other four songs develop (one of which is openly dedicated to Anthony Braxton), the words open up to reveal a multitude of timbres and expressive strategies. The breathing is an integral part of the sound, as are the percussion possibilities of parts of the instrument. Overall the music generates a profound lyrical sense. This is sometimes tormenting - as in “City Flag” which leads into the conclusive “The Sea and the Man”; an imaginative exploration of the environment during which the saxophone dialogues with natural elements, especially the sea, introducing a slow and inexorable swing. Let yourself be carried away!
Review: 4 stars
Review published by kind permission of All About Jazz Italia.
Copyright (c) [2008/Enrico Bettinello]
// projects
5 SONGS AND 1 STORY
Gaspare De Vito - altosax, flute, loopstation
PASSING NOTES
Gaspare De Vito - altosax
Nijen Antonio Coatti - trombone
Roberto Bartoli - doublebass
Danilo Mineo - congas
What would happen if Ornette was sunbathing in Cuba? Maybe Passing Notes.
Entirely composed and arranged by Gaspare De Vito, “Passing Notes” is inspired by the tradition of improvised jazz and the sacred rhythms of Cuban regla de ocha fused together to make a surprising new sound. The cyclical rhythms of “regla de ocha” mixed with the unusual harmonic/melodic texture of the improvised tradition; old opposites meet and the path to connect them is revealed.
// contacts
Via Nesi, 1
40026 Imola ( Bo ) - Italy
mobile. +39.339.4933881
mail.
