HUNTER – PASHKEVICH – DI BENEDETTO WIND COLLECTIVE
HUNTER – PASHKEVICH – DI BENEDETTO WIND COLLECTIVE
(USA – Latvia – Italy – Lithuania)
Jason Hunter – tp
Deniss Pashkevich – sax
Beppe Di Benedetto – tb
Atis Andersons – p
Reinis Ozoliņš – db
Arkady Gotesman – dr
Italian Beppe Di Benedetto, Latvian Deniss Pashkevich and American Jason Hunter formed The Wind Collective in an attempt to fulfil their creative ambitions, explore their original ideas and project their native soundscapes. The collective’s rhythm group is of changing line-up.
The sextet’s unorthodox line-up carries on with old traditions of jazz: three leading brass winds lend energetic drive and offer wide range of moods. The collective performs exclusively original compositions of the leaders. It is a modern jazz as individual as its creators.
The Wind Collective usually draws larger audiences than Birštonas Cultural Centre is able to accommodate.
Born in Los Angeles, California (USA) trumpeter, composer and arranger Jason Hunter now resides in Europe. After studding music at Berklee College of Music with jazz greats such as Mark Whitfield, Ralph Peterson and Tiger Okoshi, he has been performing with various projects as a sideman.
Hunter is touring as a bandleader all over the world. In his music he blends west coast jazz roots with modern jazz creativity. The trumpeter has assisted jazz and soul vocalist Sofia Rubina in winning Estonia’s 2015 Jazz Album of the year Award.
Saxophonist and flutist Deniss Pashkevich has been collaborating with Jason Hunter for several years. They both performed with Lithuanian rhythm group in Vilnius. It would be difficult to list his talents and stage partners. Pashkevich is considered to be one of the busiest jazzmen in Baltic countries. Moreover, in recent two decades he has been one of the most influential Latvian jazz fosterers.
He is not only a virtuoso reed player, but also a producer of music events and TV shows, publisher, organiser of educational projects, and founder and owner of jazz clubs.
In 2008, Pashkevich’s group Riga Groove Electro appeared in Birštonas Jazz, where he led a concert of Balticness, a gigantic project embracing 11 countries from Baltic region. That was a perfect reflection of the scope of his activities. In the last edition of Birštonas Jazz he appeared with Ukrainian, Danish and Lithuanian musicians.
Pashkevich has collaborated with a number of celebrated musicians from Baltic and Scandinavian countries, the USA, UK, Japan, Italy, Germany and Russia such as Brian Melvin, Rio Kawasaky, David Lyttle, Ben Dowling, Ted Curson, Karl Martin Almqvist, Villu Veski, Jukka Eskola, David Goloshchekin, Vyacheslav Ganelin and David Kikoski.
Pashkevich took part in major Baltic and Scandinavian jazz forums, as well as performed in Hong Kong, Poland, Germany, Israel, Belgium and Russia.
He is the owner of a private jazz school, founder of a concert agency and jazz record labels ZePirats, Denissjazz, Pashkevich Management Group and Riga Room Records.
His personal jazz albums regularly reach the top lists of Latvian recording.
Trombone player, composer and arranger Beppe Di Benedetto has repeatedly won JazzitAward. All About Jazz placed his debut album (See The Sky) among 30 best recordings in 2012, while his second (Another Point Of View) – among the best in 2015.
The musician has shared the stage with many a celebrity such as Eumir Deotado, Solomon Burke, Bob Mintzer, Paul Anka, Mario Biondi, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Hengel Gualdi, Antonella Ruggero, Fabrizio Bosso, Lorenzo Tucci, Daniele Scannapieco, Claudio Filippini, Andrea Tofanelli, Michael Rosen and Mark Harris.
He has collaborated in various TV productions and for many years was the conductor and arranger for the Jazz Orchestra CB BAND.
Pianist Atis Andersons is considered to be one of Latvia’s jazz elite musicians. In addition to being a member of Pashkevich’s groups, he works with his own quartet in which he collaborates with saxophonist Toms Rudzinskis, bassist Toms Lipskis and percussionist Janis Jaunalksnis. With various ensembles the pianist has visited Lithuania several times.
Latvian bassist and composer Reinis Ozoliņš studied jazz at the Latvian Academy of Music and the University of West London. A flexible musician is at home in a variety of jazz styles. Pashkevich’s invitations to join his projects attest to the young musician’s professionalism.
One of his most important groups is Alaska Dreamers formed in 2012. Originally a Duo involving Reinis Ozoliņš and drummer Rudolfs Dankfelds it grew to a nonet.
Percussionist and composer Arkady Gotesman keeps bringing new stage partners to Birštonas Jazz. He is one of the most resourceful and productive Lithuanian jazzmen. Gotesman has a gift of discovering new venues for jazz in periphery and enriching his projects with the participation of the world’s jazz luminaries.
He has collaborated with exponents of various trends including Roland Dahinden, Vladimir Volkov, Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky, Arkady Shilkloper, Julian Joseph, John Zorn, Jack Siron, Frank London, Anthony Coleman, Charles Gayle, Tim Daisy, Joey Baron, Barry Guy, Dominic Duval, Dave Douglas, Albert Beger, Martin Küchen, Mark Tokar, Warren Smith and Andrew Lamb.
In Lithuania the percussionist has regularly been working with Vyacheslav Ganelin, Petras Vyšniauskas, Vladimir Tarasov, Liudas Mockūnas, Dainius Pulauskas, Jan Maksimovich, Dmitrij Golovanov, Tomas Kutavičius, Mindaugas Vadoklis and many other Lithuanian jazz masters. He also collaborates with Vilnius Jazz Orchestra, ACCOsax Freeminded trio, Infiltators and other formations.
Having entered the jazz scene three decades ago Gotesman has been captivating the audiences with his intriguing ideas and collaborations with artists of various other medias. He composes, records and performs music for theatre, writes scenarios for musical performances and installations, organises projects with dancers, writers, actors and visual artists, appears in personal shows. Poet Rolandas Rastauskas is one of Gotesman’s stage partners. Both artists have recorded album J. Brodsky in memoriam.
Gotesman is an enthusiast of silent movies, as a taper with various international musicians he promulgates the genre in Lithuania. The percussionist plays not only jazz, but also contemporary academic music. He has performed world premieres of works by Osvaldas Balakauskas, Anatolijus Šenderovas, Zita Bružaitė and Šarūnas Nakas among others. Moreover, he is the founder and member of Vilnius Klezmer Orchestra and organiser of the Klezmer Music Festival in Vilnius, an artistic director of Šeduva Percussion Festival and the founder of Theatrum solius quadri.
In 2015, Gotesman was presented with Vilnius Jazz Award for contributions to Lithuanian jazz.
