GARY BRUNOTTE (ORGANIST, COMPOSER)
Organist/Pianist Gary Brunotte
performs his own brand of lyrical jazz, influenced by the tradition but in his
own personal voice. Born and raised in a small town in Minnesota, he remembers,
"My uncle played accordion, was self-taught and performed in the Navy band. In
addition, my stepfather played hillbilly country guitar and my other uncles all
played instruments. I started taking accordion lessons when I was nine." He
debuted as a professional musician at a New Year's Eve job when he was 11,
switched to organ and performed with R&B and rock and roll bands as a teenager.
"I discovered jazz after listening
to Brasil '66 and Blood, Sweat and Tears." I particularly enjoyed Howard
Roberts' records of the period and Jimmy Smith." After graduating from college,
Brunotte attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, switched to piano, and
taught at the prestigious school for three years. He moved to Manhattan in 1980.
"I worked for a period at Rodney Dangerfield's comedy club. The jazz trio would
open a set and there would be a different singer each week before the comedian
came out. It was fun for a time.' During this period, he won a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts to write a suite for a big band and his
orchestra performed once a week in a mid-town club. After living and working in
the Hudson Valley area, Brunotte spent 1987-97 back in Minnesota. "I played a
lot of gigs at local jazz clubs and restaurants. I also recorded my first CD,
Yesterday's Dream for the Altenburgh label."
Yesterday's Dream, which features
Gary Brunotte with altoist Eric Marienthal in a quintet setting, introduces nine
of his melodic originals. The CD received excellent reviews in both JazzTimes
and Billboard. In addition, it received airplay throughout the United States and
Europe and remained on the Gavin Chart Bound list for 8 weeks straight. In 1997
he and his wife relocated to North Carolina where he has worked steadily ever
since. "Since moving here, I have recorded the duo CD Conversations with bassist
Rick Jones and the trio CD Smile with drummer Bill Berg and bassist Steve Haines
plus I have done a lot of gigging, from little restaurants to backing major
names at concerts including Mark Whitfield and Byron Stripling."
In recent times, Gary Brunotte
recorded his fourth CD, Manic Moments which features Gary on organ and piano.
Teamed, on most selections, with drummer Bill Berg and guitarist Scott Sawyer,
Brunotte performs such invigorating originals as "Manic Moments," "Bridgemix,"
and "Slightly Blued" along with standards including "You and the Night and the
Music," "Mas Que Nada," "The Peacocks" and "That’s All."
GARY
BRUNOTTE - MANIC MOMENTS (2007)
Straight-ahead jazz trio featuring
organ/guitar/drums, plus three tunes with horn arrangements. It's a mix of
exciting originals and standard jazz
Organ, Piano, Accordion & Vocal -
Gary (all tracks)
Drums - Bill Berg (all tracks)
Guitar - Scott Sawyer (all tracks)
Electric Bass - Damon Brown (tracks 2,5,8,10)
Acoustic Bass - John Simonetti (tracks 4,9)
Trumpet/Fluegel - Jim Ketch (tracks 2,5,9
Tenor Sax - Glen Ingram (tracks 2,5,8)
Alto Sax - Gregg Gelb (tracks 2,5,8)
Durham Children's Choir - Scott Hill (track 11)
review by Paul J.
Youngman: GARY
BRUNOTTE - MANIC MOMENTS (2007)
review by John Barron: GARY
BRUNOTTE - MANIC MOMENTS (2007)
review by Owen Cordl: GARY
BRUNOTTE - MANIC MOMENTS (2007)
more
tracks can be heard on Vinilemania's Radio Channels
LINER NOTES by Jim Santella
Gary Brunotte is a down-to-earth
kind of guy who likes to groove with his music in the spirit of what moves us.
Art and popular music combine on his palette to create a collage that represents
tradition as thoroughly as it does today and tomorrow. With his ensemble, he
drives fiercely in places and simmers gently in others. Lyricism and a sincere
love for beautiful melody weave their threads through his sessions; each
performance comes with much variety.
Influenced by a wide array of jazz and popular music that includes the guitar/organ
combos that we’ve all grown up with, as well as memories such as Brasil ’66 and
Blood, Sweat & Tears, Gary captures a soulful essence in his contemporary
adventures. He infuses each program with updated standards as well as highly
original works that tell a story.
Born and raised in a small town in Minnesota, Gary learned to play the accordion
at a very young age and switched to organ as a teenager since it fit the rock
band format so well. After college, he moved to piano while attending the
Berklee College of Music in Boston. Gary taught there for three years. While
gigging in New York with his piano trio and big band, he picked up valuable
experience that shows up on his recordings.
Gary is a serious composer who forms impressions that shift their moods in
suite-like fashion. Each piece tells a story. After winning a National Endowment
for the Arts grant in New York, his big band performed his suite with a personal
zeal. Weekly sessions led to a camaraderie that Gary regards as essential in all
of his endeavors.
Manic Moments is Gary’s 4th album. His first, Yesterday’s Dream, featured a
quintet with Eric Marienthal, while Conversations was a duo album and Smile
featured a trio format.
Drummer Bill Berg, who provides the foundation for Manic Moments, has worked
with Gary on two those previous albums. Bill gives Manic Moments its drive. He
was the drummer with Flim and the BB’s, a great contemporary jazz band out of
Los Angeles that made quite a splash in past decades. The BBs in the band were
Bill Berg and keyboardist Billy Barber. Gary’s guitarist for Manic Moments is
Scott Sawyer, who blends a jazz organ/guitar combo texture into the program with
an agile hand. Both Scott and Bill color eloquently from the back with a strong
rhythmic foundation, while taking turns in the spotlight to create magic moments.
The general spirit of the album turns on its varied impressions. Gary plays
organ on 9 tracks, piano on 2, and adds accordion to two of those. He’s equally
at home with modern Brazilian jazz, modern mainstream, and the blues. As the
album opens with “Mas Que Nada,” you can feel the light organ combo texture
washing up against the ocean’s shore. Scott’s guitar and Bill’s drum set
complement Gary’s storytelling nature on this one as he paints a familiar
landscape. “Manic Moments” switches gears as Gary adds a horn section and
electric bass to the mix, pulsating with leading-edge anxiety. Glen Ingram’s
sultry tenor solo builds a fire deep inside, as the piece lets tradition mix
with complex harmonies for an exciting adventure.
“Agua de Beber” returns to Brazil with Jobim’s love anthem about needs and
desires. The trio makes this one tingle with reflections that are meant for
romantic moods. As a storyteller, Gary keeps romantic love in his program as a
vital part.
“You and the Night and the Music” features Gary’s piano trio, with Bill on drums
and John Simonetti on double bass, doing what comes naturally. As an eloquent
statement for a tried and true story, this one features solos from John and Bill
as well. Later in the program, Gary uses the same format for his original, “Sometime,”
but he adds a heartfelt accordion presence to this waltz that brings tears to
the eyes. The story here is one of hope; where there’s a will, there’s a way.
The piano trio plus accordion make it obvious: “Sometime” is for dreamers who
believe that their dreams eventually come true.
Like the album’s title track, “Bridgemix” brings Gary’s horn section and
electric bass back into the fold for a date with daring dissonance. Creative and
alluring, the band gets up with a contemporary flair that keeps the modern in
modern jazz while resting comfortably on a solid groove. Later in the program,
“Chickish Tinge” takes the same unit for a hot, electric drive through
contemporary space, reveling in its fine-line attachment to Chick Corea’s “Spain.”
It’s like driving through lovely countryside all day long and being able to
absorb everything in one fell swoop.
Both “That’s All” and “The Peacocks” feature Gary’s organ/guitar combo with
Scott and Bill balancing gingerly along the way. Their straight-ahead conference
leads to a lovely affair that nestles comfortably among familiar melodies. The
themes from these two songs are welcomed like the return of friends and
relatives who’ve been away for too long.
Gary adds electric bassist Damon Brown to “Slightly Blued,” which pumps up the
drive through its ambitious blues texture. Here, with their expressive stories,
both Gary and Scott remind us why those sounds are called blue notes.
Manic Moments closes with “Mas Que Nada” revisited, as Gary adds The Durham
Children’s Choir to his ensemble. Reminding us that lyrics carry deep meaning to
all forms of music, he ends the program with the kind of verbal expression that
keeps things close and personal.
Gary Brunotte believes in rhythmic groove coupled with an obvious love for
lyrical melody. Through his original songs and through his choice of
instrumentation, he has adorned his latest album with harmonic thrills that last
forever. They’re the kind of memories that we can carry with us for years. By
tying jazz’s tradition to contemporary sounds from the leading edge, Gary has
ensured that his program will appeal to a broad audience. With this session, we’ve
got a package that appeals to our manic love for good jazz.
- Jim Santella, Jazz Journalist, writes for Cadence magazine and many other jazz
publications
