Giacomo Gates

Giacomo Gates Returns to Ball & Chain - Real Jazz in Real Place w/ the Real Little Havana of Miami Experience!

Ball & Chain

1513 SW 8th Street, Little Havana, FL 33135 

Giacomo Gates: It's All Cool

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

One of my favorite male vocalists is out with a new album—Everything Is Cool (Savant). I last wrote about Giacomo when his Miles Tones was released (here). And before that The Revolution Will Be JazzL The Songs of Gil-Scott Heron(here). Giacomo's groovy baritone is a throwback to a time when jazz vocals didn't just mean the American songbook.

Here's an excerpt from my liner notes...

"Nobody sings like Giacomo Gates these days. Back in the late 1940s and 1950s, when cool ruled and hip vocalese artists were the rage at jazz clubs, the list of crazy crooners included Babs Gonzales, Annie Ross, Slim Gaillard, Earl Coleman, Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, King Pleasure, Eddie Jefferson, Jackie Paris, Bob Dorough and Mark Murphy. Unlike square pop vocalists, vocalese singers were as gone as the jazz musicians they opened for at clubs. Many wrote lyrics to signature instrumental solos and nearly all phrased like Lester Young’s jumping dry saxophone.


"Gates comes out of this tradition, but unlike many jazz singers today, he knows something about the blues. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., in 1950, Gates grew up in a working-class family. 'I studied guitar between age 8 and 16, and started listening to jazz when my father put on a big band album,' Gates said. 'I was hooked after that.'


"In 1969, after high school and technical school, Gates began working road construction as a laborer, truck driver and heavy-equipment operator. Next came a series of nocturnal jobs as bouncer, blackjack dealer, liquor-store manager and bodyguard for ladies of the night. At age 25, he left for Alaska, working briefly on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline before heading south, taking jobs building roads, dams and landing strips in wilderness areas from Washington State to Arizona.


"In 1989, at age 39, Gates took part in a summer arts festival in Fairbanks, Alaska, and was encouraged by several instructors to sing. Later that year, Gates moved to New York and began singing in clubs for a living. In 1995, Gates recorded his first album, Blue Skies. More recently, Gates recorded two hit albums—The Revolution Will Be Jazz: The Songs of Gil Scott-Heron (2011) and Miles Tones (2012).

"Everything Is Cool is an aesthetic homecoming for Gates. On the album, he pays tribute to the vocalese singers he digs most."

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Giacomo Gates' Everything Is Cool (Savant) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's the title track, written by Babs Gonzales, with a tenor saxophone solo by the great Grant Stewart (they're joined by John di Martino on piano, Tony Lombardozzi on guitar, Ed Howard on bass and Willard Dyson on drums)...

Everything Is Cool

And here's Gonzales's When Lovers They Lose, with another solo by Grant...

When Lovers They Lose

For more on Giacomo Gates, go here. And here's Ralph Miriello's 2013 interview with Giacomo.

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Giacomo Gates

GIACOMO GATES - Everything is Cool
Savant Records SCD 2146
Giacomo Gates, vocals
John di Martino, piano;
Grant Stewart, saxophone;

Tony Lombardozzi, guitar;

Ed Howard, bass;

Willard Dyson, drums

TRACKS: Everything is Cool • If I Were You, Baby, I’d Love Me • When Lovers, They Lose • Social Call • Hazel’s Hips • Almost Blue • Take Five • Who Threw the Glue? • Here Today and Gone Tomorrow • Please Don’t Bug Me • All Alone • Well, You Needn’t / It’s Over Now

Giacomo Gates approaches jazz singing with a showman's poise and an aficionado's zeal. With his deep, cognac baritone and his vintage-hipster lexicon, his phrasing and his bearing, he upholds a distinctly masculine ideal of deceptively easy nonchalance. Gates is known as the modern day heir to Eddie Jefferson, the godfather of vocalese. Here he uses the style sparingly, but to great advantage. never showboating by using the challenging technique. Backed by his go-to pianist, John di Martino and guitarist Tony Lombardozzi leading the rhythm section and Grant Stewart out in front on saxophone, Giacomo sings and swings his way through a dozen tunes – some familiar favorites, some rarely heard gems. He may be soft and subtle or he may be hip and humorous but one thing Giacomo Gates is not, is predictable.

The criteria for defining jazz singing....

The criteria for defining jazz singing will probably be argued for the rest of time. But no matter which side of the argument one may be on, there can be no doubt that Giacomo Gates is an authentic jazz vocalist. Heavily steeped in the traditions of the original vocal improvisers from Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald through their modern counterparts Betty Carter and Leon Thomas, Giacomo's own approach draws most heavily from the bebop-rooted masters like Jon Hendricks, Babs Gonzales, King Pleasure and most of all, Eddie Jefferson. Like his influences, Gates has forged his own unique path.

In his own words, "In this kind of music it's about intention, honesty and what comes through in your voice - the Experience of Life." Without question, Giacomo's life experience is unlike any other jazz artist that may come to mind. Blessed with a full-bodied and mellifluous voice, extraordinary rhythmic precision and an unerring sense of lyricism, Gates' total command of the vernacular, boundless creativity and exuberant passion set him apart from nearly every other vocalist on the scene. However, he didn't display his talents to the public-at-large until 1990, at 40 years of age.

Prior to that, Gates led the life of a hardworking blue collar ‘man's man.' After a number of years driving everything from school buses to cattle transporters to 18-wheelers, Giacomo departed for the Alaskan wilderness in 1975, working for 14 years in a variety of jobs, including three years on the Alaska Pipeline. Whether he was doing road construction, operating scrapers, loaders and bulldozers, or driving spikes into railway tracks in the flatland emptiness of the tundra with no directional guides other than a compass and the sky, Gates found these experiences to be powerful stimulation for developing his own artistic expression.

"Two things always struck me out there," Giacomo says of that experience, "feeling insignificant and feeling very alive." With severe risk to life and limb from all sorts of dangers ranging from geographic disorientation to heavy machinery accidents to hungry polar bears, Gates was confronted with sights, sounds and experiences that had a profound effect upon his being, and therefore his art.

Although he had always been exposed to music since early childhood, singing and playing guitar through his teenage years, there were no real opportunities to perform in Alaska until nearly the end of his time there. Looking for growth and development even as a construction worker, Gates would occasionally leave Alaska to spend time in places like Washington State and Tucson, Arizona working on new projects and learning the use of new equipment.

In those more civilized environments, he would perform whenever possible, sitting in on a variety of musical activities. In the late ‘80s, he had many opportunities to do the same in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he occasionally moonlighted as a bouncer in local clubs. After much encouragement from local and visiting performers, Giacomo decided to return to his native Connecticut and devote full attention to his music.

Like his mentors, Gates would sometimes translate great instrumental solos into Vocalese, including the works of Lee Morgan, Chet Baker, Gene Ammons, Charlie Rouse and many others, also penning lyrics to classic jazz compositions. In citing his influences, Giacomo states "Some of my favorite singers are Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster and Lester Young. They were singing through the horn. If that isn't singing, I don't know what is!"

From that perspective, Giacomo sometimes vocalizes as an instrument – trombone, flute, bass and even drums. There's no contrivance or gimmickry for its own sake involved in this, as it's entirely conceived within the context of the music. Originally developed while working a steady duo gig with a pianist in Connecticut, Giacomo would improvise bass lines or drum sounds in support of the piano solos. Invited onstage by Jon Hendricks during a performance in 1995, Gates sang drums to Hendricks' bass accompaniment of the pianist. After that, the instrument vocal became a regular part of his program.

Although he and Jon Hendricks have performed together two other times, their talk of doing something on a more regular basis hasn't occurred. However, in June of 2004 Giacomo and Andy Bey subbed for Jon and Kevin Mahogany in Europe, performing with the other two regular members of The Four Brothers vocal ensemble, Mark Murphy and Kurt Elling. Giacomo has also performed with such notables as Lou Donaldson, Freddie Hubbard, Richie Cole, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis and Hilton Ruiz. But his primary focus has been leading his own groups, which has taken him all over the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Playing major U.S. clubs, New York's Birdland, the Five Spot and the Jazz Standard, Philadelphia's Zanzibar Blue, Blues Alley in D.C. and Snug Harbor in New Orleans; and major festivals like Detroit/Montreux, Telluride, Caramoor, Sedona, Clearwater, Fairbanks Summer Arts, etc.; and at countless universities and jazz societies, Giacomo's enormous appeal and popularity are obvious from the many repeat engagements he has had at these venues. He's also performed and taught in Europe and Russia and has toured Australia twice.

Gates has four heavily acclaimed CDs, with his most recent release, LUMINOSITY on doubledavemusic, garnering rave reviews and receiving heavy airplay on over 300 stations, with over three months in the top 20 of the Jazz Week charts.

Heavily committed to education, Giacomo teachers regularly at Wesleyan University, the Hartford Conservatory of Music and New Haven's Neighborhood Music School and has conducted workshops and residencies at numerous educational institutions all over the U.S.

Like all seriously committed jazz artists, Giacomo Gates is a student of the music's great legacy. Known for his interaction with his live audience through witty patter and informative introductions, every performance becomes a lesson in jazz history. With over 100 live performances in 2006 and a 2007 schedule that will surpass that, Giacomo's sheer joy, exuberance, wit and unlimited creativity make him one of jazz' most compelling artists.

giacomogates@hotmail.com

0	Giacomo Gates with the John Richmond Quartet	7:30-10pm Turning Point Cafe 468 Piermont Ave Piermont, NY 845-359-1089
15	"Magnet For The Masses - When Theatre Was Paramount In Brooklyn" Panels, discussions, performances.	9am to 5pm Long Island University (Brooklyn Paramount) 1 University Ave (at Flatbush & DeKalb) Brooklyn, NY Open to the General Public Info: 718-488 1185 /michael.hittman@liu.edu
16	Giacomo Gates	8pm Jazz Underground Café (held at Hot Rod's Café) 114 Bank St. New London, CT
20	Giacomo Gates	Southbury Library 100 Poverty Road Southbury, CT 203 262 0626