A Wonderful Combination Of Hot Club Jazz, Brazilian Choro and American Folk
Combine a jazz/choro mandolinist with a symphony violinist who also plays bluegrass and hot swing, add a string bass player who came of age working the Chicago blues clubs with the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Buddy Guy, a lifelong guitarist equally at home with flatpicking fiddle tunes and fiery Hot Club jazz solos. Spice it all up with a with a first call jazz/Brazilian percussionist and stir in a little rock & roll attitude and season for 20 years in small clubs and large concert halls and you get some idea of the music of the Will Patton Ensemble.
Led by renowned jazz mandolinist Will Patton, the Ensemble deftly blends these many musical genres into a seamless whole, focusing on high energy improvisation and group interaction. Their repertoire, featuring fiery Brazilian sambas and folk waltzes, gentle choros and Hot Club jazz, takes you on a musical journey from a Parisian bistro to a plaza in the heart of Rio, and back home again to your front porch.
Mandolinist and all around string wizard Will Patton, also well known for his fine bass playing, draws a strong influence from jazz, Hot Club, and Brazilian music. His collaborations with the manouche guitarist Ninine Garcia from Paris, documented in the cds “Peripherque” and “String Theory” have been enthusiastically reviewed both in the U.S. and abroad. He teaches jazz mandolin at Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s Ashokan Camp and the Django in June Festival at Smith College. He has performed with Mose Allison and his bands have opened for such acts as Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt and Van Morrison.
Guitarist Dono Schabner played in Italian wedding bands as a young teenager in the New York area before hitting the road with funk and R & B bands, touring all over the world. He settled in Stowe, Vt. and is a first call player for jazz, country and rock bands throughout New England.
Violinist David Gusakov‘s lifetime career has ranged from classical, as a member of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1973, to hard driving Bluegrass with Pine Island and Banjo Dan & The Midnight Plowboys. He has performed with such luminaries as Vassar Clemens, Emmylou Harris, Peter Rowan and John Denver. Born in the heartland of America, Gusakov has travelled the world with his fiddle as his passport, and currently teaches music in his Bristol studio.
Clyde Stats has been a professional bassist for over 30 years, and has performed rhythm and blues, funk, bluegrass, and jazz throughout Vermont and New England for the past 21 years. He began his career in Chicago performing with blues greats Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, and Otis Rush He has studied with internationally known jazz bassists George Mraz and Santi Debriano, and has accompanied jazz legends Mose Allison, Bobby Watson, Joshua Redman, and James Carter in their Vermont appearances. An active jazz educator, he holds an M.A. in Jazz Studies from Norwich University and teaches courses in jazz and popular music at Northern Vermont University and the University of Vermont.
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