Mario Pavone

This album is dedicated to Isabella Pavone (November 12,1996 - June 10, 2020).

I would like to thank the musicians Matt Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey for their brilliant sensory delivery of these compositions and for their warm personal support; and Dave Ballou who also played brilliantly and who rendered these dynamic arrangements. Thank you to Dave Stoller, Ed Tetreault and Michael MacDonald for capturing the sound. And Adam Hopkins, thank you for your enthusiasm, expediency and support that brought this album to completion in record time. Finally, thank you to my wife Mary for her enduring love and guidance in this project.

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Blue Vertical is to be the final recording by the legendary bassist and composer Mario Pavone, who passed on May 15 2021. Though in the final stages of a 17-year battle with cancer, Pavone pushed throughout April 2021 to make sure this music would be a part of his recorded legacy. On March 25 and 26 2021 he gathered his Dialect Trio with Matt Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey (an active group since 2014), and the addition of his longtime collaborator Dave Ballou on trumpet, to record the music that has become Blue Vertical. Blue Vertical is releasing simultaneously with the album Isabella on Clean Feed Records. In the interview "Mario Pavone Makes His Final Statement" by journalist Kevin Whitehead (recently featured in Downbeat Magazine), Pavone said:

“I’m just happy to get these two releases done. It took every bit of energy, and the music is what got me through. I’ve had a great life and I’m so appreciative of all the players who jumped in and generously contributed, from the heart. I’m grateful, happy, satisfied with my life, ready to move to this next cycle.”

Mario Pavone - bass, compositions
Dave Ballou - trumpet, arrangements
Matt Mitchell - piano
Tyshawn Sorey - drums