What's On Story
Jazz Notes
Geoff Chapman
Nov. 21, 2002.
Saxophone and guitar make new local duo
Two musicians have first CD Montreal Bistro scene of event
If you're going to play in a duet, says guitarist David Occhipinti, you want to be with the best.
"I'm a big tennis fan and the word in tennis circles used to be that the best doubles team ever was John McEnroe and anyone else. That's how I feel about my new record (Duologue) with Mike Murley (who plays tenor and soprano saxophone)," he said in an interview.
"You can put him with anyone and he's just magical. He listens a lot, he interacts and he's one of Canada's best musicians. This was a treat for me."
The Cornerstone label CD - five originals and four standards - will be officially released on Monday at 9 at the Montreal Bistro. On it the mood is far tougher than mellow. It's a type of chamber jazz with a sharp edge, with pleasing unison passages and frequent fine solos.
Occhipinti's bop line "Early Thaw" is a winner, he overdubs on "Prairie" and remakes a very well-known standard into "David Leaves," as does Murley with "Nest Of The Loon." (No prizes for correct guessing.) The emotional index is high on Murley's "Minas Mist."
The guitarist has released two (non-duet) CDs of his own compositions, his eponymously-titled debut in 1997 and Syzygy in 1999. He began playing with Murley in 1999.
"We were at places like Rhodes and Mezzetta and the following year at the Atlantic Jazz Festival. We were well received there and Mike suggested we should record. When I got the call from him to do it, it was one of the real highlights of my career.
"The duo is one of the most challenging combos, though it can be a lot of fun. When Mike plays I accompany him but when I play I'm pretty much on my own. But I like the space in a duo, anything can happen.
"There haven't been many horn and guitar duos. I can only think of (trombonist) Rob McConnell and Ed Bickert, but I've always enjoyed listening to any duets with guitar, like Jim Hall with pianist Bill Evans."
Occhipinti, who teaches at Humber College and at U of T, will tour with Murley to the east coast in February and the west coast in November. He will record two CDs in February, one with bass Andrew Downing and drummer Terry Clarke, the other as a member of the Lina Allemano Four - trumpeter Allemano, Downing and drummer Anthony Michelli.
Murley has enjoyed an outstanding career since coming to T.O. from his native Nova Scotia. He has released six CDs as leader, winning Juno awards for Both Sides and Live At The Senator and another as a member of McConnell's tentet. He's also a key member of funk-fusion jazzers Metalwood, the Barry Elmes quintet and other groups
The Toronto Star
What's On Story
August 24, 2000
Jazz Notes
Geoff Chapman
David Occhipinti, Renaissance jazzman
Jazz fans know David Occhipinti the polished guitarist - now they can listen more intently to Occhipinti the guitarist/composer.
With two well-received CDs under his belt, a self-titled release three years ago and last year's Syzygy , the 33-year-old Toronto-born Occhipinti studied piano early but was moved by The Beatles' music to switch to guitar at age 13.
Since then he's developed a distinctive style, has played every club in this region and earned a living from jazz - not always the case with the genre. Next week, however, as well as holding forth with a trio at the Top Of The Senator, he'll also be celebrating a new day job, teaching guitar once a week at Humber College (where he was a student from '84 to '87).
For the Senator date Tuesday through Sept. 3, he'll have regular companion Jim Vivian on bass and American drummer John Hollenbeck, a first-call musician in New York who heads two ensembles. The sessions will feature some new pieces - as well as Beatles tune ``Julia.''
Says Occhipinti: ``There's a lot of great drummers in Toronto but John, who I met at Banff 11 years ago, is very different. He brings a compositional element and new musical ideas to his work.''
That suits the guitarist, who has concentrated on composing this past year and taking counterpoint classes at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
``I realized after the two CDs that the more I knew, the less I knew. So I've been studying techniques used by classical figures like Schoenberg and Berg - and while you could say that my mentors have been (guitarists) Jim Hall and Ed Bickert, my favourite musician is J.S. Bach. He did so much with so few notes, it was almost like improvisation.''
The trio, with Canadian drummer Kevin Dempsey replacing Hollenbeck, will make an extensive western tour next month and Occhipinti is musing about a new trio album, or possibly a solo one. ``These things need time to simmer, like soup,'' he notes ``but the ultimate aim is always to develop your own sound.''
Earlier this year he was playing with local musicians in northern Italy, where his parents and artist wife, Mascia, were born, and will be there again next spring with the aid of funding from Ottawa. He lived in Italy for two years in the 1990s, has played there frequently and also performed in Switzerland and Britain. In 1996 he was selected as one of 10 winners in the Guitars On Fire contest held by magazine Jazziz.
Ottawa Citizen
Thursday January 13, 2000 H3
By Wes Smiderle
It's probably a very safe bet that there aren't a lot of jazz songs dedicated to Wayne Gretzky.
"I was in Italy and really missing Canada, so I tried to come up with music that reflected that," says jazz guitarist David Occhipinti, whose song appeared on his debut CD three years ago.
"It's basically an ode to Canada."
The Toronto-based jazz guiatrist comes to Ottawa on Friday and Saturday in support of his second CD, released late last year. After a lengthy build-up to his first album, the work is coming more quickly for him.
"I felt like I had shed my skin after the first CD."
Shed so much, in fact, that Occhipinti sees his work now as almost straying beyond what some would consider the boundaries of jazz. "I've always listened to a lot of classical music and I write some solo pieces for the guitar that are probably more contemporary classical," he says.
Occhipinti even sees the two diverse musical genres as merging. "Some of the contemporary classical musicians are improvising more and a lot of the jazz music I listen to leans more in the classical direction with respect to composition."
Besides mixing up genres, Occhipinti also likes to juggle residences by going on frequent trips and tours to Italy. His parents were born there and Occhipinti first visited the country on a vacation exploring his family's roots.
In 1994, he lived in Milan where he met the woman who would become his wife. He also developed an appreciation for European audiences. "I brought my guitar and sat in at some clubs," he says. "I started playing pretty quickly . . . It's a good scene."
He says besides having a broad understanding of arts in general, Italian audiences are very receptive. "They're open to different things," he says. "Jazz or classical stuff, it wasn't taboo. They were very open to it."
Before Italy, the Toronto-based musician spent 1989 at the Banff Centre's Summer Jazz Workshop, jamming with the likes of Dave Holland and Kevin Eubanks. He later studied in New York under jazz guitar veteran Jim Hall -- who was has been a significant influence Occhipinti's work.
"Huge," he says. "He really encouraged me to be adventurous."
Occhipinti describes Hall (now closing in on his 70s) as one of the most adventurous jazz guitarists around. "I would bring in my own compositions to him. One might be traditional jazz and the other a 12-tone piece and he'd say, 'Yeah, do the 12-tone.'"
Occhipinti will be playing at the After Eight jazz club along with Andrew Downing on bass and Anthony Michelli on drums. "We'll play mostly originals and definitely a few standards."
Occhipinti -- who grew listening to everything from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin -- doesn't care how his work is labelled, so long as people listen to it.
"To me music has no borders."
The Edmonton Journal Thursday, September 24,1998 C5
Toronto Jazz man is the real thing
Roger Levesque
Special to the Journal
Edmonton
Sometimes it seems as if there are thousands of electric guitar improvisers out there. Very few of them get the experience - here and abroad- or the attention from music veterans that David Occhipinti has had. It's not by chance either.
At 31, the Toronto jazz man finally has a self-titled debut disc of all-original music for trio out on the Unity label and auditioning the album will tell you that he's no flash in the pan. Occhipinti's tunes are well-constructed, thoughtful pieces and the chemistry with bassist Jim Vivian and drummer Kevin Dempsey is fluid and intuitive (pianist Dave Restivo also guests on several cuts). More important, the guitarist says his music is continuing to evolve in different directions.
"It's really about finding out who you are and bringing that out in the music. Some of the stuff IÕm doing is just contemporary music, more outside and not mainstream jazz. I'm just trying to get closer to what I hear in my head."
Occhipinti is currently on tour with another trio line-up: bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Anthony Michelli, both old friends. But when he gets home he will be recording a new trio disc with the original Vivian/Dempsey combo for release next year. Either way, it's his music, tuneful and adventurous all at once.
A love of the Beatles and piano lessons marked the start of Occhipinti's musical education early on. He switched to guitar at age 13 and by 17 he was enrolled in a three-year program at Toronto's Humber College. A couple of years later he was playing his own material in club settings around the city.
A 1989 stint at the Banff Centre's Summer Jazz Workshop and studies with the likes of Dave Holland and Kevin Eubanks made a lasting impression. "It really opened up my my eyes to what being an artist could be like. I noticed how hard they worked at their music and that there's no great secret. You've just got to work hard."
Despite some listening to early George Benson, Led Zeppelin and Stravinsky, Occhipinti's biggest inspiration as a jazz guitarist has been Jim Hall. He was thrilled then to get a Canada Council Arts Award in 1992 to study with the renown guitar veteran (along with Mike Stern, David Gilmore and Ben Monder), and was able to continue studies with Hall for an additional year.
"He's been a huge influence and I guess what I learned from him was to try and be adventurous and courageous. He always encouraged the more adventurous things I wrote, and to move forward which I guess is what he's still doing. He's in his late 60s but is still one of the most adventurous guitarists out there."
So in 1996 when Occhipinti entered a Guitars On Fire competition sponsored by Jazziz Magazine it was a pleasant surprise to find out the judges included John Patitucci, Lee Ritenour - and Hall. Occhipinti was one of 10 winners featured in his own live track on a compilation CD put out by the magazine, and while he says he generally dismisses most competitions he had no problems with the international publicity that event brought him.
And there's yet another realm to Occhipinti's experience. Back in 1991 he went to Italy to explore his family's roots and to look for performing opportunities. He found out what people said about European jazz audiences was true - "they're so appreciative of jazz and they know how to listen." After returning in 1994 to live and work in Milan he also met his wife and the Italian connection continues too as Occhipinti was back there to tour earlier this year.
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