SUMARI BIOS

Matt Lavelle – Jack DeSalvo – Tom Cabrera

Each member of SUMARI is a veteran of the US and international Jazz worlds with roots in NYC’s Downtown scene.

JACK DeSALVO, hailed in THE WIRE magazine as “masterful”, joined Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society in the 1980s and has toured the world with many artists in his own musical-spiritual journey. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, DeSalvo also studied classical guitar and composition before taking private tutelage with Bill Connors. His pianistic, wholistic approach to performance practice on electric, classical and acoustic guitar led to committed doubling on such instruments as cello and various members of the mandolin and banjo families. DeSalvo appears on more than 40 recordings and has performed with Peter Brötzmann, Karl Berger, Chris Kelsey,  Tony Malaby, Pat Hall, D3 and many more as well at major jazz festivals and clubs.

MATT LAVELLE, having studied directly with Ornette Coleman, was one-fourth of Bern Nix’s band and a founding member of Harmolodic Monk. His haunting trumpet sound is reminiscent of Don Cherry’s, while one can also note the full-throated influence of Rex Stewart. Lavelle’s first teacher was swing-era veteran Hildred Humphries but his foray into the unfettered carries him beyond traditions. Strong doubling into woodwinds brought him to the bass clarinet and ultimately, the alto clarinet. Lavelle makes extreme use of the alto’s natural range, fusing it with the cry of Dolphy’s bass clarinet sound and then into the imaginary realm of Eastern double-reeds painted New Orleans blue. Lavelle’s extensive resume includes Giuseppe Logan, William Parker, Sabir Mateen, Jameel Moondoc, Roy Campbell, and his own12 Houses Orchestra.

TOM CABRERA is a percussionist of striking depth. An in-demand jazz drummer who also made a specialty of the percussion family known as frame drums, Cabrera constructed a drum-set which sports riq, tar, dumbeq, bodhran and various percussives about a small bass drum and hi-hat. With a sonic oeuvre that ranges from the quaking to the sublime, Tom carries the band’s rhythmicity in the best harmolodic fashion. Silences (the sort described by Cage) feature into his wave of sounds. With Sumari Cabrera also plays a standard drumset as well as with the Julie Lyon Quintet, the Rocco John Quartet and others. Besides his own Tom Cabrera Trio album, What I’ve Found, he appears on many Unseen Rain releases.

Matt Lavelle – trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet, alto and bassclarinet

Jack DeSalvo – guitars, cello, mandola and mandolin,  banjos, bass ukelele

Tom Cabrera – drums, dumbeq, rik, frame drums, percussion.