Ray Pizzi

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Raymond Michael "Ray" Pizzi (born January 19, 1941 in Everett , Massachusetts ) is an American musician (saxophone, clarinet, flute, bassoon, composition) of modern jazz .

Live and act

Pizzi had clarinet lessons from the age of five. He studied from 1960 to 1964 at the Boston Conservatory and at the same time at Berklee College of Music . He then worked as a music teacher in Boston and toured with Woody Herman in 1966 . He then settled in Los Angeles , where he took bassoon lessons from Simon Kovar and was a member of the groups of Don Menza and Louis Bellson (1970/71). In 1972 and 1973 he played with Willie Bobo and also with Mocair Santos. Subsequently he worked with such diverse musicians as Mark Levine , Frank Zappa , Shelly Manne , Barney Kessel , Barbra Streisand , Burt Bacharach , Quincy Jones , Milcho Leviev , Lee Ritenour and Charlie Haden . He has also recorded with Ravi Shankar , Madonna , Dizzy Gillespie , Nana Simopoulos and Bob Florence . Henry Mancini wrote his Piece for Jazz Bassoon and Orchestra, which premiered in 1981, for him . Since the release of his first LP “Appassionato” (1975), he has also recorded a number of different albums and presented his own projects at important festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival or in Berkeley . In Europe he toured several times with Götz Tangerding and Christian Stock in the 1980s, and with Wolfgang Lackerschmid in the 1990s . He has summarized his important contributions to the jazz bassoon in the 2008 compilation Bassoon Anthology . He also wrote music for films such as A Golden Opportunity , You and Me and Kumann .

Discographic notes

  • The Love Letter (1979)
  • Espressivo (1981)
  • I Hear You (with Wolfgang Lackerschmid, Hans Hazoth, Christian Stock, Aldo Caviglia; 1991)

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pizzi, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pizzy, Raymond Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Everett (Massachusetts)