Renowned
New York session musician, saxophonist and jazz composer Dave Tofani has
written, arranged and recorded seven new jazz pieces that reflect the
spirit and vitality of New York City and America. Tofani's new CD
is entitled An American Garden and is dedicated to "The
Greatest Generation" Americans who were raising families during
WW II which includes his immigrant parents and grandparents. The CD's
cover art depicts the Statue of Liberty and the immigration center on
Ellis Island.
An American
Garden, Tofani's second solo album, is available at several
on-line sites, the record company's SoloWinds.com, Amazon.com and
CDbaby.com.
"Life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness" are the themes that link the seven
tracks on An American Garden. The music is sophisticated
yet highly melodic and pushes beyond the traditional boundaries of the
jazz idiom. In this collection of extended jazz compositions, Tofani
makes use of a variety of musical forms. The ensembles vary in size
from a jazz quintet to a string orchestra to a big band. Tofani performs
on tenor, alto and soprano saxophones as well as a variety of clarinets
and flutes. His mastery of woodwinds is fully evidenced on the closing
track "Liberté" where he performs all ten woodwind
parts.
Tofani, an alumnus
of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, has amassed a lengthy
list of distinguished performance and recording credentials in a career
spanning three-plus decades living and working in New York. Tofani is
one of New York's most in-demand session musicians and has played on
more than 600 albums and 100 major motion picture soundtracks. Tofani
performed on two Grammy Award-winning albums last year Steely
Dan's Two Against Nature and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's
Stravinsky Miniatures. Other career highlights include performing
with legendary artists such as Frank Sinatra (L.A. Is My Lady),
Barbra Streisand (The Concert and other albums), John Lennon
(Double Fantasy), and Simon & Garfunkel (The Concert In
Central Park with Tofani playing the stand out saxophone solo on
"Still Crazy After All These Years").
In addition, Tofani
has recorded in the studio with a who's who of top jazz artists
such as David Sanborn, Earl Klugh, George Benson, Buddy Rich, Jim Hall,
the Dave Matthews Big Band, Art Farmer & Yusef Lateef, Urbie Green
& Grover Washington Jr. and John Lucien. Jazz artists Tofani has
played in concert with include Hall, Green, Matthews, Herbie Hancock,
Bill Evans, Bob James and Thad Jones & Mel Lewis.
Tofani has both
recorded and played onstage with Sinatra, Streisand, Simon & Garfunkel,
Natalie Cole, Bette Midler, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Tony Bennett
and James Taylor. Dave also has recorded with Quincy Jones, Donald Fagen,
Paul Simon, James Galway, Diana Ross, Soft Cell, Roger Daltrey, Chaka
Kahn and Michael Franks. In recognition of his consistently outstanding
performances on saxophone Tofani is a three-time winner of the prestigious
Most Valuable Player Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences. Dave also had the distinction of being one of the very
few players ever to be nominated on five woodwind instruments: Soprano,
Alto & Tenor Saxophones, Flute and Clarinet.
Tofani also has
performed in the orchestras with the Joffrey Ballet and the Alvin Ailey
Dance Theatre companies. He has performed regularly on the Tony awards
live TV broadcast. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the
American Symphony and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra under the baton of distinguished
conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Colin Davis, Pierre
Boulez, Dennis Davies and Gunther Schuller.
Rounding out Dave's resume is his work on major motion picture
soundtracks such as "You've Got Mail," "Sleepless
in Seattle," "Beauty & The Beast," "The Birdcage,"
"The Mambo Kings," "Valmont," "The Wiz"
and dozens more. Tofani's solos are spotlighted on several soundtracks,
including "Peggy Sue Got Married," "The Untouchables,"
"All That Jazz" and "Working Girl."
Dave Tofani's
musical career began in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was born
and raised. His inspiration to take up music came from his uncle, Americo
Dell'Omo (named after America because he was the first child in
his family to be born in the United States.) It was Uncle Americo who
introduced Dave to recordings by Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond, Stan
Kenton, and Miles Davis. Dave began playing clarinet when he was eight
years old. He picked up the saxophone at age 12 and began studying piano
when he turned 13. In addition to playing in school bands, Tofani began
performing with professional musicians when he was 15 as a member of
the John Nicolosi Orchestra, a group that included Dave's Uncle
Americo. The group came in fourth place in a national big band competition
for which Dave wrote two arrangements.
Dave moved to New
York City when he was 17 years old to attend the Juilliard School where
he got his master's degree. While majoring in saxophone and clarinet
performance, he was mentored by two great teachers - saxophonist Joe
Allard and pianist Hall Overton. Dave's musical influences at this
time also included Gil Evans, Joe Zawinul, Lenny Tristano, Lee Konitz,
John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and Duke Ellington. Dave's
first session work was with the "Bell Telephone Hour" TV show
orchestra (with Donald Voorhies conducting) backing artists such as
Andre Previn and Benny Goodman. Dave also was invited to join the Lee
Konitz-Hall Overton Jazz Quintet (featuring Konitz on alto and Tofani
on tenor). "That's when I really learned to play jazz with
the top pros. Hall was close to Thelonius Monk so we played a lot of
Monk tunes, but we also did several of my compositions," Tofani
recalls. Additionally, Tofani had his own jazz quintet that played a
number of New York clubs and concerts.
After graduating
from Juilliard, Tofani was drafted into the Army and played in the U.S.
Military Academy Band at West Point for three years. During this period
he expanded the scope of his woodwind playing by studying flute with
Harold Bennett and Tom Nyfenger. After being discharged from the service,
Dave returned to New York to resume his professional career. Tofani
was a member of the National Jazz Ensemble under Chuck Israels, (they
recorded several albums), the David Matthews Big Band as the first reed
player (he recorded nine albums with them), the New York Saxophone Quartet
for seven years, and Jazz Antiqua. Tofani formed his own band, The Dave
Tofani Jazz Quintet which performed in the New York area at, Mikell's,
Seventh Avenue South and other top clubs.
"Despite how
much I have always enjoyed session work and performing with major artists,
there comes a point in a musician's life when you have to find your
own solo voice and take everything you have learned and express your
own sound," explains Tofani. His first step in that direction was
his debut solo album, the Grammy-nominated Manhattan Carnival
on Telestar, featuring seven original compositions plus the first recording
of Michael Camilo's "Manhattan Carnival (Why Not)" Tofani
was joined by Warren Bernhardt, Anthony Jackson, Mark Egan, Clifford
Carter, Dave Charles and Ross Traut. The album received heavy airplay
on radio all over the country and went to No. 7 on the national Radio
& Records jazz airplay charts.
Tofani steps out
again into the solo spotlight with the new CD An American Garden.
The new record features 41 of New York City's finest musicians
including Mark Egan, Danny Gottlieb, Jack Wilkins, Ronnie Zito, Pat
Rebillot and Gordon Gottlieb. "The album is a tribute to all of
the immigrant families who gave of themselves unselfishly in order to
educate their children so that they could have better lives."
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