Joyful! by Pete Malinverni

In addition to a full-length live concert CD, the "Joyful!" package also includes a DVD of the concert and interviews.

“When Pete Malinverni plays, the people listen”,

noted Patricia O’Haire in the New York Daily News.

That’s no mean feat in the Mecca of Jazz. Since coming to New York in 1981 Pete has established himself as a highly respected presence in NYC and nationally as well as abroad in Europe, South America, and Japan, his performing and composing work earning him entry in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, as compiled by Ira Gitler and Leonard Feather.

Pete’s enthusiastic audience has found him on stages in NYC and around the world such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Caramoor Festival, Symphony Space, Rome’s Villa Celimontana Festival, Chile’s Santiago Jazz Festival and clubs such as Birdland, the Blue Note, Bradley’s, the Algonquin’s Oak Room, etc. Most often playing solo piano or with his trio, Pete has also appeared with the likes of Joe Lovano, Charles Davis, Vernel Fournier, Mel Lewis, Jody Sandhaus

(for whom he serves as Musical Director) and other bright lights. His celebrated appearance on NPR’s

‘Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz’ was one to remember, for its exciting music and revelatory conversation.

Malinverni’s life in music began at age seven in his hometown of Niagara Falls, NY, where he studied classical piano with local legend Laura Copia. He continued in NYC with Elena Belli, Anthony Newman and Sophia Rosoff. Pete himself is now a teacher much in demand, serving as Professor on the Jazz Studies faculty of New York’s Purchase College Conservatory of Music, where teaches Jazz Harmony, Jazz History, Jazz Improvisation, Solfege and coaches student ensembles. Previously, he taught at William Paterson University and at New York University, where he received the prestigious Marc Crawford Award for Excellence in Jazz Education. As an

Artist in Residence, Pete leads clinics and

master classes worldwide.

March 2006 saw the heralded release of “Theme and Variations”, a highly anticipated solo piano recording on Reservoir Music, which garnered four stars in Down Beat Magazine, earning it honors as one of the best jazz albums of 2006 and like minded reviews in many other publications such as JazzTimes, Playbill, Cadence Jazz, The Buffalo News, All About Jazz, Jazz Improv, etc.

Among Pete’s many earlier releases, “The Tempest”, in 2004, “Autumn in New York” in 2003 and “Of One Mind” in 2001, received like acclaim. Writing in the Charleston (SC) Post and Courier, Jack McCray called him “a fiery but elegant pianist”, and his varied collaborations stand as testament to his abilities. His performances, live and recorded, in the company of jazz luminaries too numerous to mention, exhibit what Enzo Fresia of Italy’s Musica Jazz called “an extremely unconstrained and brilliant pianism”.

Dave McElfresh said in Jazz Now that “Malinverni’s writing makes as much of an impact as his playing”. A composer of great depth, passion, and individuality, he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Meet the Composer Foundation. His trio was featured in a concert for Chamber Music America at New York’s Symphony Space. Not only have his vehicles for jazz improvisation been described by Gary Giddins in the Village Voice as “knotty and original”, but musicians and public alike agree with McElfresh in Jazz Now that Malinverni’s ballad “This Time”, the title track of his third recording as leader, is “truly the stuff standards are made of”.

Since 1993 Pete has served as Minister of Music at the Devoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, exposing him to the music of the African-American church, and his suites for vocal choir and jazz quartet based on the Psalms of David, demonstrate his abilities as a composer on a grander scale. His June 2006 release “Joyful!”, an ArtistShare CD/DVD, documents this new and exciting form of music. Highlighted and reviewed favorably in Down Beat, JazzTimes, Jazziz and many other jazz publications, “Joyful!” also “crossed over” to media of wider reach, including features on several internationally heard NPR shows and national print publications such as the Los Angeles Daily News, Portland (OR) Skanner Montreal Mirror and Pittsburgh Tribune. Notably, the DVD portion of "Joyful!" was directed and produced by Academy Award winning documenatrain Maryann De Leo.

In his four-star Down Beat review, Paul de Barros said, “Pete Malinverni doesn’t seem capable of playing a dishonest line”, and it is this unaffected, pure approach to music of real depth which draws audiences and students alike to Malinverni’s appearances. Through the release of Pete’s nine recordings as leader, “Don’t Be Shy”, “The Spirit”, “This Time”, “A Very Good Year”, “Of One Mind”, “Autumn In New York”, “The Tempest”, “Joyful!” and “Theme and Variations”, one views the development of what Stuart Troup, in a feature article in New York Newsday, has called “a supple player, full of nuance”.

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