Big Round Sound Vol. 1
Big Round Record’s first installment of its compilation series, BIG ROUND SOUND VOL. 1, presents a deep cross-section of the label’s contemporary and eclectic catalog. From jazz and world music to folk, fusion, and progressive rock, this album features performances by Tony R. Clef, the Oscuro Quintet, Andy Jaffe and Branford Marsalis, Sophie Dunér, the Larksong Trio, Anne Vanschothorst, Juan Álamo, Jean-Philippe Grégoire, and more in works by Christina Rusnak, Svjetlana Bukvich, Sebastiano Meloni, Ecco La Musica, Bunny Beck, and others.
Since its launch in 2009, the Big Round label has been dedicated to presenting world-class musicians doing what they do best: smashing the walls of genre and creating groundbreaking new sounds while keeping one foot firmly rooted in tradition. Out of the box? With Big Round, there is no box.
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Artist Information
Sebastiano Meloni
Sebastiano Meloni lives in Cagliari, Italy, where he teaches literature and history. He graduated from the Conservatory in Cagliari with a degree in jazz music. While at the Conservatory, he also studied classical music, contemporary music, composition, and music theory. In 2002, he recorded Libere Forme, a CD of free jazz-contemporary music, with drummer Alessandro Garau and double bassist Nicola Cossu. He continues to play free and mainstream jazz throughout Italy.
Adriano Orrù
Composer and double bass player Adriano Orrù was born in Nuoro, Italy in 1958 and currently lives in Cagliari, Italy. He devotes his time to jazz, radical improvisation, chamber music. He also works as a music teacher.
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. Oxley, a self-taught pianist by the age of eight, first began playing the drums at age seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music theory and improved upon his drumming technique.
Tony Clef
Tony R. Clef was born in Bellows Falls VT and grew up in nearby Springfield, VT. He has spent most of his adult life in the Boston, MA area. He studied classical guitar primarily with Richard Layman in Brookline, MA and also for a time with Adam Holzman in Austin, TX.
Andy Jaffe
Andy Jaffe is the Lyell B. Clay Artist in Residence and Director of Jazz Activities at Williams College, as well as Artistic Director of the Williamstown Jazz Festival. An active jazz composer, performer, and recording artist, Jaffe has been a leader in jazz pedagogy for over twenty-five years, having taught at the Berklee College of Music (1977-81), The University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate program in Afro-American Music and Jazz (1994-98), the Institut Musical deformation Professionelle in Nimes, France (1984), Amherst College (1987-99), Tufts University(1992-93), Smith College(1997-99), and Williams (since 1989). He runs the jazz ensembles and teaches courses in jazz theory and improvisation, jazz arranging and composition, and on the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.
Ecco La Musica
The sights and sounds of nature. Literature. Film. The many languages of the world. These are the Muses of the group known as Ecco La Musica. From its inception in 2006, this ensemble has been dedicated to the performance of original material created by its members and uniquely arranged to highlight the instrumentation and artistic perspective of the composers' collective.
Sophie Dunér
Sophie Dunér is a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger and visual artist from Sweden who has lived and performed in the United States and Spain. Originally a jazz singer and composer, her writing and performing have evolved into a unique style of wild, risky, passionate and exhilarating music for vocals and string quartet, uniquely her own. She has rendered pristine arrangements, stylistically a fusion between jazz and classical idiomsóyet something brand new and unbrandable.
Peggo Hodes
Peggo in Love ñ singer Peggo Hodes' debut solo recording ñ is a striking collection of timeless love songs picked from the Great American Songbook. Peggo, whose previous outings include her work with award-winning childrenís music group Peggosus and folk duo Peggo and Paul (featuring her husband Paul Hodes), looked to her past for inspiration on Peggo in Love.
Svjetlana Bukvich
Svjetlana Bukvich first came to the attention of the European music world following her appearances as featured soloist with the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto at the age of 16, and the following year with Edinburgh George Heriot’s Symphony Orchestra with the 2nd Concerto. Driven by a need to express beyond interpretation, Bukvich studied at the Music Academy – University of Sarajevo, where she earned degrees in Composition and Musicology. During this period she was invited to participate in the Intensive Composition Workshop in Groznjan, Istria, where she worked with some of the leading lights in European contemporary music.
Anne Vanschothorst
Anne Vanschothorst (The Netherlands) is a landscape music composer, minimal harp pioneer, and multimedia artist exploring creativity in applied music, film, and spoken word — using overdub and making sound sculptures with 47 strings. She received international critical acclaim as an indie composer and producer who records sound on sound stilled mystical landscape music for in-a-room, film, multimedia, and spoken word. This new poetic and inventive, edgy sonic universe next to the existing harp planet and music world, indicates that Vanschothorst walks off the beaten track. The written note-scores are frequently performed by international musicians and added to their repertoire. The “You Play I listen!” platform is an ongoing creativity project that was initiated to share Harp and Soul Music performed by others via videos and sound-clouds.
Juan Álamo
Dr. Juan Álamo is an internationally known performer, composer, and educator. Originally from Cidra, Puerto Rico, Álamo has presented solo recitals at universities and percussion and jazz festivals throughout the United States, Central and South America, Europe and the Caribbean. He has been featured as a soloist and with jazz ensembles in television and radio shows in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela and the United States.
Bunny Beck
Jazz pianist and composer Bunny Beck comes from a long line of musicians. Her dad, Larry Sideman had a band that played hotels, her aunt was a vaudeville violinist, and her grandmother sang opera.
Jean-Philippe Grégoire
Jean-Philippe Grégoire began his classical studies at the Conservatory of Marseille, under Régis Campo, receiving top awards there including the Henri Tomasi's Composition prize and the SACEM prize. In 2008, he went to the Paris Conservatory to study Jazz Performance. Breaking onto the Paris jazz scene, Grégoire began performing in groups including the Julian Getreau 4tet at some of the finest clubs and festivals in Paris, including Duc des Lombards, Le Basier Salé, and Jazz Festival of Flavors.
Christina Rusnak
Christina Rusnak (b. 1959) is a multifaceted composer whose work reflects a diversity of styles. Actively seeking to integrate artistic and geographic elements into her work, her goal is to compose music that engages the performers as well as the audience.