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Mark Nanni and the Intention to Explore Style of Bill Evans in the CCR

4 years ago

Get set for round two of Origins of Jazz 2019.

The piano sounds move back into the Carman Community Room at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, with a set by Mark Nanni and the Intention. With Josh Dekaney on drums and Don Martin on bass, versatile keyboardist Nanni will perform standards in the conversational style of Bill Evans.

He's psyched. Evans is a favorite from the days Nanni was introduced to his music while an engineering student at Clarkson University in Potsdam.

Crane School of Music student Peter Kopora taught Nanni a free elective that covered classical and jazz. Included was Evans' solo instrumental album Alone. Nanni says it blew his mind.

Nanni went on to become a music lover and player of many styles.

He's well known for his two-decade stint with Syracuse favorite roots band Los Blancos. Even then, he worked hard on his solo jazz side and as a side man, on stage and in studio, with musicians and bands that played jam, blues, rock, ... anything and everything, just about.

These days he plays five gigs a week, most solo and as many as he can grab with The Intention.

“The last three years, everything I’ve done over my career all these years, I’ve put into one night. I used to make sure that it was all so separate. Now I can blend light classical, jazz, blues, jam rock and classic rock and still always be within my music,” Nanni said. “I take pride in being able to use all these genres and morph it into jazz and then rock out with it. And I can sing all night.”

The last two Origins of Jazz shows will include the Andrew Carroll Trio on Nov. 17 and Rod Blumenau’s Dixieland Update on Dec. 15. Both concerts in the Carman Community Room are on a Sunday at 2 p.m.

The project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council of the Arts. Russ Tarby of the Liverpool Is the Place committee works with the LPL to program the series.  

Here's a YouTube video of Nanni performing his song Changes.

Here's our video from the first Origins of Jazz 2019 show, with the Dick Ford Trio performing Has Anybody Seen My Gal? at Brookdale Liverpool on Oct. 6, 2019.