![]()
"Pianist Mick
Rossi is an exemplar of the cross-fertilization between jazz and classical music
worlds...the smile-creating mix of humor, surprise, gorgeous sounds and virtuosity...relentlessly
pressing, twisting and turning...an assuredness and logic that feel inevitable,
despite the almost constant surprises." - All About Jazz ![]()
"Rossi's piano
is the most rooted, solid and resistant spine. Not only for the peculiarities
of his instrument, for the implicit polyphonic and therefore harmonious possibilities,
but most of all for the authority and serenity that rule his approach. For his
courageous minimalism, for his desire to derive unthinkable sounds from his
bulky instrument. For his coherent improvisational linearity..." - All
About Jazz Italy
"One
Block From Planet Earth [is] multi-faceted, humorous, life relishing,
[and] unpretentiously profound." - All About Jazz ![]()
"Mick
Rossi cements himself in this enterprise: pianist, percussionist, composer --
one of the most lucid, original and creative minds of the New York scene, and
long-time collaborator with Philip Glass...it is not to be missed!" - All
About Jazz Italy ![]()
"Listen to
the formidibly propulsive and percussive piano teqnique evinced all through
this disc to understand how wild it really is. Songs
From The Broken Land is as cool an improvised postmodern piano
disc as you’re likely to hear...4 out of 4 stars." - Buffalo
News ![]()
"...Rife with imagery ... Rossi can go from orchestra pit animation ... to brooding romanticism, his style capable of both light, almost transparent, musings to hearty, chromatic exposition ála là Keith Jarrett." - Down Beat [One Block From Planet Earth]
"...Rossi
is the commanding force...the lines between pre-composed and instantly composed
are blurred...a showcase for both the playing and compositional skills of Rossi."
- One Final Note ![]()
"Energetic and Bartokian...Shostakovichian paranoia." - NY Times
"A full-bodied avant story-telling character and personality that successfully encompasses various vistas at once. It resembles a well designed and written graphic novel. Even better, there isn't any of the brooding moods or insincerity laden jaded-isms so common among so-called creative musicians." - All About Jazz - New York
"This [One
Block From Planet Earth] is another strong statement by a criminally under-recognized
pianist and composer." - All Music Guide ![]()
"Rossi is one of the most lucid, original and creative minds of the New York scene, and long-time collaborator with Philip Glass. The full crossing of intelligent digressions that make us slip and fall at times sweetly, at times swiftly, towards a parallel world that is, as is already stated by the title, isolated by distance from our old and rugged terrain." - All About Jazz - Italy
"Rossi is a unique and impressive soloist. Blistering, crashing and pensive" - Harvey Pekar / Jazz Times
"With about
zero respect for genre boundaries or conventional pacing, Rossi throws it all
into his music and follows his own dramatic sense of structure." - Aaron
Steinberg / Jazz Times ![]()
"New Math is challenging but stunning terrain, spare but beautiful, affecting to the emotions.Their duets are musical poetry slams, a blueprint for performance jazz, with three-digit numbers identifying the songs on this envelope-shredding disc." - All About Jazz
"...So encapsulating
in a few minutes the whole history of piano in the last 150 years (from Satie
to Jarrett). Another great album from the thriving NY downtown scene."
[They Have A Word For
Everything] - Musicboom
"Both of these musicians are masters of improv and ideas, constantly coming up with some fascinating explorations [on New Math]. ...dig this excellent duo excursion." - Downtown Music Gallery
"Besides his technical
abilities, Rossi displays a worldly approach through these glistening mood evoking
pieces which run the gamut from being sublime and pensive to brash, well-orchestrated
charts brimming with sharp interplay and meaningful soloing. In a nutshell,
They Have A Word For Everything
is a superb effort and perhaps a late entry into multiple top 10 lists for 1999.
Highly Recommended!" - All About Jazz ![]()
"Rossi's musical
mind is fun to be around and he is serious without taking himself too seriously.
Perverse, gnarly and self-challenging." - Budd Kopman/All About
Jazz ![]()
"Pianist Rossi writes and plays with an original voice. The twelve featured compositions sound like something Bach might have scripted if he had been a musician of our times. There are moments of strict counterpoint and others totally free of form. At times the music sounds like a film score from some ghostly civilization that could have possibly existed around the turn of the 19th century. Trumpeter Dave Douglas turns in another one of his stellar performances. Magnificent!" - The Jazz Report
"[One
Block From Planet Earth] is a CD that flawlessly shifts gears between
multiple dimensions. Rossi's writing is plainly twisted, but in all the right
ways." - Randy Raine-Reusch / Musicworks ![]()
"Rossi's solos
are filled with harmonic tension, implying modulations that never occur, and
also floating over the bar line in a delicious way. [His] tunes are very infectious,
leaving plenty of room for interpretation, and with a consistency that lingers
in the mind. No problem recommending this one." - Cadence
![]()
"This is music without any hyphens. Great writing by Rossi, serious playing by all." - Down Beat
"In his improvisations, he's a lot like Don Pullen, pounding out complex left-hand figures while playing with fire in the upper-register. [Also]...recalls some of the more folkish moments of Keith Jarett's "European" quartet." - Cadence
"Effective, convincing, [an] individual voice." - Jazz Times
"Rossi as a pianist is gifted and subtle, ...with exceptional finesse, ...a treat for the avant-garde/free-form fanatic." - JazzReview
"Rossi can play with [Paul] Bley-like lucidity, and he has an excellent rhythm section in Driscoll and Descarfino. The group creates vital music from increasingly tense interactivity." - Cadence
"...a pleasant
surprise. A sense of fun. A group of musicians well-schooled in the genres and
rules they choose to depart from. I hope more of this stuff is happening in
New York." - All Music Guide ![]()
"Though it is really difficult to do something new in this format, these three musicians having succeeded in doing so." - Jazz Live
"It doesn't
take long for the listener to dig Trenton-born Rossi as a rollicking cat worth
listening to." -
Philadelphia Inquirer ![]()
"Rossi's music can be compared to Samuel Barber's in its spacious, tense lyricism. Evocatively melds chamber music and jazz motifs; it pulsates, undulates, romanticizes and bangs along." - Philadelphia Inquirer
"Inside The Sphere is Powerful" - Jazz Live
"[Nosferatu]
stands on its own as a significant artistic work...an emotionally charged, cross-genre
event." - All About Jazz ![]()
"Inspired compositions, perceptively played by wonderful soloists." - Jazz Podium
"Rossi's music inspires adjectives like 'dark,' 'moody,' 'imaginative' and 'affecting', [and] has a real power over the listener. It is full of paradoxes: dark yet pleasant, pensive yet not brooding. Mick Rossi's fine penmanship utilizes each instrument to superior advantage." - Jazziz
"...[He] displays theatrical flair, his allusive, boldly articulated, shapeshifting music is inherently dramatic. His breadth of playing experience is matched by his stylistic resourcefulness as a writer..." - The Wire
"Sublime." - Jazzman
"Rossi is the star of the date." - JazzReview