Kyle Nassar/ Simona Premazzi Quartet
($15-$30 | 7pm & 9pm Shows) Traveling from NYC with their quartet, tenor saxophonist Kyle Nasser and Italian pianist Simona Premazzi perform their original modern jazz compositions at the Century Room. Nasser’s playing and compositions have been described as sophisticated and complex and his “songs weave together sonata forms, baroque to 20th century counterpoint, and modern rhythms with modern jazz vocabulary.” Premazzi has earned recognition for her improvisational work and skillful approach as a composer, with an unmistakable style and depth that comes across in every one of her compositions.
**Kyle Nassar**
A Massachusetts native and graduate of both Harvard and Berklee, Kyle Nasser has been described as possessing, “superlative musicianship as a performer, writer and a bandleader…ardent creativity and urbane artistic composure” (Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz). Since moving to New York City in 2010, he has played at some of the city’s most prestigious venues – including the Blue Note, Smalls, Iridium, 55 Bar, and the Jazz Gallery – and has toured in the U.S. and South America. Nasser has shared the stage with jazz greats Rich Perry, Ethan Iverson, Michael Formanek, Simona Premazzi, Roman Filiu, Massimo Biolcati, and Ben Monder, among others. In addition to leading his own group, he also plays with and composes for the international collective Beekman, whose sound has been described as “a joyful and continued speculation flowing in almost all facts with surprising ease” (Jazz, ese ruido), and the collective Triple Blind. With this last group, Nasser won the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant in 2021. Nasser’s debut album, Restive Soul, features his quintet presenting “a collection of sophisticated and complex modern jazz originals” (Jazz Weekly). His music stands out for its seamless integration of classical forms and techniques with jazz language and phrasing. The album’s songs weave together sonata forms, baroque to 20th century counterpoint, and modern rhythms with modern jazz vocabulary. “The saxophonist’s debut is knotty with a contrapuntal weave of voices, bumpy mixed meters, and alternating rhythmic currents that nonetheless groove, sometime with a rocking edge” (Boston Globe).
**Simona Premazzi**
New York based pianist Simona Premazzi has developed an impressive body of work as a composer and bandleader. Originally from Italy, Premazzi hails from a small town in the outskirts of Milano, where she began playing piano at age 8 and a half. A gifted musician, Simona is a graduate of the conservatory of music in Udine. She followed up her studies in Milano, by enrolling in the International Academy of Jazz Music and CPM music school, studying with two of Italy’s formidable jazz masters, Massimo Colombo and Franco D’Andrea.
As a student she became a member of two of the Academy’s most interesting bands – the Mingus Fingers Septet, of course focusing on the music of Charles Mingus, followed by a four year stint with Enrico Intra’s Big Band, touring across Italy and playing along side internationally recognized musicians including Markus Stockhausen, David Raksin, Franco Cerri, James Newton, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Dave Liebman, Eddie Daniels, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu and many others