Bobby Previte

Bobby Previte is a composer and performer whose work explores the nexus between notated and improvised music. One of the seminal figures of the 1980s New York ‘Downtown’ scene, Previte is the recipient of the 2015 Greenfield Prize for Music and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2012, as well as multiple awards for composition from the NEA, NYFA, NYSCA, NY State Music Fund, and the American Music Center. Mr. Previte has been an artist-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, Civitella Ranieri, The Montalvo Arts Center, The Hermitage Artist Retreat, and nine times at the MacDowell Colony. He has given masterclasses at Princeton University, Eastman School of Music, The New School, New York University, SUNY Buffalo, the Walker Art Center, Art and Music Omi, Cornish University, Istanbul University, University of Washington, and Perth University.His original compositions have been recorded and released on Sony, Elektra, Rykodisc, Palmetto, New World, Ropeadope, Tzadik, Thirsty Ear, Cantaloupe and Rarenoise. Leading a plethora of diverse ensembles from his instrument, the drums, he has stood on stages and collaborated with an unlikely array of leading lights in and beyond the music world, including master composer John Adams, Terry Adams of NRBQ, pantheon filmmaker Robert Altman, country music star Jessi Colter, blues great Johnny Copeland, composer and thinker Lukas Foss, computer music pioneer Lejaren Hiller, seven-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter, recently rediscovered genius Julius Eastman, Rock author and ambassador Lenny Kaye, Lounge Lizards leader John Lurie, jazz/noise shredder Sonny Sharrock, folk hero Victoria Williams, “Captain Kirk,” William Shatner on Saturday Night Live, maestro Michael Tilson-Thomas, the legendary Tom Waits, and, most recently, rock icon Iggy Pop. His recent larger works includes: TERMINALS, Five Concertos for Percussion Ensemble and Soloist, with SO Percussion, released October 28th, 2014 by Cantaloupe Music, GONE, with Bobby Previte & the Visitors, released summer 2016 on the forTune label, TERMINALS QUARTETS, the percussion only version of Terminals, summer 2016, by Cantaloupe Music, and MASS, a music in nine parts for choir, pipe organ, and metal trio, released April 2017 by Rarenoise Records, RHAPSODY, a song cycle on the subject of migration, commissioned by the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and premiered April 21, 2017 at New College in Sarasota, Florida. Scored for acoustic guitar, harp, piano, voice, drums and saxophone, and featuring an all- star band of Zeena Parkins, John Medeski, Nels Cline, Fabian Rucker, and Jen Shyu, RHAPSODY was recorded in New York and was released February 23, 2018 by Rarenoise. And his latest, BLUEPRINTS, a conducted improvisation/reading of fragments of every singe composition of his from 1979 to the present. QUOTES: “Previte’s music is thoroughly, stubbornly and distinctly his own. The music copies nothing, and is utterly original.”—The New York Times “His ensembles speak in visionary tongues.” — The New Yorker “A serious composer with the heart of a roadhouse rocker.” — The Village Voice "Previte's music rolls along like an 18-wheeler eating up Interstate 15 through the Arizona-Nevada desert.” — CD Review “Although Bobby Previte is a great drummer, his pen appears to be mightier still.” — Downbeat “He can break your heart with one cymbal crash.” — Jazz Times