General Cargo William Tatge

• 1 Illegal Machines 08:00
• 2 The Lay of the Land 08:02
• 3 Hidden Agenda 07:30
• 4 Civilization 07:06
• 5 Mother of Nothing 09:12
• 6 Have You Seen Robert Boston 07:15
• 7 Sentinel 08:17
• Total Runtime 55:22

Info for General Cargo

The music on General Cargo, composed over a six-year period between 2010-2015, following Tatge's move to NYC, aims to reference personal, cultural and historical cargo the artist attempts to protect and carry forward. Tatge explains further, "perhaps this music is the result of finding myself in the strange state of a repatriated expat torn between two continents and aesthetic traditions, unable to truly leave either of them behind."

The writing and playing reflect a strong connection to jazz as well as to 19th and 20th century classical music, with an occasional wink at rock and other influences. "I have always been fascinated by the way musical ideas, approaches and behaviors can travel through history and between styles, being transformed, reinterpreted or distorted, acquiring new purpose and meaning," said Tatge. To that end, the pieces are all rather extended in duration, highly structured in form, and contain more through-composed material than is usually found in the jazz piano trio context. The harmonic and rhythmic structure of the improvisational sections often shift from soloist to soloist, and there are rarely perfect recapitulations of thematic material. "My intention was to create larger pieces that could hold up structurally while maintaining a sense of openness and unpredictability, leaving enough space for interpretation and improvisational freedom," explained the composer. "Much of the material on this record is deeply indebted to the music and literature of late romanticism and early modernism; times of transition, great discoveries and linguistic breakdowns, but also times of desperate nostalgia towards a disappearing world."

The coming together of these different elements in the music on General Cargo is not always a smooth process. Sometimes it results in stark contrasts, perhaps in a sense of unresolved conflict; but ultimately, like any art with depth and significance, it can offer the creator, and the attentive, invested listener, a rewarding, enriching experience.

William Tatge, piano
Pablo Menares, bass
Nick Anderson, drums

William Tatge
Born in Umbria, Italy, of American parents, he lived in Todi and Florence until moving to New York City in 2008. Tatge is active in jazz, classical, new and improvised music. He has performed throughout Europe, South America, Japan, Canada and the U.S. in solo piano concerts, leading his groups or as a sideman.

Some of the venues and festivals he has played at include Musicus Concentus in Florence, Imprudences Festival in Paris, Wesleyan University, New York Winter Jazz Fest, New York Italian Institute, and Montreal Jazz Festival. He has also performs in New York clubs such as 55 Bar, Kitano, Smalls, Zinc Bar, The Owl Music Parlor, Korzo, Bowery Electric and Blue Note.

In 2009 Tatge released his first album as a leader, Mutable Enclosures, receiving excellent reviews in All About Jazz and Jazz Review. In 2012 he collaborated with multimedia artist Christine Meisner on Disquieting Nature, a multimedia project dealing with the landscape, history and music of the Mississippi Delta. The work was premiered live at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin during Documentary Forum 2. The film was then screened in many prestigious museums and film festivals around Europe and the U.S. and was favorably reviewed in the New York Times. In 2014 Tatge recorded the album Borderlands with his band Last Call featuring Stefano Tamborrino, Francesco Ponticelli and Dan Kinzelman. The album was released in March 2015 for the Auditorium Parco della Musica label. In 2016 a second collaborative work with Christine Meisner entitled The Freedom Of was premiered at the Taipei Art Biennial in Taiwan. A new trio record entitled General Cargo featuring Pablo Menares and Nick Anderson is planned for release in June 2018 with Brooklyn Underground Records.

Tatge holds summa cum laude degrees both in Classical Piano and Composition from the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, where he studied with Gabriella Barsotti, Rosario Mirigliano and Romano Pezzati. He studied jazz piano and improvisation with Stefano Bollani, Stefano Battaglia, Franco D’Andrea, Paolo Birro and Enrico Pieranunzi.

This album contains no booklet.