Jazz Articles about Giacomo Gates

Giacomo Gates: The Revolution Will Be Jazz

by James Nadal
September 29, 2011

An omnipresent cloud persistently hangs over any tribute album--that the music will be compared to the original. Even though this might seem unfair, it's a fact. Knowing this, jazz vocalist Giacomo Gates dares to venture into the distinctive songbook of Gil Scott-Heron with The Revolution Will Be Jazz, and comes out the other side with a remarkable record. Gates cautiously handpicked the songs from Scott-Heron's repertoire, and wisely does not attempt an imitation or duplication, but performs ...

Giacomo Gates: An Unconventional Backstory

by Sean Dietrich
July 21, 2010

Giacomo Gates brings a rich, full-bodied timbre to the vocal jazz table. His pure vocalese approach has earned him lauds among critics, who hail him a champion artist in the modern jazz genre. He's been performing alongside the most recognized artists in the industry, using only his voice to produce a broad range of spectral color. Gates can be found singing melodies, lyrics, and even singing bass lines or flute solos.The vocalese medium has been expanding since Eddie ...

Giacomo Gates: Luminosity

by J Hunter
May 23, 2008

"Begin at the beginning," the King told the White Rabbit, “and go on until you come to the end. Then stop." Normally, that's good advice, except in the case of Luminosity, a sparkling CD/DVD package that proves Giacomo Gates is all about commitment--to his listeners, to his fellow musicians (past and present), and to jazz and its history.

The DVD features a four-song excerpt from Gates' 2005 appearance at San Francisco's legendary club Jazz at Pearl's. But following ...

Giacomo Gates: Luminosity

by George Kanzler
April 8, 2008

In the DVD interview and introductions to tunes on both discs, Giacomo Gates mentions a lot of the usual suspects as influences: Sinatra, Crosby, Jon Hendricks and Betty Carter. But names like Babs Gonzales, Jackie Paris, Cab Calloway and Lord Buckley suggest that Gates is in touch with a deeper tradition, that he likes the hustlers, entertainers and saloon singers as much as he does the hipsters, beats and artists. Maybe that's why Gates always sounds and looks like he's ...

Giacomo Gates

by Elliott Simon
August 12, 2005

Whether lending his smooth baritone to a ballad or practicing the art of vocalese, Giacomo Gates brings a sense of honesty to a song. So much so, that when he says straightfaced that the trombonist hasn't shown and then proceeds to fill the void with the best mouth trombone you ever want to hear, you believe him.

Gates' on and offstage persona reflects a genuineness borne of working the Alaskan pipeline and oil rigs off the shores of Lake Charles, ...

Giacomo Gates Sings at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

by Marcia Hillman
June 12, 2005

On Thursday night, April 28, Giacomo Gates went on stage at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola as part of a five night “After Hours" stint. His longtime guitarist Tony Lombardozzi and bassist Earl May were on hand to accompany him.

Giacomo Gates is a singer who has created a niche for himself. His performance is a combination of straight singing, scat singing and vocalese (where the singer does a lyric written to an instrumental solo that was mostly created by any ...

Giacomo Gates: Centerpiece

by Elliott Simon
October 2, 2004

A product of vocally imitating complex bop solos, vocalese grew into a respectable singular art form under its most famous practitioners, King Pleasure and Eddie Jefferson. On the swinging Centerpiece , Giacomo Gates uses these two giants as touchstones and makes the genre his own. In addition to his deep, rich tonal quality, Gates' impressive vocal arsenal includes whistling, scat and mood-inducing intros. He uses these talents to lead us through a delightfully varied program consisting of ballads, ...