BIO
Step right up! Step right in… to Little Big Top, the debut album of a new jazz quartet led by Slovenian-American accordion legend Guy Klucevsek (kloo-SEH-vik) with innovative German-born, New York City based trumpeter/producer Volker Goetze. This compendium of fourteen Klucevsek creations, written over two decades, is arranged by Klucevsek, produced by Goetze, and filled with musical thrills and spills that surprise and delight.
Goetze and Klucevsek accidentally discovered their musical alchemy when the Snug Harbor Cultural Center commissioned Goetze to curate music for the ‘Little Amal Walks’ project as it passed through Staten Island, on September 30, 2022. Upon hearing the ensemble gathered for that occasion, Goetze knew he shouldn’t leave that gold in the vein, so he proposed to capture the magic on an album. Klucevsek agreed, Staten Island Arts provided funding, and the resulting album will be available for all to hear on November 8, 2024.
GUY KLUCEVSEK
Guy Klucevsek is one of the world’s most versatile and highly respected accordionists. A composer as well as accordion virtuoso, he has performed or recorded with the American Composers Orchestra, Laurie Anderson, Alan Bern, Brave Combo, Boston Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb, Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Relâche, and John Zorn, among many others. He has also appeared as a guest on the children’s tv show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and, along with a string quartet, accompanied soprano Renee Fleming at the memorial service for Senator John McCain. His accordion has also graced the orchestral film scores of A.R. Rahman (People Like Us) and John Williams for Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, Munich, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Adventures of Tin-Tin. In addition to his recordings, Klucevsek has composed the scores for dance-theater pieces by Karen Bamonte, Angela Caponigro, David Dorfman, Maureen Fleming, Hellmut Gottschild, Victoria Marks, Stuart Pimsler, Claire Porter, and Sandy Silva. He has also composed pieces for music-theater performances by the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Ping Chong, and Dan Hurlin.
As a soloist, composer, leader, and co-leader, Klucevsek is a co-founder of Accordion Tribe, and has released twenty-five recordings on the Starkland, Tzadik, Winter & Winter, Innova, Review, Intuition, CRI, Steinway and Sons, and XI record labels. His Starkland recording, “Transylvanian Software,” was cited by Stereo Review as a “Recording of Special Merit” and his 1987 project, Polka From the Fringe was named “Best Recordings of 1992” on WNYC’s New Sounds. Klucevsek’s music has been described as “endlessly inventive, witty, moody and heartbreakingly beautiful.” He is featured in the documentaries Behind the Bellows and Accordion Tribe: Music Travels.
VOLKER GOETZE
An award-winning German jazz trumpeter, composer, filmmaker, producer, and conceptualist based in New York City since 2002, Goetze specializes in bringing ancient folkloric cultures together with contemporary jazz soundscapes, creating narratives that support peace and cooperation. Initially gaining his trumpet degree with Markus Stockhausen in Cologne, Goetze completed his master’s degree at Aaron Copland School of Music in New York City. A visit to Senegal in 1996 indelibly changed his life when he struck up a musical partnership with a Senegalese Griot, Ablaye CIssoko, leading to a successful three-album, twelve-year run of producing, recording, and touring internationally as a duo. Goetze also directed an award-winning documentary film, GRIOT, that was reviewed as “Stunningly beautiful” by The Globe and Mail (UK), and became an official selection of film festivals in Amsterdam, Vancouver, Warsaw, Valladolid, and Thessaloniki.
In 2012 Goetze joined the Motéma roster with the release of Amanke Dionti, his second of three collaborations with Ablaye Cissoko. Following that he released a third album with Cissoko, two quintet albums, and a duo project with pianist Christian Torkewitz, before rejoining the Motéma roster in 2023 to release Flamenkora, his current touring group which features the esteemed Paris-based Senegalese Griot and Kora master Ali Boulo Santo Cissoko, and the Brazilian-born, Madrid-based, flamenco guitar ace, Roberto Monteiro and which unites West African Mande music with authentic Spanish flamenco guitar and American and Euro jazz trumpet to create a transglobal alliance unlike any other.. Flamenkora is selling out performances in Europe and is now developing their second album. Goetze and Ali Boulo Santo Cissoko also have a new duo release, Sargal, coming in 2025, which features, on three tracks, the highly respected Guadalupian percussionist Mino Cinelu (Miles Davis, Sting, Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder).
“Collaborating with Maestro Klucevsek has been a profound lesson in depth, humanity, sincerity, and honesty,” explains Goetze. “He is a true master, who has redefined the role of the accordion in jazz, dance, world, pop, rock, world and classical music.”
“It has been my great privilege to collaborate closely with Volker,” relates the accordionist, ”Wearing his producer hat, he took care of so many details to make this album possible, and he turned Casa Klucevsek into a first-class recording studio. As a musician, he amazes me with his earnest dedication to internalizing the language of so many musical traditions. He studied the intricacies of each Little Big Top composition closely and played such beautiful trumpet lines that organically complement each song. What a blessing was brought to both of us by Little Amal! I hope this album brings some joy to all who hear it.”
The quartet will regroup for an album release concert on November 6 at Klucevek’s long-time haunt, Roulette in Brooklyn, where he sold out his 75th Birthday concert in 2022. The concert will be live-streamed and eventually shared with the world via the artist’s and label’s social media channels as well.
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