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Frank Rosaly

Frank Rosaly is a Puerto Rican drummer, composer and sound designer living in Amsterdam. His musical approach stems from an exhaustive study of Jazz, classical percussion, Improvisation, as well as classical composition and post-classical techniques such as musique concrète, graphic notation and chance operation. This information is filtered through the prism of the Unknown, Metaphysics, ancient history, rituals and folklore of Latin America and the Caribbean. His journey in sound is a study, his musical contributions are offerings. He contributes much of his time beyond performing and composing to organizing musical events and co-founding Molk Factory, a record label and performance space, while touring regularly internationally.

After 15 years of musical exploration and development with over 50 musical projects in Chicago from 2001-2016, Frank moved to Amsterdam to further develop his musical approach in a new environment including the worlds of intermediality, sound installation, electronic music synthesis and Dutch musiek theater while also improvising and performing in creative music ensembles.

Past performance collaborations include Fennesz, Terrie Ex, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Andy Moor, Avreeayl Ra, David Daniell, Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, Bobby Bradford, Joan of Arc, Frode Gjerstad, Matana Roberts, Jeff Parker, Thurston Moore, Peter Brotzmann, Tony Malaby, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Coleman, Tony Conrad, Paul Flaherty, Marshall Allen, Louis Moholo, Nels Cline, Eric Boeren, Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, Walter Weirbos, White/Light, Doug McCombs, Michael Attias, Michael Moore, Tim Stine and Dave Rempis among many others.

As an improviser, Frank is currently active in many projects from Chicago, New York and in Europe. Some groups (some older, some newer) include Silverbones, ¡Todos De Pie!, Ruidoscuro, The Young Mothers, Natural Information Society, Eric Boeren's All Ellington, Duo with Colin Stetson, Duo with Thurston Moore, Health&Beauty, Ryley Walker, Bobby Bradford/Frode Gjerstad Quartet, Rob Mazurek’s Mandarin Movie, The Rempis Percussion Quartet, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten Quintet, Scorch Trio/Quartet, Nicole Mitchell Ice Crystal Quartet, Jeff Parker/Nels Cline Quartet, Fred Lonberg-Holm’s Valentine Trio, The Jeb Bishop Trio, Jason Adasievicz’s Rolldown, Anchor, Jaap Blonk's Retirement Overdue and others. Frank has been featured on over 150 recordings.

Other more current projects include work in musiek theater with OKAPI, Veenfabriek, Schweigman&, Ulrike Quade, Nineties Productions and Nicole Beutler Projects.

He is also involved in a solo project called Milkwork: a study in integration of electronically manipulated percussion instruments, improvising dense sound walls with controlled feedback, over-driven amplified drums. Frank blends soundscapes designed through analog electronic synthesis with extended techniques on unamplified drum set. Frank also studies cymbal hammering and instrument building, and utilizes these physical experiments within this project.

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5
Album Review

Keefe Jackson / Raoul van der Weide / Frank Rosaly: Live at de Tanker

Read "Live at de Tanker" reviewed by Mark Corroto


It is a fair conjecture to assume the axis of this recording is Frank Rosaly. The Puerto Rican drummer who caught jazz and improvised music listeners' attention during his years in Chicago now makes The Netherlands his home. Live At de Tanker connects Rosaly with his past, Chicagoan saxophonist Keefe Jackson and his present, Dutch bassist Raoul van der Weide. This live date from Amsterdam in 2022 is free, easy, and unconstrained. The six tracks flow one into ...

3
Album Review

Giuseppe Doronzo: Futuro Ancestrale

Read "Futuro Ancestrale" reviewed by Mark Corroto


A mesmerizing approach to an improvising trio yields Futuro Ancestrale, which was recorded during a performance at Amsterdam's Bimhuis in June of 2022. This trio brings together Italian baritone saxophonist Giuseppe Doronzo, guitarist Andy Moor and American drummer Frank Rosaly. Doronzo (Aterraterr and AVA Trio) and Rosaly (Rempis Percussion Quartet and ¡Todos de Pie!) have relocated to jny:Amsterdam and both can be heard in the small orchestra All Ellington. They have found the creative scene in Amsterdam to be very ...

9
Album Review

Ruth Goller: Skyllumina

Read "Skyllumina" reviewed by Chris May


The Italian-born, British-based bassist and composer Ruth Goller has been rattling jazz's cage since 2007, the year she joined Acoustic Ladyland. The band was in the vanguard of what became known as “jazz punk," although its sound was closer to metal than classic punk, and the lineup included tenor saxophonist Pete Wareham and drummer Sebastian Rochford. Four years later, Acoustic Ladyland disbanded and Goller and Wareham morphed into Melt Yourself Down, where they were joined by tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings ...

8
Album Review

Giuseppe Doronzo, Andy Moor, Frank Rosaly: Futuro Ancestrale

Read "Futuro Ancestrale" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Within the diversity of Amsterdam's global, multi-cultural environment, Italian saxophonist & composer Giuseppe Doronzo called on the talents of UK guitarist Andy Moor and US drummer Frank Rosaly. The trio project, Futuro Ancestrale, is a collection of avant-garde improvisations marked by folkloric influences and experimentation. Three of the five compositions rose out of a request from Bimhuis, the premier jazz club in the Netherlands, to assemble a group for the Red Light Jazz Festival. Further inspiration was drawn from 'Rayuela' ...

5
Album Review

Rempis Percussion Quartet: Harvesters

Read "Harvesters" reviewed by Mark Corroto


A couple quotes from the 1980s' film The Blues Brothers starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd seem appropriate for Harvesters, the double album by The Rempis Percussion Quartet. Elwood Blues: “It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses." Jake Blues: “Hit It...we're on a mission from God... we're getting the band back together." In all actuality, the Chicago residents, saxophonist Dave Rempis and ...

6
Album Review

Dave Rempis' Percussion Quartet: Sud Des Alpes

Read "Sud Des Alpes" reviewed by John Sharpe


Recorded live in Geneva during the group's 15th Anniversary tour, Sud Des Alpes is the tenth outing from Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis' Percussion Quartet. The band is one of his longest established outlets, boasting a consistent membership, with the drum stools occupied by Tim Daisy and Frank Rosaly since the first album in 2005, and just one bassist prior to current incumbent Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. More to the point, they continue to find new avenues to explore within their preferred ...

5
Album Review

Marta Warelis / Frank Rosaly / Aaron Lumley / John Dikeman: Sunday At De Ruimte

Read "Sunday At De Ruimte" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Is it a pilgrimage or just magnetism that draws improvising artists to Amsterdam? If you've read Kevin Whitehead's book New Dutch Swing (Billboard Books, 1998), you'll understand the open atmosphere and creative jazz scene which began there in the 1960s. It was a scene sown by America's New Thing in free jazz, but also one that developed its own unique language that incorporated Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Amsterdam was also the intersection between the UK scene of Derek Bailey ...

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Recording

Bay Area Meets Chicago For A New Quartet CD Release With Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa And Frank Rosaly - "Shipwreck 4"

Bay Area Meets Chicago For A New Quartet CD Release With Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa And Frank Rosaly - "Shipwreck 4"

Source: NoBusiness Records

Shipwreck 4 celebrates the first quartet meeting of jny: San Francisco Bay Area improvisers Darren Johnston, Aaron Bennett and Lisa Mezzacappa with jny: Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly. Johnston, a major figure in the Bay Area music scene, has nonetheless retained close ties to Chicago’s jazz community, and made the introductions here—the group assembled to play a set at a San Francisco Monday night music series, and decided right afterwards to book a recording session that weekend. Fueled by the combination ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Warren Wolf, Susan Alcorn & Frank Rosaly, Bonerama, and more

Jazz this week: Warren Wolf, Susan Alcorn & Frank Rosaly, Bonerama, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

While the winter weather may have taken a turn for the worse this week in St. Louis, the jazz and creative music touring activity here is heating up, with three (or four, depending on you count) visiting headliners in town over the next few days, plus an eclectic assortment of shows from local performers. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, January 20 Vibraphonist Warren Wolf and his band Wolfpack will begin a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at ...

182

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ann Hampton Callaway, Eric Person, Frank Catalano, Frank Rosaly, and More

Jazz This Week: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ann Hampton Callaway, Eric Person, Frank Catalano, Frank Rosaly, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

You might say this week's menu of jazz and creative music events in St. Louis has a sort of Noah's Ark vibe to it. The performances are coming in pairs, including two female vocalists, two versatile saxophonists, and two shows with an experimental/free improv bent.It all gets started on Thursday, when Chicago percussionist Frank Rosaly does a solo show of music from his new recording Milkwork at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Rosaly uses both acoustic and electric instruments, ...

188

Performance / Tour

Frank Rosaly to Play Thursday, October 1 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Frank Rosaly to Play Thursday, October 1 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Chicago drummer and composer Frank Rosaly is coming to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, October 1 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.Rosaly, who is touring to promote his forthcoming LP Milkwork, is a a frequent participant in Chicago's diverse improvised music scene, performing with groups such as Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten Quintet, the Jeff Parker/Nels Cline Quartet and Matana Robert's Chicago Project and playing with Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, Peter Brotzmann, Fred Lonberg-Holm and others.His performance in ...

Primary Instrument

Drums

Location

Amsterdam

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Harvesters

Aerophonic Records
2024

buy

Futuro Ancestrale

Clean Feed Records
2024

buy

Skyllumina

International Anthem Recording Company
2024

buy

Live at de Tanker

Kettle Hole Records
2024

buy

Sud Des Alpes

Aerophonic Records
2021

buy

Sunday At De Ruimte

Tractata Records
2021

buy

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