Samo Salamon

SAMO ŠALAMON is "one of the most talented and interesting young guitarists and composers to emerge on today's jazz scene" (AllAboutJazz), being selected by the magazine Guitar Player as one of the hottest 10 new guitarists in the world. So far he has composed more than 280 compositions and recorded 31 albums as a leader for labels Clean Feed Records (Portugal), Fresh Sound New Talent (Spain), NotTwo Records (Poland), Splasch Records (Italy), Steeplechase Records (Denmark), Sanje Recordings (Slovenia), Klopotec (Slovenia) and Goga Records (Slovenia). So far he has played, cooperated, toured and recorded with many great international players like Howard Levy, Paul McCandless, John Hollenbeck, Mark Turner, Michel Godard, Drew Gress, Tony Malaby, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey, Tim Berne, Donny McCaslin, David Binney, Josh Roseman, Gerald Cleaver, John Hebert, Julian Arguelles, Dominique Pifarely, Carlo DeRosa, Tyshawn Sorey, Bruno Chevillon, Stefano Battaglia, Christian Lillinger, Pascal Niggenkemper, Matt Brewer, Loren Stillman, John O'Gallagher, Mikkel Ploug, Manu Codjia, Alex Machacek, Sabir Mateen, Szilard Mezei, Kariem Riggins, Luciano Biondini, Lester St. Louis, Jim Mullen, Dejan Terzic, Rudi Mahall, Fareed Haque, Hasse Poulsen, Kalle Kalima, Cenk Erdogan, Jacob Young, Christy Doran, Ronny Graupe, Susanna Risberg, Emanuele Parrini, Vasco Trilla, Marco Colonna, Don Falzone, Rudy Linka, Tim Brady, Paolino Dalla Porta, Ares Tavolazzi, Roberto Dani, Wilbert De Joode, Joris Teepe, Bruno Cesselli, Zlatko Kaucic, Salvatore Maiore, Kyle Gregory, Emanuele Cisi, Gianluca Petrella, Achille Succi, Steve Altenberg, Yayoi Ikawa, Kruno Levacic, Igor Lumpert, Andrea Allione, Axel Dörner, Uli Jennesen, Loris Bertot, Nicolas Muresu, Jan Rhoder, Danilo Gallo, Dejan Pecenko, Alex Deutsch, Luigi Mosso, Aya Shimura, Giorgio Pacorig, Vasko Atanasovski, Jure Pukl, Nino Mureskic, Boštjan Gombač, Igor Matkovic, Bojan Krhlanko and others.

In 1998 Salamon established his first group Ansasa Trio, which focused on mixing etno jazz and world music influences with improvisation. The trio released the album Arabian Picnic in 2002. The album was described "a fine example of how much jazz there is to hear out there as its future is now."[3]

In 2003 Salamon released his highly acclaimed debut album Ornethology with his new quartet (Achille Succi, Salvatore Maiore, Zlatko Kaucic). The quartet played all over Europe, including the jazz festivals Ljubljana, Skopje and Rome, and got fantastic reviews from Europe and from the USA, claiming that "this very likable recording bodes well for the young guitarist as a possible future innovator and a present force to be reckoned with."[4] Ornethology also got the highest rating (4 stars) in the Penguin Jazz Guide and was also selected by the Penguin Jazz Guide as one of the 1001 Best Albums in the history of jazz (Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums[5]).

The following year Salamon had his first bigger European tour with a new sextet featuring new players, such as David Binney (USA), Paolino Dalla Porta (Italy), Kyle Gregory (USA), Achille Succi (Italy) and Zlatko Kaucic (Slovenia). The band released the album Ela's Dream in April 2005 on the Italian label Splasc(h) Records. Critics especially recognized the new guitar sound explored since Ornethology by Salamon, possesing "more of a European aesthetic, coupled with a looser sense of freedom and elasticity with time that brings to mind Sonny Sharrock or James Blood Ulmer at his more adventurous."[6]

In 2004 and 2005 Salamon had an extremely productive period in New York City, producing two albums with some of New York's finest jazz musicians. Both albums were released for the Fresh Sound New Talent label - Samo Salamon Quartet: Two Hours[7] with Tony Malaby, Mark Helias and Tom Rainey and Samo Salamon NYC Quintet: Government Cheese[8] with David Binney, Josh Roseman, Mark Helias and Gerald Cleaver.

The following year Salamon formed a new international quartet featuring Achille Succi, Carlo DeRosa and Tyshawn Sorey. The group had a longer European tour and recorded a new CD Samo Salamon New Quartet: Kei's Secret, released in 2006 on Splasch Records.

In 2006 Salamon started his long-lasting musical relationship with the French tuba player Michel Godard and Italian drummer Roberto Dani. The trio released two albums in 2007 - Fall Memories with guest Luciano Biondini on accordion and Nano with guest soloist Julian Arguelles on tenor and soprano saxophone. The trio continued working until 2012, resulting in two more albums - Live! from 2009 and Eleven Stories from 2012.

While working with European musicians, Salamon continued also his work with US musicians, linking up in 2006 with the tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Matt Brewer, with whom he released in 2008 the album Mamasaal feat. Mark Turner with Aljoša Jerič on drums. In the end of 2006 Salamon had another European tour in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and Great Britain, which featured two stars from the jazz world, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey. The project was recorded in Switzerland and was released in 2011 by the label Sanje as Samo Salamon Trio feat. Drew Gress & Tom Rainey: Almost Almond.

In 2007 Salamon formed another new quartet with Donny McCaslin, John Hebert and Gerald Cleaver and toured all over Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and Belgium. The band recorded a live album Stretching Out, released by Samo Records in 2013.

Another important milestone appeared for Salamon in 2008 when he formed his Bassless Trio, a lineup which continuously worked until 2018 featuring Salamon on guitar and Roberto Dani on drums, while soloists exchanged for different projects (Paul McCandless, Achille Succi, Dominique Pifarely, Howard Levy). Although the first edition of the bassless trio in 2008 featured two jazz legends - saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Tom Rainey. In 2011, the first album Samo Salamon Bassless Trios: Duality (Samo Records, 2011) with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey, Achille Succi & Roberto Dani was released featuring a US and a European Bassless Trio. Other bassless trio records followed through the years - in 2015 Little River with Paul McCandless and Roberto Dani, in 2016 Unity with Julian Arguelles and John Hollenbeck, in 2018 Traveling Moving Breathing with Tony Malaby and Roberto Dani and in 2019 Swirling Blind Unstilled with Szilard Mezei and Jaka Berger.

Throughout this period Salamon also performed a lot in duo with the Italian piano virtuoso Stefano Battaglia, producing also two albums by the duo - windS in 2016 and Pure Magic in 2018. Battaglia and Salamon played primarily improvisations and some compositions having "the excitement of musicians working without a net"[9], resulting that for "both artists this is an excellent showcase for their talents and presents a marvellous and captivating experience of a live session with two players absolutely in tune with each other"[10].

In 2014 Salamon also did a bigger project with the Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra and Roberto Dani on drums, resulting in an album of chamber-like music infused with jazz - Orchestrology, "music that emerges as a truly unique meeting between classical music and jazz"[11]. Several other projects in this decade included a duo with the harmonica maestro Howard Levy, guitar trio with Mikkel Ploug and Manu Codjia, international sextet with Achille Succi, Julian Arguelles, Pascal Niggenkemper, Roberto Dani and Christian Lillinger as well as several improvised projects involving the violist Szilard Mezei.

In 2020 Salamon started a big pan-European guitar project Almost Alone featuring 36 jazz guitarists from 35 different European countries. The three volumes of »Almost Alone« will come out through the following year. Here are the guitarists featured on Almost Alone Vol. 1 that was released in November 2020 - Alex Machacek (Austria), Rafal Sarnecki (Poland), Cenk Erdogan (Turkey), Andre Fernandes (Portugal), Kalle Kalima (Finland), Jacob Young (Norway), Albert Vila (Spain), Dušan Jevtović (Serbia), Lorenzo Di Maio (Belgium), Philipp Schaufelberger (Switzerland) and Spiros Exaras (Greece).
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