Composer, musician,
teaching-artist
Iacovone
Rocco John
About Rocco
Rocco John Iacovone Composer/Musician/Teaching Artist
Born and bred in Greenwich Village, Rocco's work features exciting, original music with a twist of structure and a melodic base. In addition to composing, Rocco plays Alto and Soprano Saxophones and Piano. He holds a BA and Master’s degree in Composition from Hunter College, where he studied under the direct disciples of Nadia Boulanger, renowned classical composition teacher. Rocco also studied privately with Lee Konitz, and played with Sam Rivers at Studio Rivbea. This early training in divergent genres no doubt influenced his style of blurring the line between “in” and “out.”
Rocco's mission is to create, explore, educate and share adventurous, innovative Jazz. He likes to “encourage the audience to actively follow a thought as the musicians toss it around and wring it out.” This emphasizes the compositional style of his groups, whose works all include improvisation as a significant compositional device. Rocco enjoys balancing free and improvised music with structured passages and cutting edge improvisation within the work. Eschewing just one label as a "style", the works can include elements of classical and Jazz standards, or run the gamut to completely free compositions. In doing so, his music blurs the line between "inside "and "out" , or Uptown and Downtown Jazz. By performing and workshopping, he endeavors to educate the audiences in active listening, and expose them to new ways of thinking about musical styles; working to expand musical horizons and revealing the philosophy behind the music.
He writes original compositions which include improvisation as a significant compositional device, resulting in pieces which blend structure and freedom of artistic choice.
Rocco plays regularly at TOMI JAZZ in NYC for the past decade. Rocco has recorded many albums to date, all featuring his original compositions. Unseen Rain Records has released the majority of Rocco’s original compositions. He also records with a number of other bands on the label, and is the general manager of Silver Horn records, a subsidiary of Unseen Rain records.
Fans of the many iterations of The Rocco John Group (from a duo to a nonette) are intelligent, active participants in a musical journey. Because of Rocco’s interest and involvement in Jazz education as a teaching artist, the group is experienced in residencies, workshops and master classes. Each player is strong in their discipline and can speak about what they do. The Rocco John Group has run successful long-term residencies since 2000. Over the past few years the group has been growing as they add new key players to the group. The exploration of improvisational music; integrating the arts; and making the arts real and important to the public remains a constant in their work.
The Rocco John Group as been awarded multiple residency and Artistic grants by Chamber Music America. Currently, Rocco is involved with multiple music projects. He has presented residencies on Improvisation and composition in Messina, Italy and returned there to present an evening of his original works at The Filarmonica laudamo with The Rocco John Sicilian Quartet. He is planning to take his overseas residency work to other parts of Europe this year. In addition of multiple Albums recorded in the states, Rocco has three albums recorded in Sicily, on Silver Horn Records, a subsidiary of Unseen Rain Records.