At the start of his recording career, in 1961, bassist Pat Senatore played in Stan Kenton 's band, both on the road and in the studio. You'll find him on Adventures in Standards and Adventures in Jazz for Capitol and several live releases. In 1962, Pat joined Les Brown's band and played on TV shows. Then in early 1965, Herb Alpert, whose Tijuana Brass's albums had become massive hits, called. He was forming a band to tour the music. The Wrecking Crew had been doing much of the studio recording up until that point. Pat was with the group for five years and on the road worldwide. Club and restaurant dates in Los Angeles followed before he and his wife, Barbara, opened Pasquale’s jazz club in Malibu, California.
In the early 1980s, Pat joined arranger Weaver Copeland's Feather, a wonderful smooth-jazz, vocal-harmony group that's little known today (I'll post about them down the road). In the late 1980s, there were two wonderful albums recorded by the VIP Trio (Pat with Cedar Walton on piano and Billy Higgins on drums). Other albums followed.
In 2012, Pat began recording for Fresh Sound. There were two beauties—Ascensione (2012) and Inspirations (2015). In 2017, Pat and Barbara moved to Rome. Lucky guy. Last year, Pat recorded his latest album for Fresh Sound, Groovin' in Rome. He was joined by Dado Moroni (above) on piano and Roberto Gatto (below) on drums. The album is out now.
The trio is sensational. Even though too many of the songs are weary songbook standards, the trio brings enormous zeal and fresh life to each one of them. Dado is positively spectacular, Pat is in the pocket and Roberto adds sassy seasoning. It seems a new VIP Trio is on the rise in Rome.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Pat Senatore's Groovin' in Rome (Fresh Sound) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Randy Weston's Hi-Fly...
And here's Miles Davis' Pfrancing (No Blues)...
Bonus: Here's Pat with his bass and the Tijuana Brass listening back to Lollipops and Roses...
