Universities, professors and the N.O.’s music scene beckon talented Artists – extended

23rd July 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

“It’s a journey,” says pianist Oscar Rossignoli of Extended, a collaborative trio of adventuress, like-minded, 30-something musicians. “Every tune that we play we have the composition, we have a melody, there are things that we write down. We call the trio Extended because we try to go beyond that. The idea is how can we try to take this further to somewhere else and we don’t even know where that is. So all of that happens in the moment.” The trio, which performs two shows at Snug Harbor on Sunday, July 29, also includes Lafayette, Louisiana native and drummer Brad Webb and Washington D.C. born then Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania resident bassist Matt Booth. All three now call New Orleans home.

A native of Honduras, Rossignoli, who earned a bachelor’s degree at LSU, had only planned to stay in New Orleans one year to check out the musical happenings before furthering his education with his eye on the New England Conservatory of Music. “This is my fourth year in New Orleans and I’m having a great time,” declares Rossignoli, who, as his surname indicates, boasts an Italian heritage, which is very rare in Honduras, though his family has never researched its roots.

Besides digging this city’s music scene, in which he remains very active, the pianist says he was also impressed by the music faculty at the University of New Orleans (UNO). He has now completed his master’s degree in Jazz Studies at UNO and is preparing to perform a classical recital to earn a second master’s in Piano Performance.

“My dad was encouraging music in me since I was very little,” says Rossignoli, whose early training was in classical music. “He put me in music school when I was in the first grade. The interest in playing the piano came later. I actually wanted to play drums but the school’s focus was on classical. They said I had good coordination so they put me on piano,” he explains adding that he continues to play the piano like a drum set. “I have the Latin influence too so that’s a lot of rhythm and percussiveness.”

A taste of the pianist’s Honduran homeland as well his classical training is often evident in his performances as heard on Extended’s strong 2017 self-titled album. He dramatically opens Webb’s “What If” with perfect accompaniment by the drummer who happens to also have studied classical music at the Boston Conservatory of Music. The Latin tinge enters on bassist Booth’s “Neck and Neck.” All three contribute self-penned material to this disc of all original material with Rossignoli taking the first crack with his exciting opener, “Doce Lunas.” Covers and standards rarely enter an Extended performance. The trio goes into the studio just after its Snug Harbor date so it will be presenting the new material.

That Rossignoli also began playing in church at around 11 years old is also a familiar part of the musical path for so many New Orleans musicians and especially pianists. In 2003, his family moved from San Pedro Sula to Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, where he continued his academic studies. It wasn’t until he was about 15 that he got turned onto jazz. Meanwhile, he was exposed to various styles of music by his father.

“My dad used to like to – still, I think – challenge me. He would play something – any kind of music, rock, pop, Christian, anything that had something interesting piano-wise – and he would challenge me to learn it by ear. I liked that. So I wasn’t listening to jazz but I was exposed to all different kinds of music and I would try to figure out the piano part. Rossignoli’s memory is vivid on recalling his introduction to jazz, a style, particularly in New Orleans, for which he is best known. He’s recorded with such well-recognized New Orleans artists as bassist Jasen Weaver, percussionist Alexey Marti, and saxophonists Brad Walker and Brent Rose. The 2018 Jazz Fest found Rossignoli on five bandstands including a notable set with drummer Joe Dyson and naturally with the University of New Orleans band.

“I remember very clearly walking down the hallway at the conservatory and a group of my friends called me and said, ‘Hey, Oscar, come listen to this.’ And they were playing music by a Dominican pianist Michel Camilo – that’s Latin jazz. And I went crazy after that. Like what is that? I want to learn how to do that.”

Already “obsessed and dedicated” to learning jazz, Rossignoli made his first trip to the United States 2007 and auditioned at Berklee College of Music. He was accepted and given a scholarship though because his family was “financially limited,” it wasn’t close to being enough for him to be able to attend. He returned to Honduras and then some friends who had been students at LSU told him about the music director there, Dr. Willis Deloney, who also was a piano teacher who played both jazz and classical music. “He’s still teaching at LSU and he and a couple of other faculty members at LSU are really hidden gems as teachers and performers,” declares Rossignoli, who was given a scholarship but only for three-and-a-half years. Despite not speaking much English, the pianist dug in and earned his bachelor’s degree in that short time.

It was at LSU that Rossignoli met saxophonist Brad Walker who was the first person to really tell him about the New Orleans jazz scene. Walker is the link to all three of the guys that eventually formed Extended that played its first date, a last minute fill-in gig, at the Always Lounge.

“After that gig, we realized that we had good chemistry,” Rossignoli remembers.

“I like New Orleans, it feels like a second home and that happened very quickly,” the pianist declares.

This article originally published in the July 23, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.