Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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PREVITE, Bobby

(b 16 July '57, Niagara Falls NY) Drums, composer. Moved to New York '80, swiftly became part of the 'Downtown' scene with the likes of Wayne Horvitz, Bill Frisell, Elliott Sharp etc. A bustling, intensely musical drummer, his playing and composing is best represented by Bump The Renaissance '85 on sound aspects; Empty Suits and Music Of The Moscow Circus '90 (a commission for which Previte was singularly well adapted), both on Gramavision; Weather Clear, Track Fast '91, which provided a name for the septet which also plays on Too Close To The Pole '96, both on Enja; and Slay The Suitors '93 on Avant/DIW (by Bobby Previte's Empty Suits). Influenced by minimalism and film music but also steeped in the jazz tradition, Previte's music is both carefully ordered and wonderfully exuberant. There are also Hue And Cry '94 on Enja with Don Byron, Marty Erlich and others, and Dull Bang, Gushing Sound, Human Shriek '96 on Koch. Bobby Previte's Latin for Travelers, the quartet an eccentric 'sort of bar band', released My Man In Sydney '97 on Enja; Euclid's Nightmare '97 was a duo with John Zorn on Previte's own Depth of Field label.