Tony DePaolis

Tony DePaolis is a bassist and composer who came up in the Pittsburgh jazz scene before settling in Brooklyn. He began his professional career alongside drummer Roger Humphries, a veteran of Horace Silver's band, and spent much of the late 2000s working with trumpeter Sean Jones, with additional stints supporting vocalist Sandy Staley and guitarist Jimmy Ponder. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, he took part in the Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead residency in 2008. In 2009 he released his debut, The Contemporary Dynamic, an ambitious double album featuring more than thirty-six musicians and conceived as a portrait of an average week in the life of a Pittsburgh jazz musician, ranging across straight-ahead jazz, tango, Brazilian pop, and R&B.