Alex Lozupone is a NYC-based person who does things. They can't be bothered at the moment with fancy web development, so instead you get a 1990s-html page.
They spent 10 years doing full-time software development, but now spend their time doing audio engineering, making music happen, using cameras, thinking about wikipedia, and probably other things as well. Also worth mentioning is the on-going on-the-fly composition musical project Eighty-pound Pug, which never rehearses, and tries to have a different line-up every show. By now over 100 musicians have been a part of it. Alex books the shows, curates the musicians, usually runs sound, and does a full multi-track audio recording by hand of every show.
After all this, they still don't like to talk too much about themselves unprompted and will leave it at that.
performed archival work for Rachel Mason on the 2026 film My Brother's Killer
some blurbquotes
14. Steve Dalachinsky/Eighty Pound Pug: Leave the Door Open (Dog and Panda) (best rock pop electronic 2015 by Steve Holtje)
Downtown NYC jazz poet Steve Dalachinsky surprised us with this collaboration with guitarist/bassist Alex Lozupone's jazz-metal power trio (there's that phrase again: is it a trend?) Eighty Pound Pug, with tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito and drummer Paul Feitzinger. Dalachinsky's self-deprecating Brooklyn humor and existentialist beat musings, more usually accompanied by free jazz, prove highly compatible with this doomier sound keyed on Lozupone's electronically combined bass and guitar. Really, what better to accompany a 9/11 poem that starts, "I thought it was the end of the world/And then the end of the world happened again"?
Holographic Projection
Holograms
Marc Edwards & Sonos
Gravis 2013
Sonos Gravis could, in fact,
be the conceptual merger of the New York Art Quartet,
Black Sabbath and Last Exit, though despite signposts
reflecting noise and free jazz, this music has little
actual precedent.
I suppose some people would say the Sono Gravis disc isn't jazz, but Edwards's phenomenal drumming makes it jazz to me. The Sono Gravis group happened by accident; the bassist of Slipstream Time Travel was injured and couldn't make the gig (this is a concert recording), so electric guitarist Alex Lozupone split the guitar signal, treating it electronically and running that signal through a bass amp, to compensate; it's an effective work-around. The other two musicians are also electric guitarists, and the three weave a solid wall of sound that varies from free jazz fusion to psychedelia to noise as Edwards does his thing, also varying his styles -- he can switch from free playing to pounding grooves in the most natural way.
This seems to be a kind of compilation of live performances by "Eighty Pound Pug," a project run by guitarist Alex Rosborne (is that how you pronounce it?){sic}, which is probably a collection of young improvisational musicians. A total of 15 players participate, and there are 14 songs in total. Some songs fade out or cut off abruptly. Alex Rosborne participates in all the songs, and drummer Paul Feitzinger participates in 12 of them. The others each participate in about two songs. There are many saxophone and clarinet players, and 8 out of the 15 are woodwind players (conversely, there are no brass players). To be honest, the only player I know is Nonoko Yoshida (who participates in 2 songs), but everyone else is incredibly skilled, showcasing the depth of talent in the young improvisation scene in New York. Anyway, there are a lot of people whose instruments resonate really well, so it's pleasant to listen to, and most of them have good pitch and a solid grasp of the fundamentals, and they are also skilled in techniques such as harmonics, freaktones, multiphonics, circulars, growls, etc., which gives a sense of security (some might think that these things have nothing to do with improvisation, but I think they are important as one of the things that make it pleasant for the listener). ... I've listened to it many times, and each time I've discovered something new. I think it's an album that gives an overview of (part of?) the current New York improvisation scene. (translated from Japanese)
The late David Adler, described by The New Yorker as "perhaps the Monty Python scholar in America", once recounted a tale to me when David was at Shopsin's in NYC. He had gone with a vegetarian, who asked Ken Shopsin which dishes on the menu were vegetarian. "I'm sorry, we can't serve you, you'll have to leave" was the response. The next week, David showed up, and on the menu was a whole "vegetarian section". "Are you just fucking with me?" David asked. No, Shopsin explained; the question made him realize that people were going to have questions and that he didn't really want to have to deal with answering them.
Really, in a roundabout way, this is my way of explaining why this web page is here.
