Bobby Selvaggio to Release “Red Rhinoceros” on March 27
Red Rhinoceros is the sophomore release on Hidden Cinema Records from saxophonist and composer Bobby Selvaggio, and the thirteenth album of his career as a leader. The recording revives Selvaggio’s original octet Red Rhinoceros, featuring eight compositions written in the mid-to-late 1990s during his first sustained period of professional creative output.
“I created Red Rhinoceros about 25 years ago,” Selvaggio explains. “This project was my first serious group as a professional—one where I composed and arranged all the music.” Formed shortly after his return to Northeast Ohio from New York City, the octet reflected both the influence of the NYC jazz scene and Selvaggio’s growing interest in extended forms, global rhythms, and ensemble-driven composition.
Scored for five horns—alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, trumpet, and trombone—alongside guitar, electric bass, and drums, the group offered Selvaggio a broad orchestral palette. “Having five horns and a rhythm section let me compose without limitations,” he recalls. “And I was fortunate to have some specific musicians in town at the time, including a young Sean Jones. That kind of personnel meant I could write anything I wanted.”
The band quickly developed a strong identity through a long-running biweekly residency at Cleveland’s Bop Stop, a venue deeply intertwined with Selvaggio’s artistic life. “My memories of Red Rhinoceros are so connected to performing live at the Bop Stop that it only made sense to document this music in that setting,” he says. “I love the raw emotion and energy of recording live in front of a full house.”
Captured live at the Bop Stop decades after the music was first written, Red Rhinoceros presents these compositions not as archival artifacts, but as a living body of work—reshaped by time, experience, and community. The octet format allows for both orchestral depth and improvisational immediacy, with tightly constructed ensemble passages opening into elastic solo spaces.
Selvaggio’s work has long been praised for its balance of structure and freedom. All About Jazz has noted his “tight charts yet loose-fitting solos,” Jazz Weekly has highlighted the music’s “bold strokes,” and Paris-Move rated his work Indispensable, praising the “sumptuous settings for the soloists” and the intelligence of his ensemble writing. Like many musicians from Northeast Ohio, Selvaggio carries the imprint of his home region wherever he goes—an artistic through-line that remains central to his music.
With Red Rhinoceros, Bobby Selvaggio reconnects with the sound of his earliest compositional voice while allowing it to speak with present-day clarity. The result is neither nostalgic nor retrospective, but fully alive—rooted in history, energized by performance, and driven by collective expression.
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