Biography / Info

Zdenko Ivanušić, saxophonist and composer, was born in Zagreb in 1967. He graduated in saxophone performance at the Zagreb Academy of Music. He leads Donna Lee Saxophone Quartet and his own small bands, which are, besides jazz standards, focused on promoting his compositions and original arrangements. He has been arranging the repertoire of genuine modernists of jazz, such as G. Gershwin, C. Mingus, W. Shorter, B. Watson, S. Coleman and J. Zawinul. His tastes go even further, to Cuban nuance and humor. In compositions, polyrhythmic and polytonality is frequently employed, as well as emotional intensity and improvisational clarity.