Jazz Articles about Jen Krupa

About Jen Krupa

Album Review

Baritone saxophonist Leigh Pilzer is a member of A-list orchestras like the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, The DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra, among others. She is also an exciting improviser and bandleader in her own right. Her third release as a leader, the captivating Keep Holding On, is with her organ trio and features guest brass players on five tracks. It consists entirely of original material, most composed by Pilzer herself, and is firmly rooted in the ...

Album Review

Leigh Pilzer: Keep Holding On

Read "Keep Holding On" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 19, 2026

There are times when the friends you make can make a world of difference. That is certainly true of baritone saxophonist Leigh Pilzer's recording, Keep Holding On, whose trio format--admirable in its own way--is considerably enriched by a quartet of friends and colleagues whose expertise helps brighten even further five of the album's 11 already-impressive numbers. The first of those guests is trombonist Jen Krupa, like Pilzer a former member of the marvelous all- female DIVA Jazz Orchestra, ...

Album Review

Leigh Pilzer: Beatin' the Odds

Read "Beatin' the Odds" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 19, 2024

Beatin' the Odds. To baritone saxophonist Leigh Pilzer, that is far more than a catchphrase: it is a grim yet ultimately happy reality. In 2017, Pilzer was diagnosed with cancer. After extensive treatments, her odds of surviving more than five years were reckoned as around thirty percent. But six years have gone by, and not only has Pilzer beaten the odds, she is cancer-free, back in the saddle and performing again. And not only performing but writing ...

Album Review

The Scott Silbert Big Band: Jump Children

Read "Jump Children" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 31, 2022

The best music, in jazz or any other genre, is and should be timeless. To prove the point, the Scott Silbert Big Band celebrates the songs of a bygone era on its debut album, Jump Children, refreshing a number of memorable themes from the '30s, '40s and '50s and underscoring their relevance in an ultra-modern twenty-first century environment. His goal, Silbert writes, was “to represent the fantastic musicianship of the artists [who] originally performed these works," venerated masters such as ...