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The Mike Melito / Dino Losito Quartet: You're It!
by David A. Orthmann
Moderation is a virtue which pervades You're It!, a date co-led by drummer Mike Melito and pianist Dino Losito. It is a pleasure--and a relief—to hear a bop-influenced recording in which jazzmen (three in their middle years and one octogenarian) transcend influences and forge their own standards of performance. The record is impressive in part because of an absence of frenzied, inelegantly swinging tempos, individuals clamoring for attention, and the vociferous sound of competing egos. Rather than peddling artificial excitement ...
read moreSusie Meissner: I Wish I Knew
by Jack Bowers
I wish I knew why the talented Philadelphia-based singer Susie Meissner chose to open her salute to the Great American Songbook with the only tune on the album that doesn't really qualify: Curtis Lewis' “The Great City." It's not a bad song but Cole Porter or Johnny Mandel it ain't. On the bright side, Meissner recovers quickly on the fourth album under her name with a burnished rendition of the title theme, a memorable composition by the legendary Hollywood songwriting ...
read moreThe Mike Melito/Dino Losito Quartet: You're It!
by Pierre Giroux
The bold-face names on this release are drummer Mike Melito and pianist Dino Losito. However, the name of the performer treasure is buried in quasi-mice type on the bottom of the front cover, and that is tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna. He is the difference maker. The two principals are from upstate New York and have worked together for many years along with NYC bassist Neal Miner. Their interplay demonstrates a symbiotic relationship and consequently they have a sense ...
read moreSusie Meissner: I Wish I Knew
by C. Michael Bailey
Over the past decade and three previous recordings, Philadelphia-based vocalist Susie Meissner has crafted an intelligently conceived and thoughtfully paced survey of the Great American Songbook. Meissner's considerations of the standard jazz repertoire, in concert with pianist John Shaddy's sturdy arrangements and educated performance manner, have emerged, evolving from chaste and reverent beginnings, into rich and supple layerings of stylistic and technical outreach with each subsequent recording. Meissner's debut, I'll Remember April (Lydian Jazz, 2009), emerged as a ...
read moreSusie Meissner: Tea for Two
by C. Michael Bailey
Natural but determined evolution makes for well conceived and produced projects. Vocalist Susie Meissner has proved this statement as she progressed from her debut recording I'll Remember April (Lydian Jazz, 2009), through her sophomore effort, I'm Confessin' (Lydian Jazz, 2011) to the present Tea for Two. Using a well-worn repertoire, Meissner, mostly with the support of pianist John Shaddy and his regular rhythm section (bassist Lee Smith and drummer Dan Monaghan), has steadily moved from solid, if not predictable, arrangements ...
read moreLos Angeles Jazz Institute Festival - Woodchopper's Ball: Part 3-4
by Simon Pilbrow
Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival “Woodchoppers' Ball" Four Points by Sheraton at LAX Los Angeles, CA May 23-27, 2018 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Concert 8: The Herdsmen -Bobby Shew meets Larry McKenna Trumpeter Bobby Shew is a well- known alumnus of the mid-1960s Woody Herman Herd, and has had a high profile career in jazz as a trumpeter and educator. Tenor saxophonist Larry ...
read moreLarry McKenna and Bootsie Barnes Quintet: Inaugural Jazz Bridge River Cruise
by Victor L. Schermer
Larry McKenna-Bootsie Barnes Quintet The Jazz Bridge River Cruise Philadelphia, PA June 13, 2015 The Jazz Bridge, a jny: Philadelphia area organization whose meritorious mission is to assist local jazz and blues musicians and vocalists in times of crisis, sponsors numerous concerts, but this was their first cruise event, and they went all out, with an Elite private yacht leaving Penn's Landing in the early afternoon for a trip up and down the Delaware ...
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