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Jazz Articles about Tom Lawton
Michelle Lordi: Drive
by Victor L. Schermer
It's difficult to conceive how this wonderful album of restrained and subtly rendered ballads came to be called Drive, a term which leads the listener to expect a package of revved up swing or rock. However, you don't have to be a cryptologist to realize that it comes from the last track, “Drive," which contains the line “Who's gonna drive you home?" This sense of melancholy and hoped for love, like so much of the American Songbook, is the essence ...
Continue ReadingWorking the Rhythm Section: Tom Lawton, Lee Smith, and Dan Monaghan
by Victor L. Schermer
As Duke Ellington's standard goes, “It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Swing." The rhythm section (piano, bass, drums, with guitar and percussion sometimes added) is the core of the typical jazz ensemble. They set the frame for the leader, singer, and soloists and contribute their own solos as well. Even though they work primarily in the background, they can make or break the performance of the horn players or singer. In order to call ...
Continue ReadingMichelle Lordi: Michelle Lordi Sings
by Victor L. Schermer
Michelle Lordi sings in a way that is uncommon today: simple, straightforward, direct, and conveying the emotions in the way we all do: in our voice inflections. No gimmicks. This is a style that emerged in the swing and cool jazz eras, a strict adherence to the tune that virtually vanished as singers began to add embellishments, scat, and too often a hysterical emotionality where personality crowded out the melody. In particular, Lordi owes something special to Chet Baker and ...
Continue ReadingTom Lawton: Co-Creating the Music
by Victor L. Schermer
Tom Lawton is a highly respected, gifted, and creative jazz pianist who resides in Montgomery County, PA, and teaches and works actively as a free lance musician in the Philadelphia area, New York City, and internationally. He's had the distinct honor of being the jazz pianist the Philadelphia Orchestra often chooses for its social functions. For about ten years, Tom was the house pianist at the Philadelphia Four Seasons, often with the late, great bassist, Al Stauffer. ...
Continue ReadingTom Lawton: Retrospective/Debut
by John Kelman
When people talk about jazz meccas in the U.S., the cities that usually come up are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco; rarely does Philadelphia come up, which is surprising as there have been a number of great artists to emerge from that city including Pat Martino, Uri Caine and Mickey Roker. With a vibrant scene that includes such outstanding players as pianist Jim Ridl, trumpeter John Swana and pianist Orrin Evans, the Dreambox Media label has been ...
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