Tony Vacca

Tony Vacca: Three Point Landing

by Jack Bowers
October 2, 2005

I first heard saxophonist Tony Vacca almost fifteen years ago with Rob Parton's JazzTech Big Band. He impressed me then, and has done so again with Three Point Landing, whose title denotes Vacca's journey from Chicago through New Orleans to Phoenix, Arizona, where he now lives, performs and teaches.

The album was obviously recorded during Vacca's brief stay in New Orleans, as his rhythm section consists of three of that recently devastated city's finest musicians, while trumpeter Irvin Mayfield (of ...

Tony Vacca: Three Point Landing

by David A. Orthmann
February 1, 2002

A welcome change from the all-too-familiar musical extremes of pop-influenced sonic assaults and empty virtuosity, saxophonist/flutist Tony Vacca’sThree Point Landingis one of those rare recordings that is both accessible and invigorating. The band plays as if they’re in front of a knowing, responsive audience, instead of the impersonal confines of a recording studio. Making no claim to innovation, the music’s roots are in bebop but incorporate a number of other influences. Interspersed among three standards, the leader’s six original compositions ...