Articles

Patti Wicks Trio: Dedicated To...

By C. Michael Bailey

Pianist/singer Patti Wicks started out in New York City, moved to Florida and then each year or so since 2004 has rendezvoused with her Italian rhythm section of bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Guillino in Italy to record successful trio sessions supplemented with a horn, typically a saxophone. For 2005's Basic Feeling (Studiottanta-Fortuna), Wicks was joined by alto saxophonist Claudio Chiara, while The Italian Sessions (2007, Studiottanta-Fortuna) joined Wicks with tenor saxophonist Gianni Basso and, in 2008, she went ...

Patti Wicks Trio: It's A Good Day

By C. Michael Bailey

It's A Good Day is pianist/vocalist Patti Wicks' follow-up to her 2007 The Italian Sessions and her 2005 Basic Feeling. On both of these recordings, Wicks employs the Italian rhythm section of bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Guillino. If three times is a charm, then It's A Good Day has much to live up to.

Happily, this disc fares well in comparison to the two earlier releases. Wicks if found in very good voice, plunging her deep alto deeper ...

Patti Wicks Trio: The Italian Sessions

By C. Michael Bailey

Patti Wicks represents the historical apex of female jazz pianists/vocalists, with Nina Simone and Shirley Horn on one side and Patricia Barber and Dena DeRose on the other. Wicks has loads of talent and the unique ability to take the simplest cocktail jazz trifle and make it sound like Shakespeare. Her previous recordings, Room at the Top, Love Locked Out and Basic Feeling, all tastefully revealed a vast, understated talent worthy of ample acreage in the field of jazz vocals. ...

Patti Wicks/JazzGuests: Basic Feeling

By C. Michael Bailey

Patti Wicks has a single malt voice and a Basie brevity in her pianism. Slipping under the MaxJazz radar, Wicks traveled to Italy to record with a native rhythm section of bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Gullino. She was joined by the fine alto saxophonist Claudio Chiara, who provided tasty obbligato, comping, and solos to the swinging mainstream of the eight pieces on this release.

Wicks' previous recording, Love Locked Out, featured the pianist/vocalist in a trio ...

Patti Wicks: Love Locked Out

By Jack Bowers

The term “torch singer” isn’t heard much nowadays but it’s an apt description of Patti Wicks, who sings from the heart, not the ego—and plays great piano too. She’s at her best on this album of sad-eyed ballads that, in her words, “expresses the driving force of all humanity, the need and desire to love and be loved.” The moods of love vary from euphoria to heartbreak, and it is the latter emotion on which most of these songs are ...

Patti Wicks: Love Locked Out

By C. Michael Bailey

Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, Norah Jones. The piano chanteuse is swinging into vogue in a major way. A smart move that the newest series in the MAXJAZZ arsenal is the vocal- piano series, and even smarter that the label elected Patti Wicks for its inaugural outing. Patti Wicks demonstrated an acute musical aptitude at an early age, nurtured by her tenure at the Crane School of Music, where she studied classical piano and composition. There, she ...

The Patti Wicks Trio: Room at the Top

By Jack Bowers

If there were more “room at the top --for Jazz artists, that is--here's one pianist who'd be knocking loudly on that elusive door known as fame. Patti Wicks, who's several light""years away from household name status even in south Florida, where she lives and performs, not only plays piano with as much warmth, elegance and charm as most of her more celebrated peers, she sings almost as well as she plays.According to the liner notes, Wicks does have ...