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Lee Smith: My Kind of Blues
by Victor L. Schermer
After nearly 40 years as a working bassist, Lee Smith has become a jny: Philadelphia legend, playing gig after gig with just about everyone, including the Delphonics, Mongo Santamaria, Dizzy Gillespie, Roland Kirk, Lionel Hampton, and a host of Philadelphians, including Larry McKenna, Tom Lawton, Bootsie Barnes, Odean Pope, and the list goes on and on. In 2012, he released his first album as leader, composer, and arranger, Sittin' on a Secret (Vectordisc, 2012). In a review of that album, ...
read moreRon Thomas / John Swana / Joe Mullen: Elysium
by Dan McClenaghan
The sound of Elysium is, in a word, otherworldly. Then throw in the electro-industrial tinge and cold liquid submersion resonance--like the noise of a high tech blacksmith shop on a distant planet with a dense atmosphere and heavier than Earth gravity like Neptune--music of an alien culture, or songs played for cryogenically suspended astronauts slumbering their way across vast expanses of space.Such are the sounds created by keyboardist Ron Thomas, trumpeter John Swana and drummer Joe Mullen.
read moreRon Thomas Quartet: The House of Counted Days
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Ron Thomas leads a quartet with a trumpeter (John Swana) out front on The House of Counted Days, and two things jump out: an obvious Miles Davis influence, and some striking originality.The opener, “Fancy of Fate," pushes you off balance. An oddly percussive workout, jaunty, ebullient, crisp; and the frame of reference is anybody's guess. Bassist Tony Marino works that big fat rubber band thing (four of them) on upright--muscular, with gorgeous sustaining power--while trumpeter Swana bites ...
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