Gardyn Jazz Orchestra: Vinyl Brews

Alto saxophonist Jon C. Gardner not only leads the piquant and powerful Philadelphia-based Gardyn Jazz Orchestra, he also wrote and arranged every song on Vinyl Brews, an in-concert performance recorded in December 2023 at Chris' Jazz Café in the City of Brotherly Love. There are half a dozen tunes in all, three of which are presented a second time as alternate takes. The album's rather unusual title denotes the fact that every one of Gardner's impressive charts, he writes, "has some correspondence to a craft brew" that inspired him "to create an audio counterpart."

While not specifically noted, that is more than likely a musical salute to one of the orchestra's leading supporters, Philly's Von C. Brewing Company. Thematic or not, Gardner's arrangements immediately grab and hold the listener's attention, courtesy of melodic charm, harmonic magnetism and rhythmic command that starts quickly with the feisty, Latin-centered curtain-raiser, "Dinero de Sangra," and continues through Jordan Graef's nimble and perceptive tenor sax solo, which wraps the concert's bluesy finale, "Meh...It Happens."

Sandwiched between are a quartet of sonic delights, opening with "By the Stoney Creek" and continuing through "The Golden OG," "Walking on Clouds" and "Zoomies!," each one a sturdy and luminous example of contemporary big-band jazz. "Stoney Creek," "Golden OG" and "Clouds" are later presented in alternate versions that are every inch as intense and engaging as the earlier readings. While the ensemble has plenty to say, Gardner leaves ample room amidst its byways for sharp and expansive solos by Graef and several others including fellow tenor Jud Aaron, trumpeters Michael Cruse and Marcell Bellinger, alto Jacob Kaplan, trombonist Seth Dowdell, pianist Jack Ozment, guitarist Dan Hanrahan and drummer Sean J. Kennedy (who teams with Ozment, Hanrahan and bassist Isaac Strader to keep the rhythmic temperature high).

Vinyl Brews, the second album recorded live by the Gardyn Jazz Orchestra, fairly screams for an encore, an event its audience would surely welcome and applaud, as big-band concerts are far less common today than ever before. And when such performances are as dynamic and inspiring as this one, they should be happily cherished and preserved forever in one's storehouse of pleasant memories.