DENNIS LICHTMAN and THE QUEENSBORO SIX: “JUST CROSS THE RIVER”

Slightly less than three years ago, the superbly gifted multi-instrumentalist / composer Dennis Lichtman assembled his Queensboro Six and gave a concert at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens.  Here is the first half, and here is the second.  The music was multi-colored and seriously rewarding: Dennis’ tribute to the true jazz borough, Queens County, New York, home of so many jazz figures — from Clarence Williams and Basie to Louis and Dizzy, Milt Hinton and James P. Johnson — and currently home to so many more of the musicians we love.  Dennis assembled his Queensboro Six for a truly delightful new CD, its title above, its theme song below:

This disc is a model of how to do it — musicians and composers take note.  For one thing, the band has an immense rhythmic and melodic energy, but the pieces are compact — sometimes explosions of twenty-first century Hot, sometimes evocative mood pieces, but none of them sounding just like the preceding track.  Dennis is a real composer, so that even an exploration of Rhythm changes sounds lively and fresh.  His arrangements also make for refreshing variety, so that one doesn’t hear him as the featured soloist to the exclusion of the other luminaries, and the performances are multi-textured, harking back to the later Buck Clayton, to Charlie Shavers’ work for the John Kirby Sextet, Raymond Scott, to sensitive elegies and musings that hint at the work of Sidney Bechet and Django Reinhardt.  You’ll also notice compositions by and associated with those Queens denizens Louis, Fats, Clarence Williams.  As that borough boasts some of the finest ethnic restaurants, this disc offers one savory musical dish after another.   As they used to say, “For listening and dancing”!  Peter Karl is responsible for the lovely recorded sound and Ricky Riccardi for the fine liner notes.

Here are some details.  The musicians are Dennis, clarinet; Dalton Ridenhour, piano; Gordon Au, trumpet; J. Walter Hawkes, trombone; Rob Garcia, drums; Nathan Peck, string bass — with guest appearances by Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, vocal , guitar; Mazz Swift, violin, vocal; Terry Wilson, vocal; Nick Russo, guitar.  If you know even a few of those performers, you will want this disc, because they seem especially inspired by Dennis’ compositions, arrangements, and playing.  And no one imitates any of the Ancestors.

The songs are 7 EXPRESS / FOR BIX / MIDNIGHT AT THE PIERS / ROAD STREET COURT PLACE AVENUE DRIVE / SOMEDAY YOU’LL BE SORRY / WALTZ FOR CAMILA / L.I.C. STRUT / JUST CROSS THE RIVER FROM QUEENS / BLUE TURNING GREY OVER YOU / 23rd BETWEEN 23rd AND 23rd / SQUEEZE ME / THE POWER OF NOT THEN / I’D REMEMBER HAVING MET YOU / CAKE WALKING BABIES FROM HOME.

You may order a download or a disc here at very reasonable prices.

But perhaps more important than the disc itself, on August 1, the Queensboro Six will play two sets at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola.  Tickets and details here.  Get yours today:

May your happiness increase!

SYCHRONIZED SWINGING: PAOLO ALDERIGHI / STEPHANIE TRICK, “BROADWAY AND MORE”

Listen, first, to Paolo and Stephanie on two pianos, playing Irving Berlin:

I’ve been at many of their live performances and I think this is the first CD to full capture the scope of what they offer so generously.  Perhaps some of it has to do with their being able to record on two pianos: they are a devoted couple for sure, but the freedom, never verbalized on stage, to have the whole bench and keyboard to oneself, could be liberating.  I won’t ask.  Even in 2018, some facts should stay private.

When I’ve seen them perform, audiences are on their feet at the end of the concert — and it’s not because they want to be the first out to their cars.  Rather, Paolo and Stephanie are not only wonderful pianists and great players, but they are old-fashioned performers, dazzling us every time.

The notion of “performers” may get under the skin of some fans, who insist that their beloved artists are akin to Plato’s mad creators, letting the made-up-right-this-moment transformative energy flow through them like electricity.  What those severe elders don’t understand is that everyone who plays or sings rehearses — so the “jam session” “impromptu” glories we revel in are, in fact, the results of years of practice.  So what Paolo and Stephanie create is polished: let’s say their spiritual model is Dick Hyman, not George Zack (you could look him up).  And what they have to play is plenty.

If you know Paolo and Stephanie, you know that initially they had very different ways of approaching the piano: Paolo’s hero is Erroll Garner; Stephanie comes straight from James P. Johnson and his not-brother Pete.  And as they’ve grown and played together, their influences have melded in the nicest ways, but each of them has retained a deep individuality.  Thus it’s not two artists trying to sound like each other, but working lovingly to complement each other.

The result is delightfully varied: each performance is, without artifice, a whole history of jazz piano, from Joplin to the present moment, seamless and convincing.  Since Paolo and Stephanie are world-travelers and multi-lingual, this ease of movement makes each performance a small yet deeply felt travelogue.  We’re invited to come along, and the cabin is first-class.

The repertoire on this new disc is wide-ranging, but always deeply melodic, and the melodic thread is never lost or abandoned even in the most elaborately glittering improvisations.  An analytical jazz fan will find much to marvel at; your relative who protests that (s)he “hates jazz” will also.  Here’s the tune list:

1. Call Me Madam Medley (Berlin) – 6:30
2. Marie (Berlin) – 4:55
3. Make Believe (Kern, Hammerstein II) – 5:01
4. The Lambeth Walk (Gay, Furber) – 3:49
5. Torna a Surriento / Anema e Core (Curtis, Curtis / D’Esposito, Manlio) – 6:44
6. If I Had a Million Dollars (Malneck, Mercer) – 4:04
7. Heartaches (Hoffman, Klenner) – 3:29
8. The Music Man Medley (Willson) – 7:07
9. An Affair to Remember (Warren, Adamson, McCarey) – 4:50
10. West Side Story Medley (Bernstein, Sondheim) – 7:28
11. Penny Lane (McCartney, Lennon) – 4:57
12. Mr. Sandman (Ballard) – 3:59

If you’re not humming one melody or another, reading those words, you need this CD even more.  And for those who know and love these songs, BROADWAY AND MORE is a treat.

Another helping:

Here you can hear other samples from BROADWAY AND MORE, purchase a disc or download the music.

May your happiness increase!