By Esther Callens
Award winning multi-instrumentalist Chris Greco has an exciting new album available. Standards Vol. 1, offers a number of appetizing goodies that no jazz connoisseur will want to miss. Known for groundbreaking compositions, Greco gives his incredible take on “In Your Own Sweet Way”, “Mood Indigo”, “Solid” (this one is scorching!), “Yes and No” and five others. Approaching each piece as if it was his own, Greco certainly has the right stuff that fans can’t get enough of.
Track Listings: Well You Needn’t; Solid; You Don’t Know What Love Is; Bye-Ya; Softly As In A Morning Sunrise; Yes and No; Goodbye Porkpie Hat; Mood Indigo; In Your Own Sweet Way.
Album Personnel: Chris Greco (tenor, soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet); Tom McMorran (piano); Chris Colangelo (contrabass); Otis Hayes (drums).
A wonderfully diverse music collection is presented in Roads Less Traveled featuring Michael Lake with Gerry Pagano. The ingenuity behind Michael’s latest lies in the fact that he played all the instruments with the exception of the bass trombone (Pagano). He then mixed them superbly to whereas sometimes it sounds as if an entire section is playing all at once. Who would have thought that music of this caliber could be produce mainly with one musician and his alto trombone?
A little bit of Latin, electronic, jazz, Zydeco and soul is included on Roads Less Traveled. It opens with Charlie Parker’s classic “Yardbird Suite”. Sprinkled within are John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice”, Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” and a few others. Surprisingly, he incorporated a beautiful arrangement of “Amazing Grace” (John Newton). Michael Lake did take the Roads Less Travelled on this project. The results produced a rare gem of a collective.
Track Listing: Yardbird Suite; Moment’s Notice; The Two Lonely People; Painted Desert; The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines; Amazing Grace; Love on a Real Train; Darn That Dream; The Ecuadorian Two-Step; Georgia; A Night in Tunisia; My Ship; I Wuz Ga’zun at the Cajun.
Album Personnel: Michael lake (alto trombone, percussion, keyboards, sound design), Gerry Pagano (Bass trombone).
