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The intellectual intensity of classical music plus the passionate improvisation of jazz
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| Rating 4 STARS In the spirit of the Modern Jazz Quartet, this ensemble …combines great jazz improvisation with the structure and intimacy of a chamber ensemble in the classical tradition…Their panache shapes the 12 originals in a variety of styles. Vocalist Jackie Ryan offers three tunes and sings vocalese in the opener with Heckman on soprano. From ballads to a bossa nova and a jazzy reading of sections of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, this CD presents a stimulating tour d'horizon of the broad spectrum of possibilities in the jazz idiom. Irwin Block, Montreal Gazette The San Francisco Chamber Jazz Quartet has made waves in the San Francisco area and nationally. Their concerts and debut album, The Crossing Point, (Music Wizards, 2003) gained national attention: "The legendary Wilson is not just an outstanding pianist, she's also a witty entertainer." - Phil Elwood, San Francisco Examiner. Craquant! In the code of quartets, the second opus of San Francisco Chamber Jazz Quartet, co-founded by the saxophonist Steve Heckman and the pianist Gini "The Duchess" Wilson, proves to be intensely seductive. Charming without yielding to prettiness, melodic without slipping into insipidness, lyrical without melodrama; constantly on the razor’s edge with a series of original compositions (and two pieces by Mussorgsky) for which the saxophonist has found an interlocutor of his stature. Gini Wilson has a lightness of tone that creates a climate of complicity; bittersweet, irresistible and mischievous that does not forget depth. A discovery! Four Stars! Alex Dutilh Jazzman magazine, (Paris) |
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