|
"If you like listening
to warhorse jazz ballads and if you would have liked hearing a Stan Getz and a Joe
Pass doing them in duo, than this is the keeper album for you.
So how does a rhythm
and blues sax man handle the standard jazz fare? With tender loving care, that's how.
Marcellino's tone quality is as strikingly rich, round and smooth as what you get with
Getz. They also share an affinity for the upper registry of the tenor sax - the part
of that horn that is the most difficult to control and to play in perfect pitch.
Listening to these twelve
familiar ballads, one encounters in Marcellino a master virtuoso at work in terms of
his command of the instrument and his penchant for always delivering the sweet note.
His playing partner, Mark
Stefani, the son of noted jazz trombonist Roy Stefani, is no slouch either. Stefani
lists George Benson and Kenny Burrell as influences. I heard a little Barney Kessel
in his playing, too. His ability to lead a soloist around a room in a musical dance
that never misses a step or a beat is reminiscent of Kessel's backing of Julie London
on the classic LP, Julie is Her Name.
I can't remember when
I've been so entranced by an album. Five stars!"
- Wayne
Thompson/Jazzscene Magazine
|