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Pianist
Jacob Sacks has left the area to study music in New York, but he
still occasionally comes home. During one such visit last year he unveiled
his quintet at a marvelous concert at Kerrytown Concert House. Soon after,
the 
musicians
went into a studio and the result is his debut CD, Region
(Unleaded Records UR 5001,
718-625-1986). The young pianist and composer is joined here by the two
of the finest young saxophone players in Michigan, Andrew Bishop and John
Wojciechowski, with bassist Tom Flood and drummer Danny Weiss. This is
an ambitious and mature first outing. Sacks wrote all the compositions
and he covers a wide variety of moods and styles, all of them informed
by a post-bop modernist aesthetic. The structures are complex, but the
band is always swinging. Flood's understated but sure-footed bass playing
is put to good use here, as it is often used to set up the ambiance of
a tune. Sacks stresses the more introspective aspects of his own playing.
Those who are used to hearing him in less controlled settings might even
be surprised. The saxophones are outstanding throughout, building solos
rather than just running through them. Bishop and Wojciechowski have complementary
personal styles and this is particularly nice to hear on tunes such as
"Two," where both play on soprano. This is undoubtedly one of the finest
recordings of the year.
Drummer Pete Siers
is well known to Ann Arbor audiences as the man who can play well in all
styles of jazz. Each Monday night he drives the Bird of 
Paradise
Big Band, but can also be heard with the house piano trio, with the Latin
jazz group Los Gatos, or with his own free jazz quartet. He has appeared
on a number of recordings led by others, and now we have before us his
debut as a leader, Those Who Choose to Swing (BOPO
Records PST 111). For this trio date Siers chose his close companion
Paul Keller as the bassist and Johnny O'Neal as pianist. All three have
played together many times before and the sympathetic vibes are well evident
here. Keller and Siers can swing like one in their sleep, and riding over
this propulsion is O'Neal, who has a ball with standards and one nice
original, entitled appropriately "Sweet Pete." It is good to hear O'Neal
again on a straight-ahead instrumental jazz date. He has a lovely touch
on ballads and unleashes his formidable technique on the faster tunes.
This is an unpretentious, classic set of high-quality mainstream modern
jazz.
Singer Sheila Landis
has just released a vigorous collection of standards and original compositions
under the title Where Jazz Lives (SheLan 1013, phone: 
248-651-9477).
On most of the cuts the impressive guitar of Rick Matle accompanies her;
the rest of the musicians change from track to track. The goal of this
recording is to feature the singer in a variety of settings, trying on
different musical styles. How one reacts to this depends on one's personal
taste. I personally prefer her straight, swinging renditions of songs
such as My Shining Hour, where she works well with the great bassist Kurt
Krahnke and the lovely piano of Cliff Monear, to the lounge rendition
of "Girl from Ipanema," complete with horrid synthesizer background. Landis
can sing very well, and her many talents are well demonstrated here. She
and Matle have a close rapport and it would be nice to hear them as a
duet on a future recording.
