Sunday Music Muse Day - Mike Melito Quintet, Rich Thompson Trio.

This Sunday Music Muse Day features two selections picked up the the South Wedge Record Fair, last weekend.  Both CDs are from local musicians, talented drummers, and educators, who keep the beat and the pulsing, swinging rhythm of jazz alive and well in Rochester.  (Also, who are friends I've seen perform often.)  First up, we count it off with Mike Melito Quintet The Next Step,  as the liner notes by C. Andrew Hovan, Jazz journalist, states about this 2004 session, "As a purveyor of the hard bop genre, he has been consistently deserving of wider recognition, mixing classy precision with a well-tuned drum sound and burnished cymbal accents". In short, Mike is hard swinging drummer.  I'm humbled that Mike considers my father, Sam Woodyard, who was a drummer for Duke Ellington, as a major inspiration.  There are times I can hear echoes of Sam's playing in Mike's, keeping the jazz tradition moving forward.  Thanks, Mike.

Secondly, we have Rich Thompson Trio Generations.  Rich is another local treasure. Ric Bang, of Jazz Scan, wrote, "This album is a mix of originals from Thompson and Brown, along with some great old jazz standards, I Hear a Rhapsody, Keep Me in Mind, and I Thought About You. The trio's version of that latter Jimmy Van Heusen tune is superb; you won't be able to keep your fingers or feet still".  Solid playing all around, on the standards, but to enjoy Rich including a tune, Keep Me in Mind, by John Scofield, a favorite guitarist of mine (as he does with his other group Trio East).  I'll be looking to catch Rich at another local venue soon.  Until I have this wonderful CD to enjoy.

As James Brown would said, this was a day to "give the drummer some".  They deserve every and all accolades.  Keep swinging gentlemen, I'll be there tapping my feet to music.