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Quaternity

NA1060

Kazzrie Jaxen Quartet

Kazzrie Jaxen, piano
Charley Krachy, tenor sax
Don Messina, double bass
Bill Chattin, drums

1. All the Things You Are
2. She's Funny That Way
3. Beacon
4. All of Me
5. When You're Smiling
6. Lennie's Pennies
7. It's You or No One
8. What Is This Thing Called Love

Recorded live by Don Messina
Tracks 1-5: August 26, 2012 at the Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY; track 6: January 19, 2013 at The Cooperage, Honesdale, PA; track 7: December 12, 2009 at Kazzrie's studio, Callicoon, NY; track 8: March 19, 2011 at Trumpets Jazz Cafe, Montclair, NJ
 

REVIEWS

A hip quartet . . . lemme tell ya, I wanna see them in concert!  Artsy and atmospheric jazz at it's best.  I want more!
— George Harris, Jazz Weekly, January 2015

 

Each of their voices is beautiful: drums, bass, piano beating with melody, Kazzrie's singing soaring, Krachy's saxophone notes lodging in the heart.  Separately and together, so disciplined they become one pulsing, swinging sound that carries you into the dimension of the music's depth.  You take in this music note to note, ride, fly with it.  Explorations that are deep and accessible, and include the listener.  Swing for body and soul.  Virtuosity so exercised, that like all virtuosity, it seems effortless. The Kazzrie Jaxen Quartet's CD, Quaternity, has just been released.  On this recording Kazzrie's fingers dance, playing music in the upper reaches.  Don Messina's melodic intensity pulses.  Bill Chattin's drums are an ocean.  Charley Krachy's melody will steal your heart.  These four artists wear their greatness lightly.  Their voices will lift you.  When I hear them play, the world, as I know it, falls away.  It gives me hope that we are growing.  I step into the certainty that everything's really okay.
— Helena Clare Pittman, "When the Heart Soars," The River Reporter, October 2014

 

An outstanding album.  Pure unadulterated joy and swing.  Great rhythm section.  Knowledge of history and tradition is quite obvious.  The influence of Prez and Tristano is there without obscuring each player's individuality.  I love Kazzrie's Earl Hines on steroids approach, for example, on "All the Things You Are", and her Meade Lux Lewis boogie woogie approach on "Lennie's Pennies".  Overall the best album I have heard in years. 
— Norman Walsh, September 2014