![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Micheal-Pidicin-WEB-Flatten-BW-IMG_3506.jpg?resize=215%2C300&ssl=1\")
The intimate room Cachaca, a recent and welcomed addition to the Greenwich Village club scene, has become the place to catch promising young talent and lesser-known jazz veterans deserving of wider recognition. While you won\u2019t see the kind of big names here that regularly headline at the Blue Note just a couple of blocks away (with the exception of a recent appearance by Brazilian guitar great Toninho Horta), the level of musicianship at this 8th Street club is consistently high, often yielding pleasant surprises.<\/p>\n
Such was the case with this gig featuring the underrated Philadelphia-based tenor saxophonist Michael Pedicin Jr. A ubiquitous session man for decades on the Philly jazz and R&B scene, the 60-year-old saxophonist has released seven recordings as a leader since 1980, the most recent being Everything Starts Now (Jazz Hut), which he dedicated to his Philly tenor colleague, the late Michael Brecker. Accompanied by Mick Rossi on piano, Gerry Hemingway on drums, Kermit Driscoll on bass and the Philadelphia native and current Los Angeles resident Johnnie Valentino on guitar, Pedicin (pictured) dug in with his bold tenor tone, slashing attack and post-Coltrane flow of ideas on several tunes from his excellent latest offering.<\/p>\n
Aside from an evocative instrumental interpretation of Eric Bazilian\u2019s \u201cOne of Us\u201d (a monster hit in 1995 for pop singer Joan Osborne), all of the tunes on the new album and on this particular set at Cachaca were composed by Valentino, a former student of Pat Martino\u2019s whose challenging guitar-tenor unisons on tunes like the frantic, boppish \u201cLater,\u201d the loping swinger \u201cL.A. to Philly\u201d and the angular \u201cEverything Starts Now\u201d recall the tight chemistry between Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny on Brecker recordings like Tales From the Hudson and Time Is of the Essence.<\/p>\n
Driscoll, who in the past year has been on the comeback trail after a serious bout with Lyme disease, walked persuasively on upright throughout the taut set while pianist Rossi contributed probing, dissonant harmonies that tweaked the soloists in subversive ways. Rossi\u2019s renegade choices on his own solos tended toward the outer fringes of the harmonic structure, yet he also occasionally spun wonderfully melodic passages that recalled Keith Jarrett at his most lyrical. Hemingway, a reliable swinger and sensitive accompanist with brushes, fueled the set with dynamic energy, great ears and a brisk, interactive touch.<\/p>\n
Pedicin soloed expressively with a warm, inviting, Getz-ian tone on Valentino\u2019s slow, insinuating groover \u201cThis Way Out,\u201d and blew with authority through the full range of the horn on uptempo burners, connecting with that muscular Philly tenor lineage of Trane, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Odean Pope and Brecker. His nonchalant double-timing on Valentino\u2019s minor-key ballad \u201cAnother Day\u201d was a page right out of Brecker\u2019s book. Valentino, a gifted composer and arranger, also flaunted some prodigious technique throughout the set, alternately sweet picking and running daring intervallic lines reminiscent of his mentor Martino.<\/p>\n
Pedicin\u2019s potent quintet closed this invigorating set with a surprising bossa-nova twist on Coltrane\u2019s \u201cImpressions.\u201d Just another of the pleasant surprises one regularly encounters off the beaten path at Cachaca.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_post_nav in_same_term=”on” _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default”][\/et_pb_post_nav][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written By: Bill Milkowski for JazzTimes The intimate room Cachaca, a recent and welcomed addition to the Greenwich Village club scene, has become the place to catch promising young talent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelpedicin.com\/n\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}