Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Leslie Pintchik - We're Here To Listen

On this, her third studio recording, Leslie Pintchik continues to exhibit prodigious talents for composing and performing tasteful, well-crafted jazz sambas and ballads. Six of the ten tracks are Pintchik originals.  Again the quartet (Pintchik, piano; Scott Hardy, bass; Satoshi Takeishi, percussion and Mark Dodge, drums) demonstrates their cohesiveness and finely focused attentiveness to each other and the music. There are no missteps. Warm smooth jazz flows gracefully and precisely from these four instrumental talents. There is no attempt to break new ground or to push boundaries, but those were never Pintchik’s goals. For the purpose of making a point, take, for instance, an animal trainer: One free-thinking, mischievous seal cub is an attraction and a delight for the audience. A whole pod of mischievous animals is complete anarchy. In that way, it is not always appropriate to use innovation as the complete measure of a musician. For Pintchik et al, descriptors such as delicate, tasteful, subtle and precise are more apt than “progressive” or “visionary.” It’s a matter of classification, ranking and, of course, the illusive “enjoyment” and “appreciation” factors...MORE...