Five Play - Five Play (Live from the Firehouse Stage) (Live)

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2019
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 67:29
Size: 156,2 MB
Art: Front

(5:26)  1. T-Bone Special
(6:04)  2. Samba de Sorvete
(6:37)  3. Just Squeeze Me
(5:50)  4. Uneven Pieces
(7:20)  5. The Pilot
(7:05)  6. Nancy with the Laughing Face
(7:57)  7. Circles
(5:47)  8. I Can't Give You Anything but Love
(7:49)  9. Unexpected
(7:29) 10. The Time Being

The latest release from FIVE PLAY features Sherrie Maricle on drums, Janelle Reichman on tenor sax and clarinet, Jami Dauber on trumpet, Tomoko Ohno on piano, and Noriko Ueda on bass. The inspiration to record FIVE PLAY LIVE from The Firehouse Stage was sparked by the joy and success of The DIVA Jazz Orchestra’s 25th Anniversary Project. DIVA is FIVE PLAY’s “Mothership,” and both bands are powered by the same deep sense of tradition and swing, energized and elevated by original compositions and arrangements, and driven by exciting and unique players. My enthusiasm for creating and performing music written exclusively by band members for band members has carried over from jazz orchestra to jazz quintet. All FIVE PLAY members have contributed original compositions and arrangements to this recording. As with our DIVA recording, there is something very special about writing music for your friends. Janelle, Jami, Tomoko, Noriko, and I have been playing together for 13+ years. Our longevity has allowed us to develop many deep, unspoken pathways of musical communication and insight. As composers and arrangers, it has given us an inherent understanding of each other’s musical preferences and strengths. It was also simply time for us to create and share our current quintet passions. Our previous release was in 2015, Live at The Deer Head Inn. As with all jazz souls, we are always morphing into new versions of ourselves. Sharing our various incarnations is a joyful, exhilarating, and sometimes scary part of our creative mission. I grew up in Endicott, New York. It’s near the middle of New York State on the southern border near PA. The Firehouse Stage is in a nearby town called Johnson City, New York. From the moment it opened, I have been a fan of this extraordinary performance space. When I was thinking about where to record FIVE PLAY, and given the fact that I much prefer to record live rather than in the studio, I immediately thought of home. My band members and I have many warm and wonderful fans, friends, and family in the area, and when presenting a program of all new music, it’s heartening to do so surrounded by those who support and encourage your success. Each of these 10 pieces of music is a unique creation from us for our listeners. From my penchant for hard-swinging shuffles like T-Bone Special, barn burners like The Time Being, Basie- inspired arrangements like I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, to Tomoko’s Brazilian-fired Samba De Sorvete and Bop masterpiece The Pilot, Noriko’s contemporary opus Uneven Pieces and bass- centric arrangement of Nancy with the Laughing Face, Janelle’s lyrical waltz Circles and captivating ballad Unexpected, and Jami’s nod to Cootie Williams on Just Squeeze Me, we hope each gets your feet tapping and lips smiling. https://divajazz.com/product/five-play-live-from-the-firehouse-stage/

Personnel:  Sherrie Maricle on drums, Janelle Reichman on tenor sax and clarinet, Jami Dauber on trumpet, Tomoko Ohno on piano, and Noriko Ueda on bass

Five Play (Live from the Firehouse Stage)

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Five Play - On The Brink

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:47
Size: 152,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:29)  1. I'll Get By
(6:07)  2. I've Got The World On A String
(5:24)  3. How Insensitive
(5:03)  4. On The Brink
(7:22)  5. Medley: I'm A Fool To Want You/ In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning/This Love
(4:30)  6. Scatterbrain
(4:24)  7. Shifting Down
(5:04)  8. Like Someone In Love
(2:50)  9. Some Nerve
(5:37) 10. Someone Nice Like You
(4:24) 11. Momma Flossie
(6:16) 12. How Deep Is The Ocean
(5:11) 13. I Believe In You

Drummer Sherrie Maricle from the Diva Big Band takes four of her bandmates to form this all female quintet of mainstream jazz players. Karolina Strassmayer and Laura Dreyer both play alto sax and flute, Canadian pianist Lorraine Desmarais and Australian acoustic bassist Nicki Parrott help Maricle in the rhythm section. Though the woodwind players are quite lyrical, playing in unison most of the time, it's the sparkling bottom end tones and witty asides of Parrott and the exquisite pianistics of Desmarias that keep the music flowing. The bandmembers wrote none of the 13 selections, but there are homages to the Al Cohn-Zoot Sims tenor tandem, Frank Sinatra, many American popular songwriters, and contemporary jazzmen Jerry Bergonzi and John Scofield, with arrangements by John McNeil. At their best in uptempo hard swinging modes, Strassmayer and Dreyer frequently sound like twin Phil Woods bop towers, for instance the furious "I'll Get By," the outstanding Bergonzi written-up-and-gone title track, the Latin-ish "Scatterbrain," a luscious take on Kenny Dorham's easy swinging "Shifting Down," and the waltzy 6/8 version of the standard "Like Someone in Love." Two flutes appear on the sleepwalk slow "Someone Nice Like You." Alto and flute contrast on the bossa "How Insensitive" and a Sinatra medley of "I'm a Fool to Want You/Wee Small Hours/This Love of Mine." Desmarais' glistening light shines on her delicate features for a bluesy "I've Got the World on a String," where Parrott tears up a solo and states the melody line with the others laying out. The pianist is also particularly strong at improvising on the changes of "On the Brink," her solo is positively captivating, setting up Maricle's drum breaks quite well. Though a steady timekeeper, the drummer does get to punch in with traded fours, solo bars and phrases, but gives the spotlight to her bandmates for the majority of this recording. On Scofield's "Some Nerve" given a too brief 2:28, Maricle plays the N.O. shuffle cum calypso rhythm to perfection and delight. "Momma Flossie" is the Cohn-Sims flagwaver, and a perfect example of what happens throughout, that Strassmayer and Dreyer are reluctant to step on each other's toes and really wail. It's also unfortunate that the producers have not seen fit to identify which solos are Strassmayer's or Dreyer's. This lack of variation and sameness in that regard renders their playing relatively uninteresting; they're very fine musicians, but not distinct. Hopefully they'll get another shot to mix it up a bit. ~ Michael G.Nastos https://www.allmusic.com/album/on-the-brink-mw0000671740

Personnel:  Sherrie Maricle: Leader, Drums;  Karoline Strassmayer: Alto Saxophone, Flute;  Laura Dreyer: Alto Saxophone, Flute;  Lorraine Desmarais: Piano;  Nicki Parrott: Bass

On The Brink

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Five Play - Five Play Plus

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:20
Size: 130,1 MB
Art: Front

(4:33)  1. Theme From Mr. Broadway
(5:43)  2. That Old Feeling
(5:13)  3. Funk In A Deep Freeze
(8:17)  4. Crazy, He Calls Me
(6:12)  5. If I Only Had A Brain
(5:56)  6. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
(4:50)  7. Pure Imagination
(5:38)  8. Bud Powell
(4:26)  9. In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
(5:29) 10. On The Good Ship Lollipop

Here's another bright and swinging album by drummer Sherrie Maricle's able quintet, Five Play (a.k.a. DIVA Lite), encumbered at times by questionable mixing but as a whole quite engaging. For the group's second recording on Arbors, Maricle has assembled an international troupe of all-stars from the larger ensemble alto saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer hails from Austria, tenor Anat Cohen from Israel, bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer Tomoko Ohno from Japan and set aside room for guest shots by two members of DIVA's first-class trumpet section, Jami Dauber and Barbara Laronga, on five selections to lend color and variety to the two-reed front line (and to lend the album its title).  Every member of the group is impressive Cohen, Strassmayer and Ohno especially so on their showcase numbers, Cohen (clarinet) on "That Old Feeling, Strassmayer on "Crazy, He Calls Me, Ohno on the Arlen/Harburg classic from The Wizard of Oz, "If I Only Had a Brain. Dauber frames tasteful solos on Hank Mobley's "Funk in Deep Freeze, Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley's "Pure Imagination, and (muted) Richard Whiting/Sidney Clare's show-stopper for Shirley Temple, "On the Good Ship Lollipop. 

Laronga does the same on Chick Corea's boppish "Bud Powell and the standard "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (on which Ueda carries the melody). Maricle, who swings consistently in the style of her chief role model, the legendary Buddy Rich, bonds with Ohno and Ueda to form a taut and agile rhythm section on which Cohen, Strassmayer and their guests can always lean for support. As for the mixing gaffe alluded to earlier, it affects mainly Strassmayer on the quintet numbers, "Theme from Mr. Broadway and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams, wherein her alto sounds remote and is largely overshadowed by the more prominently recorded rhythm section. But that's hardly enough to put a damper on the session, which is lively and invigorating from start to finish, with sparkling group interplay and admirable solos by every member of the crew. If you've not heard Five Play before, this is a splendid way to get acquainted. 

~ Jack Bowers https://www.allaboutjazz.com/five-play-plus-five-play-arbors-records-review-by-jack-bowers.php

Personnel: Sherrie Maricle, leader, drums; Anat Cohen, tenor sax, clarinet; Karolina Strassmayer, alto sax, flute; Tomoko Ohno, piano; Noriko Ueda, bass. Special guests: Jami Dauber (3, 7, 10), Barbara Laronga (8-10), trumpet, flugelhorn.

Five Play Plus

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Five Play - Live At the Deer Head Inn

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop 
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:30
Size: 141,6 MB
Art: Front

( 7:13)  1. Que Sera, Sera
( 6:55)  2. Struttin' With Some Barbeque
( 7:51)  3. I'm in the Mood for Love
( 7:29)  4. Beo Dat May Troi
( 7:30)  5. Seesaw
( 5:26)  6. La Americana
(11:25)  7. Shenandoah
( 7:38)  8. Organ Grinder's Swing

I haven't been to the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania in years. But if I make it there, I hope to time my visit to coincide with Five Play at theDeer Head Inn, which bills itself as the "oldest continuously running jazz club in the country." Long may it prosper, for there are good musical things happening there. Big bands and their leaders have always had small groups:from Benny Goodman to Stan Kenton, and Woody Herman and Tommy Dorsey inclued. This is the first time I've heard Five Play in this configuration. I was pleasantly surprised. They give you a lot of looks, some Blakeyish, some Ornette, and some distinctively themselves. The can bop, swing and bossa, sometimes in disconcerting juxtaposition.And they do their share of originals. Nothing staid about their repertoire. The live set opens with that famous jazz standard "Que sera,sera." I'm being facetious. It's been a few years since I heard it, and certainly not the arch reading that Fiveplay gives it. There are romping solos by Tomoko Ohno and Noriko Ueda, two thirds of a seriously cooking rhythm section. Janelle Reichman , who doubles on clarinet and tenor sax makes a nice statement. Reichman's clarinet playing is, to say the least, technically assured, but it can be quite beautiful and thoughtful as well, as her solo on "I'm in the Mood for Love" shows. She takes a long solo on "Struttin' With Some Barbecue" as does Jami Dauber who plays very nice and extremely tasteful jazz. 

Her trumpet lead gives the group a much bigger sound and presence than I would've expected. As to adventuresomeness, the originals by Ohno and Ueda are supplemented by "Bao Dat May Troi," a Vietnamese folk song that works very well. There is the traditional Shenandoah, beautifully played too. I will never accuse Maricle of sticking to the tried and true with Diva, her big band, again. As for Sherrie, well, Sherrie plays like Sherrie. For someone ostensibly inspired by Buddy Rich, she is awfully musical. She really plays the drums, including the bass drum, in a way that I'd associate more with Mel Lewis. Her brushwork is inspired and occasionally, her time just seems to float. But she has help. Dauber plays a wonderfully reflective muted solo on "I'm in the Mood for Love" that put me in mind of Warren Vache not that she needs anyone's endorsement. You want up-tempo shouting? The session closes out with "Organ Grinder's Swing" which really gets rolling, propelled by hot choruses by Dauber and Reichman. Everyone gets into the act. So there's a lot of good stuff going on in the recording, and it opens up to further thought as you listen over again, always the mark of something special. These are remarkably talented musicians, and to put it in Maricle's terms, they swing hard, but make it sound easy. I have only one question. What if the group is short Dauber or Reichman some night? What do you call the quartet? Let me guess. ~ Richard J.Salvucci https://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-at-the-deer-head-inn-five-play-deer-head-records-review-by-richard-j-salvucci.php

Personnel: Sherrie Maricle (D); Jami Dauber (TPT); Janelle Riechman (T Sax/CL); Tomoko Ohno (P); Noriko Ueda (B)

Live At the Deer Head Inn

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