Drummer and bandleader Sherrie Maricle, an Endicott NY native, heads three ensembles. She led her DIVA Jazz Orchestra at Jazz ‘N Caz Sept 15. [Photo Gallery by John Herr] She brought her break-out quintet from that big band, Five Play, to the Firehouse Stage in Johnson City NY on Oct 13. [Photo Gallery by John Herr] Then she led her trio 3Divas at the renowned Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap PA on Nov 10.[Photo Gallery by John Herr]
For her return to the Triple Cities on the 13th, Ms Maricle brought tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Janelle Reichman, trumpeter and flugelhornist Jami Dauber, pianist Tomoko Ohno Farnham and bassist Noriko Ueda, all longtime DIVA stalwarts and considerable talents in their own right. (Ms Ohno Farnham regularly appears in duos and trios with bassist Jay Leonhart, and Ms Ueda anchors pianist Ted Rosenthal’s trio.)
The Firehouse date, with an enthusiastic audience, was the setting for a live recording that would feature originals by members of the quintet, including “T-Bone Special”, “Samba de Sorvete” (which the pianist wrote for her son, an NYU student), the clarinetist’s “Circles”, “Chuloro” (for piano trio), “The Time Being”, the bassist’s “Uneven Pieces”, Ms Ohno Farnham’s “The Pilot” (for Jay Leonhart) and Ms Reichman’s lovely ballad for clarinet “Unexpected”.
These were leavened by Ellington’s “Just Squeeze Me” (a showcase for Ms Dauber’s evocative use of plunger mute) and the songbook standards “Nancy (With the Laughing Face)” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”. The show was brought to a hard-driving finish with Count Basie’s “Doodle Oodle”.
Look for the CD from this exciting concert to be released in the spring of 2019.
