Jessica Lurie.... just wondering........

[GodSpeliZed]

I've read an article on an Italian jazz magazine about this female saxophone player, wich I never heard before........

...... my interest was lead up to her for this reasons:

1) I was thinking she had some relationships with John Lurie - and I was wrong, anyway........

2) She has many projects, like the Living Daylights Trio (Arne Livingston-electric bass, Dale Fanning-drums), The Tiptons (an all-female quintet who take the name from Bill/Dorothy Lucille Tipton, a pianist forced to disguise herself as a man from 1938 to the mid-1970's, or something like that...), and her music is influenced, in her own words, by Zorn's Masada and Wayne Horovitz, with a lot of Serbian, Macedonian and Russian folk references in between.

3) She doesn't have the glamour nor the hype of Diana Krall and Norah Jones (and this is a good good point).

4) It's the first time I've heard of a female musician who play an instrument like saxophone (pardon my ignorance.....)

5) Bill Frisell recorded with her (on the LDT "Electric Rosary", 2000)

6) Carlo Actis Dato (member of Italian Instabile and many other bands) played with her.

I was just wondering, beyond all the male/female questions, if someone of you have some experience about her music, and if she is a good musician or if the article I've read was written only by a 'sense of guilt' (I mean, Michel Petrucciani is a very good piano player, but I asked myself many many times if people praised him more for his state of healt than for his music........)

(P.S. no cynicism in my intentions.....)

[JazzJunkie]

Originally Posted by GodSpeliZed

4) It's the first time I've heard of a female musician who play an instrument like saxophone (pardon my ignorance.....)

LOL -- you knew this was coming! I don't know know much about the scene in Europe, but there are scads of female saxophonists in the States. A few excellent ones that come to mind are Virginia Mayhew, Jessica Jones, Claire Daly, Sue Terry and Ada Rovatti (who is from Italy, but now lives in the States, and who I believe is married to one of the Brecker boys.)

I was just wondering, beyond all the male/female questions, if someone of you have some experience about her music, and if she is a good musician or if the article I've read was written only by a 'sense of guilt' (I mean, Michel Petrucciani is a very good piano player, but I asked myself many many times if people praised him more for his state of healt than for his music........)

I'm not familiar with this particular player, but I know what you're getting at... women instrumentalists as a novelty, eye candy, band candy, etc. This is just my opinion, but it seems logical to me that given the difficulties involved in having and maintaining a successful career in jazz, that talented musicians like Bill Frisell (and all the other men who share the bandstand with women) would not risk their careers, or even a single gig, with sub-standard musicians, be they women or men. So, she probably is a good as the article suggests. {Cheers! -- JJ}

[GodSpeliZed]

Originally Posted by JazzJunkie

LOL -- you knew this was coming! {Cheers! -- JJ}

..... That means that I lost my virginity?!?

..... At last!!!!!!!