The Dance
NA1075
Kazzrie Jazen, Piano & Vocals
Don Messina, Double Bass
1. My Melancholy Baby
2. What is This Thing Called Love?
3. Follow
4. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
5. Will I Find My Love Today
6. Confirmation
7. The Mirror Calls
8. Kary's Trance
REVIEWS
Bassist Don Messina met Lennie Tristano in 1973, while accompanying a friend to his weekly lessons. He was 17, and had just started playing double bass. A few years later, he realised he needed to study with Tristano, and called him to take lessons. But sadly, the pianist died shortly after, in November 1978. Soon, however, Messina met a Tristano School player who was an excellent teacher - tenor saxophonist Fred Amend, who he studied with for fourteen years. He also got to know Tristano School master, the pianist Sal Mosca, which revolutionised his approach to music.
Since the early 1980s, Messina has worked with drummer Bill Chattin, and in 2009 the pair formed a quartet with Kazzrie Jaxen andCharley Krachy. The group lasted ten years, and recorded two albums. The bassist and pianist have now got together again to produce a superb duo album. It was recorded live in a concert hall at the library in Mahwah, New Jersey. It opens with My Melancholy Baby, which begins with Jaxen's off-mic vocals and solo piano, at an ad lib tempo – an idiosyncratic approach that's perfectly justified. With a portentous arpeggio she announces a groove, and Messina comes in wonderfully attuned.
What Is This Thing Called Love again features Jaxen's vocals, again more in the Lester Young approach of having to know the lyrics in order to interpret the song. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To is uptempo and powerfully swinging – and such an original conception, I'd call it a re-composition. Follow is not from the Great American Songbook – but is still a gentle and beguiling composition. It's good to have an interpretation of Lee Konitz's rarely-performed and beautiful composition Kary's Trance.
Jaxen has the sound of a Tristano School player, who hears every note, and feels every beat. She's a great jazz pianist, incisive, inventive and orchestral. Messina is a fine bassist, and with his muscular playing, one doesn't feel the lack of a drummer. The result is a magnificent pairing, and a magnificent album.
—Andy Hamilton, Jazz Journal, UK, July, 2025
Pianist-vocalist Kazzrie Jaxen, whose original name before she changed it was Liz Gorrill, has been an improviser from the start of her life although she has had extensive classical training. After studying with pianist Harvey Diamond, Ms. Jaxen became a student of Lennie Tristano’s from 1973 until his passing in 1978, later studying with Connie Crothers. While Tristano was an early influence (as can be head a bit on her version of Lee Konitz’s “Kary’s Trance”) on this CD, she has continued to grow as a soloist through the years and has been involved in many artistic projects.
The Dance features Kazzrie Jaxen in a duo with bassist Don Messina. She takes brief vocals on many of the pieces and generally sticks to the lyrics. Her most rewarding vocalizing is on the ballads, particularly “Will I Find My Love Today” and her own “The Mirror Calls” where she sings with quiet feeling while conveying the messages of the songs. In contrast, her piano playing uses such tunes as “My Melancholy Baby,” “What Is This Thing Called Love,” and “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” as points of departure for adventurous flights. Messina, who walks behind her, sometimes trades off with the pianist and has occasional solos while keeping the music swinging even during its wilder moments such as the bitonal melody statements of “Confirmation.“
The Dance is an excellent sampling of how Kazzrie Jaxen sounds today, keeping the legacy of Lennie Tristano alive but in her own personal way.
—Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene, June 2025
This is the third record I have reviewed with Don Messina. All are different, which shows what a flexible a player he is. Jaxen is hard swinging pianist with a nice voice. She mixes vocals with great solos. She includes... dissonances with melodic lines. I love how she uses the very high notes. Kary's Trance is anything but trancelike, as it is a real up-tempo swinger. And Messina’s solo here is also great. My Melancholy Baby ... is taken at an up tempo. If you are feeling melancholy this will get you out of that mood.
The fourth tune sums it up. This record would be "so nice to come home to."
—Bernie Koeing, Cadence, July 2025