CD review: Ralph Lalama – Staycation: A Family Affair 2022: Video, CD cover

Award winning veteran tenorist Ralph Lalama came out the generation of hard driving muscular toned tenor saxophonists of the 70s’ big band scene. Starting out with Woody Herman then to Buddy Rich he still plays as a core member in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (via Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra of the 80s).

During the world pandemic of 2020/21 a few vocabularies were invented and “Staycation” (meaning having vacation by staying home) is one of them. Lalama and his wife singer Nicole Pasterak and Lalma’s friend and colleague trumpeter Joe Magnarelli with his organist wife Akiko Tsuruga got together in the studio February last year to create this album filled with artistic energy they have harnessed by “staycationing”.

“Listening to an album like ‘The Audience’, it’s easy to forget how skilled the players are because they play with such poise and confidence that it all sounds so easy. But make no mistake this is the product of true veterans, musicians who’ve honed their craft for so long that you can no longer hear them “working.”

01. Cecil’s Bridge
02. Staycation
03. Stutter Steps
04. I Could Not Compare You
05. Thaditude
06. Deep In A Dream
07. Make Me an Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
08. Good Trouble
09. The Lamp Is Low

Ralph Lalama: tenor saxophone
Joe Magnarelli: trumpet
Akiko Tsuruga: Hammond B3
Clifford Barbaro: drums
Nicole Pasternak Lalama: vocals