End Of An Era

Review by Willard Manus It was serendipity, discovering youthful trumpet player Philip Dizack at the Blue Whale Jazz Club in L.A. recently. I'd gone there to hear another musician, who unfortunately couldn't make it out of the East Coast because of Hurricane Sandy. Dizack was pressed into action along with three other musicians (including pianist Billy Childs). Dizack's playing impressed me greatly. We spoke after the set and I was delighted to learn that he had just finished work on his first CD, END OF AN ERA. Listening to the release reinforced my first impression of him as a trumpet player of distinction. It also made me realize Dizack is equally gifted as a composer. Of the CD's nine cuts, eight are originals. All are remarkable in their freshness, power and beauty. Dizack plays and composes from a deep place within himself, an awareness of pain and loss, a deep, abiding reverence for life and love. Two of his compositions were inspired by the earthquake in Haiti, another by the song "What If" by Coldplay. There are also bluesy things, fiery things, tender love songs, impassioned statements about the majesty of the human spirit. Dizack's creative palette is wide and varied, his playing exquisitely phrased and delivered. If you buy just one jazz CD in 2013, let it be END OF AN ERA. (Dizack, by the way, financed this CD through kickstarter.com. Hats off to all of the website's donors whose generosity made END OF AN ERA possible.) $12, Revive Music Group. Http:\trrstore. Bandcamp.com/album/end-of-an-era. Or, pdizack@gmail.com.