Thank You For The Music –  Tony Marino (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

As a musician it sometimes pays to stop and look back at the reason you became a musician in the first place, to acknowledge those who came before you, whose music inspired you to try to follow in their footsteps. That is exactly what Tony Marino has done with his latest album, Thank You For The Music. Seven original compositions which honour and are dedicated in turn to Astor Piazzolla, Joao Donato, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, & James Moody, each in turn capturing something of each of these jazz greats spirit.

It would be easy to just cover their music but this is a much more worthy approach, Tony Marino’s personal touch but also channelling the artistic traits and musical trappings of the musicians which helped shape him in the first place. The result is a wonderful blend of originality and hall mark sounds, exploring the musical character of those icons but also presenting something which musically stands on its own two feet. And that is the great thing about jazz, it is all about re-invention, re-interpretation, about honouring the past and in doing so moving things into the future and this wonderful musical tribute does just that.