C. Michael Bailey - All About Jazz

A Constellation in the East

This was how I described the Reverend Dr. Leonisa Ardizzone when introduced to her music a decade ago. Her creative process had a smart edge to it, revealing a fertile mind and expansive interest.  Completely omnivorous in intellectual, social, and cultural pursuits, nature pulled her in a variety of directions, each deftly conquered by her and then readily expanded upon. She has had a variety of avocations: biologist, science educator, and finally a doctorate in International Peace Education. Teaching and sharing are the durable threads that pass through Ardizzone’s rich life and life philosophy.

Ardizzone veritably emerged into life with Puccini on her lips. Raised by a pair of Italian (what else?) opera lovers, Ardizzone began studying music early—first piano and voice in pre-school— then violin and finally, oboe in high school. Classically oriented, in her early adulthood, Ardizzone found her voice in the demanding art of jazz singing.  As with everything to that point, she dived in, head first, allegro con brio.

While in graduate school, Ardizzone was musically active, singing in the New York City club scene on such sacred ground as Sweet Rhythm, Iridium, Danny’s, the Duplex, and the Kitano. Even when she became a professor and then a non-profit leader (executive director of the Salvadori Center), she kept making music, studying with the notable teachers Marion Cowings and Suzanne Pittson. She was always seeking ways to incorporate the core ideals of jazz into helping students become science teachers. Ardizzone detected a clear parallel between jazz and the kind of education she advocates: encouraging development of a firm foundational knowledge while promoting creativity, improvisation (thinking outside-of-the-box), and the beauty and humility of learning from one’s peers.

Ardizzone founded her working quartet in 1997, honing her musical craft in preparation for recording Afraid of Heights (Ardijenn Music, 2006) and The Scent of Bitter Almonds (Ardijenn Music, 2009).  Following the release of the latter, the singer found herself a single mom with her considerable focus being on raising her daughter, Rafaella. During this period, Ardizzone found creative ways of supporting herself and her daughter, including running her own science education center and continuing to make music, performing in the New York City area, and most notably curating a Jazz Vespers series at the 4th Universalist Society on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Her Jazz Vespers experience inspired her call to the ministry, where she attended Union Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Divinity with a focus in interfaith engagement in 2017. The ministry has made for a fecund personal growth experience where Ardizzone finds herself renewed. Now an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, remarried, and relocated to the Hudson Valley with daughter Raf racing toward adulthood, Ardizzone is ready to renew her musical interests. After a ten-year absence from recording, the educator/minister/musician reforms her quartet for the present recording, All in Good Time.

Joining her for the recording are musicians that have been with her since the first. She is supported by pianist and arranger Jess Jurkovic, bassist Mark Wade, and drummer Justin Hines. The empathy shared among these musicians is so evident as to almost be taken for granted. The band’s sound is richly organic and revealing, providing the singer an ideal vocal environment. Ardizzone uses a combination of original compositions, standards, and smart adaptations to reflect the hurts, challenges, and triumphs of the past ten years. There a three originals, “When Hagar Ran” and “Ischia” both written by Ardizzone with Jurkovic and Hines and “Cyclone” composed by Hines. “When Hagar Ran” comes directly from Ardizzone’s study of the Old Testament coupled with brutal experience, presented over an anxious Latin vamp.  “Cyclone” is just that bit of genius that occurs when the best minds meld in creation.

Included among the standards are the delightful surprises of Dave Brubeck’s vamping “My One Bad Habit” and a rocking scat-vocal treatment of Hank Mobley’s “This I Dig of You.” Ardizzone sings Martino and Brighetti’s “Estate” in the original as if she owns it, showing off her warm and muscular alto voice like a suntan. “Someday My Prince Will Come” is deep in the program, sporting an Ardizzone-penned vocalese on Miles’ solo in an innocent song of adolescence. Child of the 1980s, the singer selects three from the soundtrack of her life. The Smith’s “Girl Afraid” is angst-ridden over Wade’s pungent bass playing as is true of her cover of the Pretenders’ “Kid.”  But, it is an elastic and electric “Our Lips are Sealed” where Ardizzone transforms a cotton-candy ‘80s anthem into something ahead of where we are now.

All in Good Time hangs together like a densely emotive tone poem composed to, if not make life make sense, then at least tell a simple truth. It is nice to see the Reverend Dr. Leonisa Ardizzone hitting a patch of calm water and taking full advantage of it.  Bravissima!