by MICHAEL TUTINO | May 25, 2023 | News
Mike Melito. So few hard bop albums today from up-and-coming jazz artists capture the true flavor of this mid-1950s genre. Hard bop isn’t exclusively about blowing. It’s a mix of instrument textures, earthy tones and edge, which many musicians somehow...
by MICHAEL TUTINO | May 25, 2023 | News
Mike Melito wants you to know he loves Blue Note albums from the sixties. He shows this love on his latest CD The Next Step. A hard-swinging quintet plays some fine originals along with classics from the fake book. Melito himself is a cooking drummer who loves to...
by MICHAEL TUTINO | May 25, 2023 | News
There’s a ton of splendid music coming out of Rochester, New York, probably because the first-rate Eastman School of Music is located there. Although few Noo Yawkers would admit it, The Big Apple doesn’t have the state monopoly on stellar jazz, and...
by MICHAEL TUTINO | May 25, 2023 | News
Drummer Mike Melito’s Quintet date finds a beautifully integrated band of musicians, who gel with a sound as smooth as silk thanks in no small part to the leader’s drumming. Crisp, sharp, and precise, Melito has superb dynamic control with exemplary cymbal...
by MICHAEL TUTINO | May 25, 2023 | News
With advanced technology to the point that just about anyone can put together and sell their own CD (with little regard as to whether or not the music is worthy of dissemination or not, mind you), so much of the self-produced jazz which reaches this reviewers doorstep...