Mack Avenue Records
Playful Heart, from virtuoso guitarist, composer, arranger and producer Oscar Castro-Neves, is a shining example of the perfect union that can come to exist between jazz and Brazilian music.
For "New York, New Sound", the only non-laid back resident of L.A. was in a New York state of mind, and came up with a session that sounds like it was written by a cat half his age. Between the jet-propelled bookends of "Milestones" and "Nancy Jo", are outstanding examples of Gerald's thick-textured wide voicings providing plenty of stretch-out room for such stellar soloists as Jimmy Owens, Trumpet; Luis Bonilla, Trombone; Jesse Davis, Alto Sax; Jimmy Heath, Tenor Sax; and Kenny Barron, Piano.
Parisian chanteuse Ilona Knopfler takes on some of the most popular tunes of the 60's and 70's on Some Kind of Wonderful, her debut for Mack Avenue Records.
A classically trained pianist in his native Russia, Maslov was introduced to jazz through the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and others. He worked to develop his own style and, before emigrating to the United States in 1989, he performed with the likes of Brubeck, Pearl Bailey, Louie Bellson, Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Pat Metheny, and others.


