
Track Listing
- Band intro
- Now’s the Time
- Autumn Leaves
- Intro to Ol’ Man River
- Ol’ Man River
- Bye Bye Blackbird
- Idle Moments
- Who can I turn to
- My old flame
- Yesterdays
Live at the Deer Head Inn
Jim Snidero
Orrin Evans (piano); Peter Washington (bass); Joe Farnsworth (drums)
A rare and joyous — and safe — mid-pandemic concert encounter
Part of a distinguished line of live albums (e.g., Keith Jarrett, Phil Woods) from the historic jazz venue in Pennsylvania’s rural Poconos region
Halloween, like all holidays, was a difficult thing to celebrate during the pandemic year of 2020, but alto saxophonist Jim Snidero (“a master musician,” Downbeat; “a genuinely significant figure in jazz composition,” Penguin Guide to Jazz) found himself in a unique situation: he was able to assemble a quartet for a feasible, safe, limited-audience gig at Pennsylvania’s famed Deer Head Inn. At a time of privation and isolation for most performers of all stripes, Snidero and his colleagues relished the chance to commune with listeners, and one another, on the bandstand again at long last. Live at the Deer Head Inn is the result, and as Snidero remarks in Dan Bilawsky’s liner notes, “It just felt like the perfect opportunity to cut through the fog of this damn pandemic and mark this moment in time.”
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The quartet’s simultaneous awareness of one another, the audience, the jazz tradition and the weight of the present era makes for a spellbinding live recording.
Downbeat Magazine
Live at the Deer Head Inn is a vibrant reminder of how thrilling and creatively engaging live jazz often is
All Music Guide
(Snidero) lingers over the melody and renders human vulnerability in an alto saxophone sound that is one of the richest and purest on the planet
Stereophile Magazine
It is a very good thing that Live at the Deer Head Inn exists. It feels like a token of hope, a prayer for the return of live gigs, of interaction, and of rebuilding communities drawn together by a passion for great live music.
London Jazz News
Superb solos from Evans and the leader, and performances that swing like mad
The Big Takeover