Album Review: Beatin' The Odds from Leigh Pilzer's Seven Pointed Star

Album:  Beatin' The Odds
Artist:  Leigh Pilzer's Seven Pointed Star
Label: Strange Woman Records
Website: leighpilzer.com
Label Website: strangewomanrecords.com

The current project of saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator Leigh Pilzer is creating a library of compositions and arrangements for her septet, Leigh Pilzer’s Seven Pointed Star. The group’s debut recording, Beatin' The Odds, released in March, 2024, includes eight of Pilzer’s original compositions and one by long-time DIVA colleague, bassist Amy Shook.  That one being the title track, a bebop jazz romp garnished in the flashing bellows of the saxophone flares moored by the pulsating thrums of Shook's bass and the stocky beats of drummer Sherrie Maricle, the leader of DIVA.

The press release sites Pilzer's words about the recording, “the music on this recording was written between September 2017 and October 2023, a period that included life-changing events both personal (a cancer diagnosis) and universal (the COVID pandemic). The tunes reflect aspects of, or feelings generated by these events. While all the music on this recording is very personal, the cancer portion is by far more difficult to write about. Until recently I spoke about having had cancer very little, for fear that if someone knew about it they would cease to view me as myself, but rather as generic 'Cancer Patient.' But the late Maryam 'SkaterMom' Balbed led me to realize that it is only by speaking openly about cancer that we can hope to normalize it and remove stigmas and misconceptions so that the public, friends, families, and cancer patients themselves understand that statistics aren’t people and cancer isn’t an automatic death sentence.”

The track "Lin," was inspired by her surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Yen Lin, MD.  The composition captures the soft-spoken quality of her doctor as her saxophone delicately articulates and unfolds a story along the melodic progressions.  The somber mood is brightened by an astral plane of glittering chimes silhouetting the piece.  The ragtime strut of "Watercress" swings with Ally Hany Albrecht's frolicking trumpet toots leading the procession as the jaunty saunter of Jen Krupa's trombone add a playful quality to the track.  Named after Pilzer's oncologist, Dr. Bruce Kressel, MD.

Inspired to relate to the listener the mental disorientation, the bodily sway, and untethered sensations Pilzer experienced while under medication during her cancer treatment, “The Platinum Taxi" is written in a regular meter with the beats distributed unevenly over a repeated bass line.  The effect is palpable.  

The track “And Then It Stopped” refers to the pandemic and lockdown in general that began on March 12, 2020. The funky rhythm imbues the track in bubbling vibrations as various horns take flight, intertwining their melodic lines and creating a fine harmony.  The exotic beats of “How Much Longer” are augmented by Allyn Johnson's sputtering keys twinkling with a ballroom elegance, shifting to the straight-ahead jazz swells of “Where Will We Go?”

A native of Washington, DC, Leigh Pilzer is an in-demand composer and arranger whose music has been performed by jazz ensembles and brass quintets throughout the country, as well as by the DC-area premier military jazz ensembles. She has contributed a number of works to the libraries of SJMO, DIVA, and BCJO, including “East Coast Andy,” the opening track on DIVA’s critically acclaimed 25th Anniversary Project.  Pilzer has a way of allowing each musician to have their moment to shine within the melodically crafted arrangements, highlighting her expertise as a writer and leader.

Musicians:
Leigh Pilzer - baritone and bass saxophones, bass clarinet
Ally Hany Albrecht - trumpet
Mercedes Beckman - alto saxophone
Jen Krupa - trombone
Amy K Bormet - piano
Sherrie Maricle - drums
Kenny Rittenhouse - trumpet
Tim Green - alto saxophone
Joe Jackson - trombone
Allyn Johnson - piano
Frank Russo - drums
Greg Holloway - percussion
Amy Shook - bass