“Everything Starts Now†is the beginning of a new wave for Michael Pedicin. After spending years in an integrated realm of musical and professional activity, Michael has emerged with an album worthy of serious, yet very accessible listening. Michael and co-producer/composer/arranger Johnnie Valentino have enlisted a group of very talented, young, and incredibly synchronous players in a project that took shape during Michael’s frequent visits to California, where he developed a beautifully productive musical relationship with Valentino. The result is an album of beautifully constructed jazz with an urgent pull luring the listener in…..always with a welcoming groove.
For those who don’t yet know Michael, he began his career as a young saxophonist in Philadelphia, being mentioned in Downbeat Magazine as “the most exciting soloist in the entire three day jazz festival.†Following those early college years, Michael began a ten year stint with Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International Records as a busy studio musician and touring saxophonist with The O’Jays, David Bowie, Lou Rawls, Stevie Wonder, MFSB, and many other acts that felt compelled to record at the famous Sigma Sound Studios.
Never content with a one -dimensional life style, Michael went on to pursue a few other challenges that he felt necessary for his life and music. A Ph.D. in Cognitive and Creative Arts Psychology, an honorary doctorate from Combs College of Music, and two illustrious teaching positions (University Of The Arts/Philadelphia; Temple University/Philadelphia weren’t enough to keep him from his other jobs as tenor saxophonist with Maynard Ferguson; Dave Brubeck (“Michael Pedicin tempered the soft focus lyricism that the Brubeck Quartet’s saxophone chair has demanded with some discreet John Coltrane devices and an attractive sense of spacing and dramaâ€â€¦The New York Times); Stanley Clarke; Terence Blanchard; and, Pat Martino (“Tenor saxophonist Michael Pedicin responded to Martino’s musical challenges with brawny-toned, aggressively virtuosic solos deeply influenced by John Coltraneâ€/Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times).
As a tenor saxophonist, this veteran has a sound that is entirely his own, evolved through the grand tradition, and as organic and visceral as the horn can produce. Pedicin has now established a quintet that is powerfully focused upon creating exciting, uncompromising and utterly musical jazz in the purest tradition.
Virtuosity and straightforward musicality, total accessibility and adventurous exploration, splendid interplay with exciting solo excursions…….the Michael Pedicin Quintet /Everything Starts Now.
