js Next up in the ongoing series on jazz musicians who should be better known is guitarist Gaetano Letizia, or Tom as his friends and musical cohorts know him. Letizia is an excellent guitarist who combines jazz, funk, reggae, RnB, blues and Latin jazz in his playing. He sites Wes Montgomery as an influence, as well as two famous cats he’s had lessons with, George Benson and Pat Martino. You can hear all that in his playing, plus bluesy boppers like Joe Pass and Barney Kessel, as well as modern funkateer, John Scofield. Tom has performed with top name artists and has released albums regularly over the years, but perhaps he is not better known because he works out of Cleveland and performs a lot in the mid-west. Not only is Leticia a guitarist, but also a composer who has studied advanced composition techniques under Joseph Schillinger. Tom’s latest album, “Chartreuse” is a suite of sorts that covers eclectic music genres including hard bop, RnB, Latin jazz, impressionistic ballads and more. Joining Letizia on this album is a great quartet, with honorable mention going to saxophonist Bob Esterle, whose hard RnB tone can recall Maceo Parker and Bennie Maupin, while his solos carry a bebop flow complete with occasional Charlie Parker quotes. Another interesting band member is keyboardist Theron Brown, who was chosen to play the young Herbie Hancock in the recent movie about Miles Davis.

As mentioned earlier, this is a very eclectic album covering many musical genres. Some top cuts include the energetic hard bop groove of “Back and Blue”, and the very funky “Punch Drunk”. Letizia puts his composition chops to work on the ballads, “Paradise Found” and “Wandering”. On these two we hear interesting chord progressions that defy cliché and expectations. Two Latin numbers sans saxophone and a couple more RnB cuts round out the album. The playing on here is loose and relaxed and it sounds very much like a one take live album. I suppose maybe it was live in the studio. Recommended for fans of music that strikes a middle ground between jazz and RnB.