Tickets: $20 general/$10 students

TOM LAGANA GROUP
featuring GEORGE GARZONE,sax
Tom Baldwin, bass
Todd Herrison, drums Tom Lagana, guitar

Celebrating their new CD, "SCHEMATIC"

Sax Great George Garzone Joins Tom Lagana Group to Unveil Schematic CD

Stellar saxophonist George Garzone joins the Tom Lagana Group to celebrate the release of the ensemble’s second album, Schematic. Maryland-based Lagana makes a bold statement on Schematic aided by drummer extraordinaire Todd Harrison and talented bassist Tom Baldwin. The CD is a strikingly original follow-up to Lagana’s 2001 Patuxent. Schematic features special guest Garzone on tenor sax and Towson University professor Dave Ballou on trumpet and flugelhorn.

A one-time protégé of Charlie Byrd, Lagana has filled the CD with a potent list of no frills original songs and well placed covers of the likes of Bill Evans and Thelonius Monk. An earlier shorter version of the release was put aside in favor of an extended album on the new Harvest Time record label. The result is amazing.

In an early review, jazz critic James Scott called Lagana “a fresh and revitalizing voice in the world of contemporary jazz guitar,” and predicted the release will capture both critical and commercial acclaim. Jazz critic and liner notes author Bill Milkowski said Schematic is an album “to make guitar aficionados and the jazz world in general sit up and take notice.”

Lagana, who picked up the guitar to play rock music, went on to become an accomplished classical and jazz guitarist, earning a bachelor’s degree from the Berklee College of Music followed by a master’s degree from Towson University. He teaches at Towson University and University of Maryland Baltimore County.

His influences include Metheny, Frisell and Scofield but he projects a unique voice, alternating between melodic and chromatic playing. On Schematic and in this Baltimore concert, he concentrates on his electric skills.