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Michael Pellera: Cloud 9 (Pajacis Music)
As warm as a summer breeze off of the Gulf Coast, this ravishing recording by New Orleans pianist Michael Pellera addresses the listener gently and with sweet persuasiveness. If the atmospheric ensemble playing sounds a bit familiar, that’s because Pellera collaborates with members of the superb New Orleans band Astral Project. But because these players, and others, are performing Pellera compositions under his direction, the music is more lyric than virtuosic, more serene than hard-driving. Pellera’s playing is as direct and unpretentious as the recording itself, while New Orleans singer Phillip Manuel turns in sumptuous vocals.
