Ithaca College

IC Jazz director Mike Titlebaum's recent performance at the Carriage House Cafe with organist Gary Versace was reviewed by columnist David Yearsley in the national newsletter CounterPunch in an article entitled "Unexpected Encounters With Greatness." 

The following is an excerpt from the review:

"Alto saxophonist Mike Titlebaum, director of jazz studies at Ithaca College on one of the town’s adjacent hills, soon launched into a fleet solo.  He is an agile and tasteful musician, who seems to play with absolute ease. Clearly an immense amount of work went into this admirable nonchalance. It is pleasure to hear someone playing well-known standards as if breathing in their aroma and then smiling.  Titlebaum even makes fast be-bop tunes and his rapid-fire improvisations on them sound lyrical. On a slow number like Darn That Dream his sprightly navigation of its harmonies had the air of vivacious conversation enjoyed over a soothing cocktail."  

Click to read the full text of the review.