For those unaware, Washington, DC native Leigh Pilzer is a baritone saxophone specialist, composer, arranger, and educator.

Her performance resume includes appearances with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, The DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore’s Soulful Symphony, and more.

She is also a bandleader in her own right, leading the Leigh Pilzer Startet, her all-star quartet/quintet; organ group Leigh Pilzer’s Low Standards; and her latest project, Leigh Pilzer’s Seven Pointed Star.

She also co-leads PALS, a duo with bassist Amy Shook and JLQ, the Jen Krupa-Leigh Pilzer Quintet. Pilzer has presented her groups to enthusiastic audience response at top venues including Blues Alley, Keystone Korner, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, and the Atlas Performing Arts Center, to name a few. The brand new album “Beatin’ The Odds” is out now via her latest project, Leigh Pilzer’s Seven Pointed Star and is, yet again, and album to be enjoyed and admired in equal amounts.

The music on this recording was actually written between September 2017 and October 2023, a period that included life-changing events both personal (a cancer diagnosis) and universal (the COVID pandemic). The tunes reflect aspects of or feelings generated by these events.

1. SKCC (5:02)
2. Lin (6:27)
3. Waterkress (5:41)
4. The Platinum Taxi (6:32)
5. Beatin’ the Odds (4:34)
6. And Then It Stopped (6:00)
7. Last Year, Lost Year (6:58)
8. How Much Longer (5:36)
9. Where Will We Go? (3:40)

This vibrantly magnificent new recording opens on the gentle finger snapper SKCC and then we get brought forth the late night-hued ambiance within the dusky Lin, the upbeat and perky Waterkress and the dulcetly spirited The Platinum Taxi.

Up next is the joyful title track Beatin’ the Odds and the jaunty And Then It Stopped and they are in turn backed by the languishing beauty within Last Year, Lost Year, the album rounding out on the stellar drum/horn-led piece How Much Longer and the smoothly grooved Where Will We Go?

Musicians:
Leigh Pilzer, baritone and bass saxophones, bass clarinet
Ally Hany Albrecht, trumpet (tracks 1–5)
Mercedes Beckman, alto saxophone (tracks 1–5)
Jen Krupa, trombone (tracks 1–5)
Amy K Bormet, piano (tracks 1–5)
Sherrie Maricle, drums (tracks 1–5)
Kenny Rittenhouse, trumpet (tracks 6–9)
Tim Green, alto saxophone (tracks 6–9)
Joe Jackson, trombone (tracks 6–9)
Allyn Johnson, piano (tracks 6–9)
Frank Russo, drums (tracks 6–9)
Greg Holloway, percussion (track 8)
Amy Shook, bass

www.leighpilzer.com