RAVITA JAZZ, Alice Blue

Even before the first listen to Alice Blue, the extraordinary, fancifully eclectic second album by Dr. Philip Ravita’s ever-adventurous ensemble, it strikes us that while Ravita Jazz may be the name of the group and a cool way to brand, it also hints at something more.

It’s a fresh, unique and freewheeling hybrid substyle-of jazz where Led Zeppelin mashes with the Great American songbook, Ann Peebles struts in Ipanema, bebop jumps alongside daring “blues gone bad,” a kaleidoscope of images of refracting light gives way to extraordinary flights of fancy, blue can refer as much to the color as to the musical style, Laufey is soulfully re-imagined, brooding darkness gives way to shimmering optimistic light and some of the mid-Atlantic’s renowned musicians are given the freedom to improvise and find unique harmonic twists in a creative realm driven by Ravita’s desire to “creative a positive vibe.”

Though Alice Blue is technically only Ravita’s second album as a leader (following up 2023’s Oriana), the bassist has an extensive, multi-faceted history in numerous jazz and classical ensembles. To highlight a few, as a means of introduction to this great talent: In addition to being a college and university jazz and classical professor and a widely sought clinician, he’s president and principal bass of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra, section bassist in the Trinity Chamber Orchestra of Washington D.C. who has shared stages with classical pianist Lorraine Min and countless jazz greats.

Just as importantly, Ravita has worked with the majority of his cohorts in Ravita Jazz for five years. The effortless, complementary and conversational flow and keen symbiosis of the group is rooted in longstanding friendships and collaborations. He’s known pianist Greg Small and drummer Nuc Vega since grad school at the University of Maryland College Park circa 2008. Since meeting at a D.C. jam session, he’s worked with vocalist Dierdre Jennings for about 10 years. He’s also played on various projects with pianist Greg Small for about 15 years. He met versatile saxophonist Paul Carr two years ago at a jazz festival at Prince George’s Community College, where Ravita is a music professor.

Ravita Jazz is essentially a quartet, with extra contributions on Alice Blue by Jennings on three tracks and percussionist Mark Leppo on four.

With a few exceptions, most notably the extended hypnotic bass solo on “Almost Blue,” Ravita the bandleader seems content to lay down the groove and let each member of his ensemble showcase their melodic and improvisational magic.

“Alice Blue” is a slight departure from Oriana,” Ravita says. “It highlights the evolution of the group into the pop commercial realm without a significant paradigm shift and while still paying homage to its roots in classic jazz and the artists who influenced us. Artists and individuals are always evolving and refining.  It just reflects the overall developmental process e go through during their career.”

Ravita’s expertise as a jazz educator shines through in the extensive notes he wrote for each track, in which he both illuminates the inspiration of each tune on an intuitive emotional level and explains the harmonic/melodic interplay and technical intricacies of the chord structures that musicians listening to Alice Blue will appreciate.

As they journey from the jaunty funkified strut of “Broken Light” – whose inspiration from refracted light through a broken, crystallized windo led the bassist to cleverly experiment with juxtaposing the tune’s harmonic and melodic structure – through the fast-swinging, high energy closer “Signal and Noise” (conceived as a contrafact of the jazz standard “My Shining Hour”), listeners have the option of checking out Ravita’s detailed writings or simply boppin’ along the ever-winding, stylistically diverse trail of divine hipster cool.

Besides the revelation/titillating quirk that the title track isn’t named after anyone in particular, the most compelling aspect of Alice Blue is the way the musical winds, rhythms, vibes, etc. shift from track to track. That aforementioned hip factor touches our hearts full force with a lively, breezy, easy rolling bossa romp through Laufey’s “From the Start” featuring Jennings’ e sweet soul sensitivity and playful phrasing. The peppy bossa energy continues on the whimsical, equally free-spirited title track, but not before Small regales us with his lovely extended solo piano intro. A very visual composer, Ravita wrote the piece back in 2014 between classes at Maryland College Park where he was finishing up post masters work in Jazz Studies. Sitting at the piano, he looked out the window and saw the blue sky. Not the blues, just nature’s best blue! “Alice Blue” is one of the album’s premiere showcases for the melodic graces and solo prowess of Greg Small and Paul Carr.

Ravita Jazz follows “Alice Blue” with “Almost Blue,” an infectious piece driven by the seamless ensembling of Carr’s lead sax, Small’s elegant piano harmonies, Ravita’s buoyant rolling grooves and Vega’s tasteful drumming. Diving into those notes, we learn that this one is a blues song in C Major that uses an embellished blues format but is not typical blues. Rather, it was inspired by a fellow musician’s comment on another song that it was “blues gone bad.” Meaning, it’s rebellious and doesn’t fit typical blues parameters – i.e. it’s the Ravita Jazz, outside the box version of the blues.

For this writer’s money, the next two songs are the true heart and soul of Alice Blue, starting with a haunting, hypnotically grooving jazz-R&B caress of Ann Peebles’ iconic “I Can’t Stand the Rain” featuring Jennings’ most emotional vocals and a funky jazz piano solo by Small which pops just enough to let us know that the sun will soon shine through. And that happens immediately on the mashup of Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain” and “On The Sunny Side of the Street, truly one of the most clever fusions of rock and roll and a jazz standard ever. Starting with and returning a few times to the opening vamp of “Fool,” it’s a lighthearted, tempo-shifting playground that spotlights the jazzier side of Jennings’ artistry.   

Those same alternating darkness to light moods ease into the next phases of Alice Blue, starting with the spiritual minded, sax and piano driven meditation/exploration “Hereafter” (which is elegantly reflective and buoyantly bright and hopeful at the same time), Ravita’s dark, moody and melancholy and uncertainty-filled ballad “Blackout” (centered on Carr’s smoky sax melody) and the hopping, skipping and jumping swinger “”Golden Sky,” which leaves us with a visceral sense of joy Ravita Jazz allows us to hold onto through the similarly chipper vibes of “Signal and Noise,” a musical expression of our attempts to find clarity in the modern world despite the onslaught of distractions.  

It's just one person’s opinion, but I’ll just come out with it. Ravita Jazz’s Alice Blue is one of the best, most consistently intriguing and engaging contemporary jazz albums of 2025.