" data-original-title="" title="">Jon C. Gardner not only leads the piquant and powerful Philadelphia-based Gardyn Jazz Orchestra, he also wrote and arranged every song on Vinyl Brews, an in-concert performance recorded in December 2023 at Chris' Jazz Caf�� in the City of Brotherly Love. There are half a dozen tunes in all, three of which are presented a second time as alternate takes. The album's rather unusual title denotes the fact that every one of Gardner's impressive charts, he writes, "has some correspondence to a craft brew" that inspired him "to create an audio counterpart."

While not specifically noted, that is more than likely a musical salute to one of the orchestra's leading supporters, Philly's Von C. Brewing Company. Thematic or not, Gardner's arrangements immediately grab and hold the listener's attention, courtesy of melodic charm, harmonic magnetism and rhythmic command that starts quickly with the feisty, Latin-centered curtain-raiser, "Dinero de Sangra," and continues through