The Pickle Mafia jazz trio brings 'arena jazz fusion' home to Santa Cruz kazu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kazu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
"Pickle" and "mafia" are a pair of words one would not expect to go together, but The Pickle Mafia are all about bringing together seemingly disparate styles. Although rooted in jazz and playing at Kuumbwa Jazz on Nov. 12, the Rochester, New York-based trio do not categorize themselves as strictly jazz.
The Pickle Mafia is (left to right) Marco Cirigliano, Charlie Lindner, and Ben Chilbert. If you’re looking for a way to spice up your holiday season, jazz pianist-turned-picklemonger Charlie Lindner has two ways to make it happen. There is his dynamic piano trio The Pickle Mafia, and the habanero, jalapeno and ghost pepper-flavored pickles of the same name. On Dec. 18, the band will ring in the yuletide as well as bassist Ben Chilbert’s 30th birthday with a live-streamed concert. The progressive, hard-grooving group will play two sets, at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., on Facebook Live. An inventive composer-arranger and a fluid player, Lindner plays jazz that’s unpredictable but always harmonically satisfying, if a little experimental. And the highly skilled rhythm section, rounded out by Marco Cirigliano, adds a tinge of funk to the proceedings.