New Impressions

Guitarist Michael Coppola's most recent adventure, New Impressions, features trio and quartet selections as well as a duo. Jim Andrews plays upright bass and Arti Dixson (Ahmad Jamal, Joe Beck) is on drums. The CD also features the brilliant alto sax player Tim Moran on five of the eight selections. New Impressions consists of six originals, as well as the "Charlie Brown Christmas" standard "Christmas Time Is Here" - played in 4/4 time instead of the usual 3/4 - by the duo of Coppola and Andrews. The album captures a myriad of moods from mellow to frantic and focuses on the sensitive interplay of the musicians. This is the first CD to feature Coppola's nylon string 9-string guitar as well as his electric. Moran is said to have the tone of Desmon, the inventiveness of Nelson and the chops of Bird, all rolled up into one package.