CDs from Dave Gross and Gina Sicilia

 It seems that BlueNotes has been spending too much time recently with BeerNotes, which is not the best way to get more CDs reviewed here. So we've fallen a little behind in clearing out the releases patiently awaiting their turn.

I have two new CDs that I want to mention together, since they are related in label and spirit: Dave Gross' "Crawling the Walls" and Gina Sicilia's "Hey Sugar," both on the fine young VizzTone label.

New Jersey's Dave Gross at 23 is a multi-talented guitarist-singer-songwriter-producer whose music roams from jazzy licks and horn-laced swinging blues to old-fashioned rock 'n' roll to down-and-dirty blues. In fact, the title track here combines a sort of rollicking Chicago jazz feel with some bluesy licks. In fact this whole album has an old-timey feel that's unusual these days. Not exactly hard-headed blues.

I'm a sucker for the kind of fine and horny blues and jazz he plays on these cuts. Here and there his production reminds me a little of the kind of music played in fine form by Pittsburgh's Boilermaker Jazz Band. Except that he has to do it without the Boilermaker's sensual jazz interpreter Jenny Luvv.

But back to Gross. In addition to his swinging jazz, he can dig deep bluesy grooves on tracks like  "Baby , Won't You Please Come Home," and "Find Yourself Another Man." Dave is clearly a talent to be reckoned with. His guitar work, vocals and arrangements all suggest a musical wisdom beyond his years.

The companion VizzTone album here -- "Hey Sugar" -- is from Philadelphia's Gina Sicilia, a sultry, torchy bluesy singer who ranges from the sexily smooth to the sexily gritty, with some doo-wop licks thrown in on the title track and another called "Cherry Tree" (she is from Philly, after all). She can hit the blues, or glide over a jazzy track, and even give a little country flavor ("Nobody's Darling But Mine").

She's another 23-year-old who started young, writing her first song at 12, being inspired by Bobby Bland at 14, and tearing up these songs at 23. This is just her second album, but the progression in the first two is amazing. She's got the feeling, she's got the chops, she's got the music that's worth listening to.

It's not traditional blues, but it's rooted in the feeling and emotions of the blues, and it's a tribute to her talents (and those of Dave Gross), that there are still young persons who are steeping themselves in these fine musical traditions. We should enjoy. And we should hope that one or both of them shows up here sometime soon.