Midiri Dixieland Band thrills a huge Chestnut Hill crowd
Noteworthy by Michael Caruso, excerpt from Chestnut Hill Local, July 24, 2003

The Midiri Brothers Dixieland Band paid a visit to Chestnut Hill's Pastorius Park last Wednesday evening, drawing a crowd that grew in size throughout the program's first half. Eventually the park's natural amphitheater was filled with local music lovers who have come to know the musical expertise that characterizes this particular ensemble.

The band - headed by Midiri brothers Joe and Paul and sporting clarinet, vibraphone, trumpet, guitar, bass and drums - follows the classic traditions of Dixieland improvisation by choosing and presenting a standard tune and then embellishing it, first by each of the band members one at a time and then by the group as a whole for the brilliant finale. It's a formula that can occasionally grow stale in the wrong hands but that continues to serve the Midiri Brothers Band exceedingly well, if only because Joe, Paul and their colleagues are talented technically and gifted imaginatively. They never fail to uncover hidden melodic, harmonic and rhythmic treasures in well-known songs.

Last Wednesday night they maintained an impressively tight sense of ensemble and always communicated their joy of making the kind of music they love for a large audience that obviously loves it, too. In particular, Joe Midiri's clarinet playing was breathtaking for its command over the instrument's highest register and surprising sultriness at its lowest.