“Two fabulous sets.....you were great.. I have seen your brother(s)..many times.. but never you.... You are one strong tenor man.... thought I'd seen 'em all.. rhassan.. brecker...sonny...hamiett..clifford jordan.... you're up there brother!!!! you bridge the gaps between Louis Jordan, Sonny Rollins and King Curtis incredibly well.. got to see King Curtis once on a Murray the K show at the Brooklyn Fox in 65 or 66... your reading of Soul Serenade on soprano was sublime...and opening with Memphis Soul Stew with Pretty Purdie sitting behind you was not lost on me...from the first fatback snare pop...I was home...somewhere in my vinyl cavern is the King Curtis Live at Fillmore West album..with Purdie..Billy Preston...Cornell Dupree...etc...and your Stew rivaled that one!!!!”

“....Keely Smith, the poker-faced former mistress of dusk-to-dawn revels during the golden age of Las Vegas and the Cher of her era, return to Feinstein's at the Regency on Tuesday evening with a revised edition of "Vegas '58,".......Rather than straining to capture the raw, frantic zaniness of Prima, who died in 1978, Ms. Smith leaves it up to her excellent swing band to pump up the adrenaline.....The nine member ensemble, featuring the sweaty tenor saxophone of Jerry Vivino, took the songs to the finish line.”

“....In a word, this band is hot! Vivino's vocals and saxophone solos are dynamic, and the rhythm section of Merritt and Wormworth groove low and hard. This live performance...shows off their chops and versatility...succesfully bridges the gap between blues, jazz and what the music was like in the good old days of jazz gone by...”
(Joe Milliken)
Pick up the October 1st issue of Goldmine to read more.

“....Recreating a typical set she and Louis Prima performed six times a night, seven nights a week from midnight to 6am....Ms. Smith and her hot nine-piece band kick up a storm of happy noise......Most of the show's popping arrangements, by Billy May, Nelson Riddle and others, are transcriptions from the original recordings, with a synthesizer replacing the strings, and Jerry Vivino's saxophone supplying droll, earthy punctuation. Especially when the band attacks upbeat numbers like “Jump, Jive and Wail” and “Zooma Zooma,” a mood of frantic excitement prevails....”