Reviews

2

Solo Piano-Lessons-Ensemble Performances-Reviews

"JAZZ! Heard the Cohen-Rutkowski Project last weekend with singer Sandra Lomax! Guys, this was a real treat: new, original music interspersed with loved favorites...The musical talent was wonderful! And when Sandra sang a duet with Cohen's sax, it was a special delight."
From Facebook (8/17/24)

"OMG what a great show! Sandy Lomax is a delight to hear, and the whole set was a happy combination of original sounds and highly skilled performers. The audience enthusiastically appreciated every song, every instrumental. Please come back, we need more of this!"
From Facebook (8/17/24)

"...This five-movement, ("Divertimento) ambitious, not-so-merely "diverting" piece proved the most interesting of this season's premieres by any sponsor in any venue I normally attend. Cast in an eclectic modernist mode, Rutkowski employs many sonic devices that work well into the musical fabric: An extended one-note violin harmonic and piano strings strummed-with-the-fingers with the pedal held are two examples, Anne Reynolds' solo flute work in the Prelude and Sarabande movement was especially ingratiating. Rutkowski...is to be commended for offering something new of estimable value, a seemingly all too rare occurrence."

Tom Aldridge, "Ronen Chamber Ensemble" Nuvo, April 10-17, 2002

"Take 5 and The Nearness of You were amazing! We were watching at The Prewitt!"
From audience member comment on Venmo (7/11/25)

The newly formed Cohen-Rutkowski Project introduced us to solo licks from a center flow and extended it through to its exit as a continuum out of our earshot; gracefully balletic is the best way I can describe what was happening as pianist Chris Rutkowski and saxophonist Rich Cohen took us into their private conversation"
Rita Kohn, NUVO Review, Cohen-Rutkowski Project + Sandy Lomax at the Jazz Kitchen (1/29/23)

Rich and Chris return to the very fine WICR radio program in May, 2023, "Have You Heard" for an hour-long interview and lots of music from the Project featuring Sandy Lomax. Listen

In his review of our Indy Jazz Kitchen Halloween 2021 performance, Jay Harvey notes "Rutkowski's tendency to find fresh ways of being funky at the piano...and ...Cohen's searching yet emotionally settled improvisation...sent a large, appreciative crowd happy out into the chilly night air."

Listen to a wide ranging interview with Chris Rutkowski on the WICR radio program, "Have You Heard"

Nuvo review of Cohen-Rutkowski Project at Indianapolis Central Library, 3/6/22

Carmel Current, 9/8/19