Also this issue: Musical Chairs Queens of the Stone Age should have a revolving door on their tour bus. -Sam Adams Strong Man The Weakerthans’ John Samson likes humans. -Chris Parker Zod Records Tour -A.D. Amorosi Le Tigre -Patrick Rapa 'Grass Roots -Mary Armstrong

August 29-September 4, 2002

musicpicks

Phil Markowitz

Chet Baker called him "one of the most sensitive, lyrical and inventive piano players of all time," and if his words seem unduly biased (Baker was, after all, speaking of his own former accompanist), the endorsement is no less impressive. Markowitz served a four-year tenure with Baker in the early '80s, and nearly as long with the Mel Lewis Orchestra. In the years since, he's worked with Toots Thielemans, Bob Mintzer and fellow Poconos resident David Liebman (he's the piano man in Tenor Summit, featuring Liebman, Joe Lovano and Michael Brecker). It's been a while since his last album -- 1998's Taxi Ride (Passage), with Thielemans -- but Markowitz has been far from idle. While juggling professorial work at the Manhattan School of Music and the New School, he recently completed a commissioned symphony, "Abstract-Expression-Musical Portraits of American Masters," inspired by the visual lyricism of Pollock and De Kooning. Here he'll settle back into the piano chair, with a quintet consisting of bassist Tony Marino, vibist Tony Miceli, and drummer Tom Whaley.

Fri., Aug. 30, 5 p.m., free with museum admission, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th Street and the Parkway, 215-763-8100.

—Nate Chinen

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