Live at Simon’s Wine & Jazz Bar – Jacksonville
by Rick Grant of Entertaining U newspaper, Jacksonville, FL

Last Friday night, The Julie Lyon Quartet traveled down from Orlando to play at Simon’s for a second engagement at this classy restaurant-wine bar. And, I was there to chronicle the action since the name was new to me. Yes, I’m always looking for new artists that I haven’t covered before.

Simon’s upscale decor was the perfect venue to enjoy Julie Lyon’s smooth as silk vocal improvisations and her band of top notch players including her husband, Tom Cabrera on drums, Brian Petras on piano, and stand-in bassist Brian Hall. Normally, Larry Hutter plays bass for The Julie Lyon’s Quartet, but he was unable to travel to Jacksonville. However, Brian did a terrific job on upright bass—like he been playing with the quartet for many moons.

Lyon’s quartet is a polished and taut-as-wit improvisational ensemble.... Of course, savvy musicians know that in many cases, their clever improvisations are relegated to background music—a backdrop for dinning and socializing. However, even the seemingly apathetic people are aware of the music, and appreciate the professionalism of the group.

For The Julie Lyon Quartet’s gig at Simon’s, some people were clearly there to listen to the quality music of this finely tuned improvisational machine, while enjoying the plush laidback atmosphere of this relaxing wine bar and fine dinning restaurant.

Julie's husband Tom Cabrera is a masterful drummer......Tom is one of the few drummers that can pull off an intelligent solo that doesn't get on my nerves. Some drummers forget that the traps area a musical instrument not made for macho posturing with banging sticks.

Overall, The Julie Lyon Quartet is a class act. With lovely Julie Lyon out front performing with her velvet pipes, TJLQ is a top tier jazz ensemble, improvising to the great old standards that never go out of style.

After over twenty years of covering every conceivable musical genre, for me it’s always a pleasure and an honor to witness high quality musicianship performed in a high class atmosphere. No doubt The Julie Lyon Quartet will be back at Simon's in the near future. For discriminating music fans, it's a new jazz ensemble to check out at this hip room.