Rocking Hot Jazz With Susan Aquila And Planet Z
Bruce Von Stiers

I got this instrumental album a while back. It came from Kari Gaffney, whose company Kari-On Productions promotes jazz artists. So I was expecting a jazz instrumental album. What I found was something quite a bit different. And I mean that in a good way.

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http://www.bvsreviews.com/planetz.htm

Fusion Jazz, Half Notes — December 1, 2011 7:02 am
Half Notes: Planet Z – Planet Z Featuring Susan Aquila (2011)

Sporting a drop dead gorgeous image and a six string violin that resembles a Gibson Flying V, Susan Aquila certainly looks the part, but is her fiddle playing up to snuff? Well, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Kanye West, Metallica and Billy Joel, just to name a few of the acts she’s performed with, seem to think so. For this first album of her own, she enlisted the help of guitarist Robert Tomaro, who wrote all seven tracks and serves as Aquila’s soloing sparring partner.

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http://somethingelsereviews.com/2011/12/01/half-notes-planet-z-planet-z-featuring-susan-aquila-2011/

Planet Z featuring Susan Aquila, by Planet Z
Written by Jeff Wanser

The Realm of the Guitar Gods continues to be inhabited long after its time had supposedly ended. However, a new wing has to be added to accommodate the electric violin of Susan Aquila. As virtuosos go, she’s right at the top, but sounding sometimes like Jean Luc Ponty but just as often like Alvin Lee or Joe Satriani. With feet in both the rock and classical worlds, she seems at first an unlikely candidate to end up on a fusion album, but here she is, and the results are quite spectacular.

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http://jazzreview.com/reviews/latest-cd-track-reviews/item/28761-planet-z-featuring-susan-aquila.html

Planet Z Featuring Susan Aquila - Music by Rob Tomaro:

Most folks probably aren't familiar with Susan Aquila's name...but they have undoubtedly heard her before. After all, this extraordinarily talented electric rock violinist has played with a wealth of well-known celebrities including Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, and Britney Spears...and that's just the beginning. But on this album with her band Planet Z...Susan gets to really loosen up and let the music flow.

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karionproductions.blogspot.com/2011/08/planet-z-featuring-susan-aquila-is_31.html

BLUE CLAIR

PLANET Z featuring SUSAN AQUILA: You've got an interesting bunch of talent on board here that just blows the roof off the sucker. Aquila is a jazz/rock electric violinist with a classical background that sounds more like she's Jean Luc Ponty's daughter than Clara does. Kicking it out on the music of Rob Tomaro, also a jazz rocker with a classical background, the two are an incendiary combustion that can't be denied. The credentials of these two speak for themselves. Simply put, when you want that jazz/rock thing with something extra that just doesn't quit, this is the set to put at the top of your list. This is hot stuff that just can't be denied.

MIDWEST RECORD: midwestrecord.com/MWR369.html

Planet Z – PLANET Z FEATURING SUSAN AQUILA:

As any of the promoters who pass us CD’s for review will tell you – nearly ALL albums go in the queue & get reviewed in the order they were received… the only time a CD is pushed to the front of the queue is when the energy levels are so significantly notable that it would be unfair (to the whole world) not to let folks know about it.  This CD, featuring electric rock violinist Susan Aquila, definitely falls in that category.  This music pushes the envelope so hard it will blow your eardrums (not to mention your mind) immediately.  Her debut CD is colossal… just scope out the 3rd track, “The Fire of The Planes“, to hear what’s got me so fired up – & do it with ‘phones on at FULL BLAST… this music just RAWKS!  My favorite of the 7 tracks offered up is the superb “Dance of Ecstasy“… Susan’s violin just SOARS, & all the other players (Robert Tomaro on guitar, Irio O’Farrill on bass, Ray Marchica & Paul Pizzuti on drums & Joseph Church & Ted Baker on keyboards) are out in full force.  I certainly give this a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED; “EQ” (energy quotient) rating is a top-of-the-line 5.00… and they get the “PICK” of this issue for “best jazz/rock/fusion CD” of 2011!  (Keep your ears on this band, folks… you heard it here first – they WILL take over the world)!!!  

Get more information at www.planetztheband.com

Rotcod Zzaj

Philadelphia Inquirer 7/17/2009:

"...If the show's theme is that music's form needn't matter, it's mirrored in Aquila's professional life. A Juilliard trained violinist, she's at home here in hot pants and with a bangin' assortment of wired strings. But you can also find her in Broadway orchestras, White House chamber concerts, and at New York City's Bitter End club."