Pianist Dave Posmontier hosts “Jazz @ The Center” First Wednesday Neighborhood Concerts Series at the Cheltenham Center for the Arts, 439 Ashbourne Road, Cheltenham, PA, 19012. Showtime is 7:30-9:00 pm. Tickets: $15 in advance ($20 at the door). Students $5 and children under 12 FREE!

Pianist Debbie Poryes’s music is powerful with a warm sophistication. Her highly original compositions are influenced by jazz from bebop to post-bop to modern times, as well as by 20th-century classical music and free jazz. Her voicings, melodies and touch are exquisite. Her sense of time and swing are deeply felt, and yet she can also be lighthearted.

“Poryes is an inventive pianist, taking familiar standards and setting them slightly askew to re-examine them. Poryes’s originals are varied in their moods and effects, serene… powerful… admirable.” Cadence Magazine

“Debbie Poryes’s infectious gifts as an abundantly creative jazz pianist-composer-arranger point out her distinctive identity among the huge crowd of excellent pianists. Easily perceptible is her genuine, spirited exuberance for the music, the piano, and the open interaction with her bandmates — a standout quality of her engagingly personal and musical personality. Impressive, too, is how her swinging joyousness articulates every note she plays.” Herb Wong, jazz critic

“Debbie is a talented mainstream modern pianist who sounds very much like herself.” 4-star review, Scott Yanow, Downbeat