js Woodwinds performer Mark Ortwein has been working with top names in the music business for over 30 years and had wanted to record an album as a leader for some time, but it was not until the covid pandemic hit that Mark was able to concentrate on his own music. It was finally time for Ortwein to make his move, and the end result is the album, “It was Time”. This is an eclectic offering that loosely falls into the fusion heading, but don’t expect 70s style shred fest battles amongst the instrumentalists, no, thankfully this album is more musical than that. Some of the styles that Mark and his crew hit on here include, Latin jazz, moody ballads, hard rock, post bop and more. There is a long list of guest musicians on here, but one that will get your attention for sure is guitarist John Fell. John’s aggressive and gnarly fret work is the spice that keeps these tunes from becoming too predictable. Fell can play that Barney Kessell style extra grit hard bop, as well as a rockin Jeff Beck fusion, but he also sometimes gets into a Sonny Sharrock type barrage of sliding note clusters. Fell came to play and he does not compromise.

Looking at some of the best tracks, “Pepperoni Grande Con Queso Mas” is high energy Afro-Cuban jazz with a great jaggedy piano solo from Pavel Polanco-Safadit. Ortwein‘s funky electric Bassoon sounds excellent on this one, probably one of the more successful uses of Bassoon in the world of jazz. “Lunar Love” starts as a ballad but becomes quite intense and dissonant once the soloists enter. Classic standard, “After You’ve Gone”, is given a relaxed hip-hop beat as Kenny Rampton from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra provides that old school trumpet solo that those Lincoln Center guys are best at. “Basso Bossa” starts as a bossa nova, but quickly shifts into one of those Allman Brothers style freight train chuggin rock jams. On the album’s closing track, Mark lets his son, Olas, double track himself on guitar, bass and keyboards while he builds a massive riff that recalls early Black Sabbath. “It was Time” is a fun album, lots of energy and great playing from an all-star cast.