CHRIS PASIN — Ornettiquette (review)

CHRIS PASIN — Ornettiquette album cover Album · 2018 · 21st Century Modern Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
kev rowland
This is the fourth album as a band leader by New York-based trumpeter Chris Pasin, and is the second I have heard from him. The rather unusual title is to let the jazz fan understand that this is an album saluting NEA Jazz Master and Pulitzer Prize winner Ornette Coleman and his long-time collaborator Don Cherry. The line-up is rather unusual, in that although there is a singer (Ingrid Sertso), much of the album is instrumental with every musician taking the lead at different points. So while trumpet may be blowing up a storm on one, on another it could be Karl Berger (vibraphone, piano) who is very much in control, drummer Harvey Sorgen commanding attention, bassist Michael Bisio taking it over or Adam Siegel (alto saxophone) ripping it a new one.

What makes this album work so very well indeed is the sheer variety of styles at play, and the way that Chris understands sometimes music works best if he just stands there and doesn’t play a note. All the musicians work in similar manners, so while the rhythm section are normally there (but not always), the band could be functioning as a duo, multiple different trios, sometimes a quartet, and then there may even be vocals as well. Each time I played this album I found even more to discover, as this really is a delight. It grooves, it moves, it factures into avant garde, and then it can all be back on again with pure melody. Berger’s vibraphone skills are exemplary, and he adds additional polish and tonal contrast to what is already a very accomplished album.

Easily one of the finest jazz albums I have heard in recent years, this just gets better each time I play it.
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