Customer Reviews

East Coast Roots

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Throughout college I worked in the kitchen at a restaurant/bar that featured a cheesy organ and guitar combo playing sing-along oldies for the blue hair and toupee crowd. It gave me an aversion to the organ that makes me a pretty tough customer for that instrument. Mr. Bianchi and his partners have got me recalibrated.

This recording has great melodic improvisation and fun playing throughout, but what sets it apart are the rhythms Pat introduces into his phrasing. They feel entirely unique for a jazz organ player. I am a jazz dilettante at best, but after hearing this recording, I think I could recognize Pat's playing blindfolded. The interplay with guitar and percussion is complex and yet well blended. Rhythmic transitions are surprising and novel but never jarring. These are three guys listening to each other and telling a story together, not three competing voices.

This just plain makes me smile. Buy the CD and see them live if you can.

I can't get this disk off my system. It's great. I recently saw Pat Bianchi playing with Pat Martino in Austin TX (!) at the Continental Club (!!), one of the best shows of recent memory (the late, great Steve Lacy played some memorable dates there as well). Another reviewer points out that Pat's only contemporary equal on the B-3 is Joey DeFrancesco, and I personally would concur with that judgment. The most pleasant surprise of this record for me is the guitar playing of Mark Whitfield--so organic, supportive, warm, yet assertive when it needs to be. Just an excellent recording from start to finish.