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Ondrej Pivec / Organic Quartet: Don't Get Ideas

By Nic Jones
June 5, 2006
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Ondrej Pivec / Organic Quartet: Don't Get Ideas

The musicians who make up this "classic" organ-led small combo have technique and ideas in abundance. The music they make is a considerable distance from the grits 'n' gravy circuit with which such groups might once have been associated, and Ondrej Pivec's harmonic and melodic senses, in particular, are more akin to Larry Young than, say, Baby Face Willette. To hear Pivec on McCoy Tyner's "Inception," for example, is to witness a musician quite unselfconsciously mining a rich musical seam with a vocabulary he has fashioned for his own satisfaction.

Pivec's accurately titled "Just Chillin'" offers evidence that this is more than just a blowing group. While it has an air of sophistication, the piece is not by any means contrived, and guitarist Libor Smoldas turns in perhaps his best performance of the disc here. While his tone is entirely in keeping with the modern mainstream idiom, he tends to be more rhythmically assertive than a lot of the players he might cite as influences.

This is a musical statement by four young musicians who know their subject and indeed their instruments inside out. As such, it is perhaps most pertinent of all as a sign of things to come. As it stands, the musicians work their way through the familiar with both skill and aplomb.

Track Listing

Mr. Littleroot

Personnel

Ondrej Pivec

organ, Hammond B3

Jakub Dolezal; tenor saxophone; Ondrej Pivec: organ; Libor Smoldas: guitar; Tomas Hobzek: drums.

Album information

Title: Don't Get Ideas | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Cube-Metier

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