Mor, Omri: It’s About Time!

It’s About Time! That’s a statement of fact, not a throwaway thought. For while just about every jazz album you care mention features a selection of keen beats, percussive pounds and time-keeping timbres, It’s About Time! bases its very being round them. And yet, often the drumming from pianist Omri Mor’s collaborators behind the kit, Karim Ziad and Donald Kontomanou takes a happy back seat, or even reverses out of view entirely. But when it does, what steps in to take its place is the rhythmical thrum of acoustic and electric bass, or insistent piano percussion.

“Ramel Maya� starts the trip, the meandering yet forceful jazz tones following the clever drum work insistently, just as “Atlas� chimes on a piano beat that allows the percussion to take a more carefree stance. The two aspects mingling and then separating, but all the while the changes of tempo are what keep you tuned in. “Tears� slows things down and yet here it’s the acoustic bass that dances, swirls and squirms with delight, as it keenly lays down much more than a deep seated melody line. “Sica� plays things much more devil may care, piano shards shattering against snare smacks and cymbal crashes, as “Zarka� veers from being loungy and laid back to clicking and popping in time. In the end it all becomes something of a whirlwind at its crescendo.

“Marrakech� takes you to its desired destination, the snap of hand claps and climbing piano leaving more than enough room for the album’s only vocal to truly set a place and time, Maalem Abdelkebir Merchane bringing a joy to the occasion that isn’t always apparent elsewhere. Changing direction once more “Sefarad� twirls lightly in place, the acoustic bass once more sharp and forceful against what would otherwise have been a jaggedly laid back meander, while “You And The Night And The Music� closes proceedings in a pensive, if still somehow energetic tone.

This may not be an album for all, or for every occasion, but there are delights to uncover and there’s no denying that it more than ably meets the remit that it sets out. It’s About Time! It most certainly is!

Track Listing
1. Ramel Maya
2. Atlas
3. Tears
4. Sica
5. Zarka
6. Dawn
7. Marrakech
8. Sefarad
9. You And The Night And The Music

Added: October 10th 2018
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Omri Mor online
Hits: 792
Language: english

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