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Thanks to Jan van Leersum and Rootstime.be for reviewing the latest quartet CD “Dynamics in Meditation”. The review in in Dutch however I’ve added a excerpt here below in English. If you want to read the full review in Dutch please click here.

The idea to form this quartet came about in 2019 and came from the Italian bassist Gianmarco Scaglia and the American drummer Paul Wertigo (1953) whose collaboration started about 10 years ago. Scaglia wanted to take a different direction and to that end he added 2 harmonic instruments, Simone Gubbiotti’s guitar and Mirko Pedrotti’s vibraphone, both Italians. Scaglia has been active in jazz for 40 years and that with a great flexibility in terms of styles, Wertigo is best known for his long stay in the Pat Metheny Group, but he was also part of the Polish progrock group SBB and played with many greats from the free jazz, Gubbiotti is best known from mainstream jazz and Pedrotti has a classical background. So four different perspectives and that also has its consequences, as I will explain below.

It is obvious that the two namesakes of the quartet are the driving forces, more than usual bass and percussion play a leading role here. This can mainly be heard in the uptempo opening track “Black Two” with a staccato bass rhythm and a fully responsive drum part by Wertico, actually a continuous drum solo….

Thanks to Jazz In Europe and Duncan Beasley for this great review of Dynamics in Motion. Here’s an excerpt of the review below. If you want to read the full review you can find it here.

Today marks the release of the new album by the Gianmarco Scaglia/Paul Wertico Quartet titled “Dynamic in meditation” (Challenge Records). The collaboration between the Italian bassist Gianmarco Scaglia and drummer Paul Wertico began almost ten years ago and has crossed many different genre boundaries.

After a series of tours and concerts throughout Europe Scaglia decided to implement his music following a different path, expanding his vision and the range of sounds. This turned into an interesting mix with the addition of two harmonic instruments, the guitar of Simone Gubbiotti and the vibraphone of Mirko Pedrotti. The idea behind this was to create a group divided into equal parts where every identity has its own distinctive role.

This collaboration could perhaps be seen as a potential hazard, Wertico, famous for his long stay with the Pat Metheny group but also for being a highly versatile drummer and lover of Free Jazz while Gianmarco Scaglia has traveled though four decades of Jazz with the concept that nobody and nothing must be forced. Guitarist Simone Gubbiotti might be considered a mainstream guitarist however with a marked contemporary sound and approach while Pedrotti comes from a classical background with a passion for odd meters. This all makes for an interesting texture which runs continuously throughout “Dynamic in meditation”.