Review: Matteo Pastorino – Lightside (A.MA Records)

As a bass clarinetists, even in jazz, it's not the most common of instruments - even more chance of making a name for yourself then?

Normal clarinets ain't been a thing since Akker Bilk (Ed. ask your grandparents) or at the other extreme, the children's introduction to the orchestra with Prokofieve's 'Peter And The Wolf.

But there's non of that with Matteo's 'Lightside' who is joined by Domenico Sanna (piano), Dario Deidda (bass) and Armando Luongo (drums).

The opener. 'Gorèe' is a teaser as to how deep Matteo is whilst 'Coming Back' and the tiltle track, show a deep and spiritual vibe of the Bass Clarinet which multi-instrumentalist Alfred Weisberg-Roberts (aka Daedelus) used to draw up in his mulit-layed hip-hop electronic tapestry.

And talking tapestry, 'Les Annèes Folles' is like a weaving river flow with Matteo and Domenico setting the pace from the front whilst the 'best' example of the group's playing are 'Scarabocchio' and the closer, 'Marzo'.

Their 'Tigre' is a mellow jazzcat and 'Elvira' is no mistress of the dark; shadey but no mistress.

So a bit of an eye opener plus a solid jazz album that follows in the footsteps of Miloš Čolović's 'To The Beat of My Footsteps' (see review HERE), A.MA are not letting the grass grow under thier jazzy feet.

Artist: Matteo Pastorino 

Title: Lightside 

Release date: 21st March, 2025

Label : A.MA Records

Catalog Number : AMCO4

Format: CD / Digital / Bandcamp (Pre-Order on Bandcamp Friday, 14th March)