"Italian violinist Stefano Pastor is banging our souls again with a delightful new release in which spirituality, poetry and mastery are intermingled. (…)Pastor is totally attuned to the great sensitivities of self-awareness, transcendence and whole unity in which the expedition translates into music of subliminal proportions.He draws, drafts and reaches essential phrases, deploying his soul in each note that he circumspectly selects. These improvisational concepts will engross and thrill the listener, injecting into your force of will both tellurian and solemn directions. Sublime..."
Ana Isabel Ordonez – Jazzreview (USA) – July 2007
"Stefano Pastor turned his instrument to play in an antithetical way to a belcanto feel , and now he use it to give voice to all the faces of his emotional physiognomy and of his intellectual reflection. This could be in short the description of Pastor's playing, a violinist who is living a state of grace…"
Giampaolo Chiriacò - Jazzit year 8 n. 41 – July/August 2007
"…His pronunciation is very near at times to the one of a soprano sax, revealing, but also materializing the long and continuous research, the obstinate experimentation as well as the deph and the sensibility employed in the study, both on the technique and of the voice of important masters as Coleman and Lacy, Coltrane and Liebman (…) Pastor's sound, (…) in the moments of larger melodic extent, gives to the user also the perception of a thickening of silence harmonics…"
Erika Dagnino – FertiliLinfe n.1 – Summer 2007
"Only in the shadows and undercurrents of Stefano's odes does one
hear the violin. It is hidden. It also colors the sadness of this world where
trains pass the hoboes and shopping malls and the graveyards of
Horace, and pass on into time, where time is lost, and
all eternity will not take us along."
Mark Weber – Uncrying Sky' Liner Notes – July 2007
"…His sound is round, reach, almost insufflated, and as well as the great jazz masters, immediately recognizable, searched and found transforming and modifying his instrument. It is incredible how it seems an wind instrument and, at the the same time, it recalls the Stuff Smith' violin."
Marco Maiocco – Disco Club – July 2007
"…Pastor has, of course, a European sensibility but his innovative improvisational conception is rooted in the development of the jazz tradition …"
Anthony Barnett – Liner notes for Cycles – 2007
"…The violin in jazz has a marginal role (…) yet Pastor's violin is a remarkable exception..."
Hermann Mennenga – Jazzdimensions (de) – February the 16th 2007
"…Pastor has the great ability to make polyhedric his violin …"
Pietro Martinelli - Genovatune – January the 26th 2007
"…this violinist from Genova succeeds in forget the faultnes classical technic to obtaining a dense sound, rich rich of vocal inflexions, jointed to a saxofonistic phrasing…"
Francesco Martinelli – Musica Jazz, n. 11 anno 62°, November 2006
Stefano Pastor loves the de-compositions, de-structurations and all the ways in which a jazz musician can propose something different starting by existing musical material. (…). Intense, precious, hypnotic.
Sabine Moig – Jazzosphere n. 30 – October 2006
"…The attributes of his style - harsh, angular, dramatic and disparate - reveal all his original approach, the emotional lacerations, the intellectual and spiritual reasons of the violinist…"
Gianpaolo Chiriacò – Jazzit N. 36 anno 8 – Sept. – Oct. 2006
"…Pastor goes deep into his own way based on strictness on the research and on an extreme control of his instrument …"
Guido Festinese – Alias anno 9 n° 35 – "Il Manifesto" – September 9 2006
"…Pastor's violin promises sumptuous musical inspirations."
Ana Isabel Ordonez – Jazzreview (USA) – July 2006
"…Pastor is a violinist: this means a likely enough eccentric role in the jazz field. How could happen that Pastor plays a leading role, exploring the heart of jazz reasearch, focusing on Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane? I think the answer is in his ability to expand his violin's timbre, which becomes a mutant one, yielded to the musician's demands and ready to interact with the ensemble…"
Luca Bandirali - Jazzitalia – June the 2nd 2006
"…Pastor lead well the group and the violin which in his hands gains the sound of a wind instrument…"
Cosimo Parisi – Musicboom – June 2006
"…Pastor writes quirky songs that move in unexpected ways …"
Downtown (UK) - May 26th, 2006
"…Very interesting the Pastor's approach to the violin,: he is able to transform the violin sound into something close to a wind instrument…"
Paolo Perilli – Suono n. 390– March 2006
"…a violinist who, in accentation, pronounce and musical culture, is a clever jazzman."
Vittorio Lo Conte - All About Jazz Italia – 2006
"…Pastor uses his violi with the flexibility of a soprano saxophone…"
Johannes Kloth – Jazzdimensions (de) – January the 5th 2006
"…Interesting the use of micro-tonal variation by Stefano Pastor…"
Pino Saulo – Battiti _ Rai_Radio3 – July the 6th 2005
"…Pastor is a jazzman and with his violin searches with intelligent obstinacy new expressive ways…" Guido Festinese – Alias (inserto de "Il Manifesto") – june 11 2005
"…Pastor uses his instrument in a paroxystic, astounding way…"
Alceste Ayroldi – Jazzitalia – 2005
Stefano Pastor's music is placed on artistic and personal style which connects Stuff Smith with Ornette Coleman: this violinist from Genova succeeds in forgetting the faultless classical technique to obtain a dense sound, rich in vocal inflexions, joined to saxophonic phrasing. The Ornettian inspiration is declared by the bright execution of Bird Food from "Change of the Century" but the pivot of this successful album is the intense re-reading of John Coltrane's Crescent, in trio without trombone: Pastor extracts the highest of melodic contents to build a long solo with continuous emotional crescendo. In the programmatic Dimorfismo fragments of post-bop and blues converge on an oblique and open structure, while the classical background of the violinist is transmutated in the complex Don Juan, based on fragments from Mozart's themes, in a dark habanera. The level of the band is altogether very high; we cite as example Leveratto's bass: in pumping the time, suggesting the melody or sustaining the harmony he is always impeccable and never banal, a pleasure to listen to him. Francesco Martinelli – Musica Jazz, n. 11 year 62°, November 2006
After the first CD dedicated to Italian popular songs, the violinist Stefano Pastor, from Genova, decided to change style and label, showing his surprising eclectism. So he pass to the English SLAM, the label directed by the saxophonist George Haslam.
"Transmutations" begins with Ornette's "Bird Food" in a CD which has the classic format without harmonic instrument, with Pastor and the trombonist Stefano Calcagno sharing the solos or interacting in polyphonic style, accompained by the seasoned rhythmic section. There is also "Crescent" by Coltrane, a "tour de force" on trio which confirms stature of this violinist: it's impressing how he is able to improvise with the typical Coltrane's phrases on six minutes full of emotional tension which let breathless.
Another standard: "I Fall in Love too Easily" and the loved Jobim, with the superimpositions of Pastor's instrument to accompain the voice, almost a complete catalogue of what Pastor can do, not just only with the violin, but with the ability to immerse himself in these pieces with a malleable instrument, good for every situation.
"Transmutations" also shows The trombonist Stefano Calcagno who has a style close to the Roswell Rudd's one. He is perfect in his role, confidential, flexible, able to interpret Pastor's compositions in which shines "Vucciria", rich of voices and colours, as well as the well-known market in Palermo, Sicily.
An excellent recording by a violinist who, in accentation, pronunce and musical culture, is a clever jazzman.
Vittorio Lo Conte – All About Jazz – September 2006-10-05
From the biography of Stefano Pastor emerges a profile of a polyhedral musician, engaged in different musical styles but only in an opus like "Transmutations" his violin finds the right element. For two reasons, the first: the attributes of his style - harsh, angular, dramatic and disparate, as we described in his first work "Una Notte in Italia" – if inserted in the right background reveal all his original approach, the emotional lacerations, the intellectual and spiritual reasons of the violinist. No doubt from the start: "Bird Food" by Ornette Coleman is interpreted with a really excellent control of the melody and a gradual release of the impulses. The instrumental voice of Pastor doesn't pass unobserved. And then also "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blues", "Quarenta", Crescent" (a homage to Coltrane) and "Esquecendo Voce" in which Pastor draws a resinous vocal timbre. The second reason is the good choice of musicians: they sustain the leader with generous and cooperative devotion. For example (but it's true for everyone), Calcagno's trombone counterpoints, dominates when necessary and alternates in solos without any defilement
Gianpaolo Chiriacò – Jazzit N. 36 anno 8 – sett. – October 2006
Jazz Review, August/September 2006
Violinist/bandleader/composer Stefano Pastor certainly talks a good fight in his notes to this album. Everyone from Monk and Mingus to Mozart and Jobim is namechecked; all his own compositions are labelled ‘transmutations' of a pretty representative selection of jazz sub-genres, from blues and bop to samba and free improvisation (often, as in ‘Dimorfismo', in the same piece). The actual music does, for the most part, deliver. Propelled by a sparky, responsive and commendably versatile rhythm section, Pastor's violin and Stefano Calcagno's trombone intertwine, play complementary roles and strike sparks off each other, all the time sounding utterly at home in the various quick-changing stylistic roles assigned to them by Pastor's compositions. Many, however (particularly those from outside the free-improvisation camp), will find Pastor's violin tone (a sort of dry scrape deliberately lacking in mellowing resonance), and the resultant sourness of his harmony work with Calcagno, a little offputting at first. If you can get past that, though, there is a great deal to enjoy in this varied and thoughtful album.
The Mozart-inspired ‘Don Juan', for instance, has chosen its melodic fragments judiciously for its purposes, and is well served by what Pastor himself calls a "dark and meditative habanera". ‘Dimorfismo' juggles its various stylistic elements to intriguing effect; John Coltrane's ‘Crescent' moves from an arresting rubato into a meditative mood characterised by "feelings of tension and anxiety". So although the tonal qualities of the front-line players might be problematic for some listeners, this is an absorbing album filled with ideas and insight into the essential qualities of the various stages through which jazz has passed.
Chris Parker
JazzreviewUSA
Conversion into another state, change, reduction and sometimes evolution recall what transmutation is, in the sciences. It happens that jazz lies among many other elements in conversion, improvisation, orchestration, de-orchestration, elaboration and transmutation. Italian violinist Stefano Pastor blisses us with an awesome album in which (as the alchemist) he inspires, converts, improvises, orchestrates /de-orchestrates and transmutes. He creates ... Transmutations.
Transmutations is also host to some outstanding artists: bassist Piero Leveratto, trombonist Stefano Calcagno and drummer Maurizio Borgia, to form with Stefano Pastor a quartet in which this unusual instrumentation seems to smear the bar line and convert Pastor's six vivid pieces of art into an abstracted orchestration.
Whereas "Seul B" begins in a boppy notion, the quartet evinces in a lyrical sense ranging from cloudy sophistication to perplexing stateliness. "In Nel Blue Dipinto, Di Blues" Pastor soars over a tonal ravelment of Leveratto's staccato on a salient melody coupled with superb drums/string duets. Quoting Mozart, "Don Juan" is a device that has equal shivery territory broken up by compendious rhythmic passages serving as vehicles for a dramatic, collective empathy. In contrast, with "Quarentena", they move into a new realm that is just joyful and a distinctive interpretation of Brazilian music. Later "Diformisme" unfolds assorted melodious spaces. Leveratto's strings quiz with dexterity on Pastor's "Vucciria" with bold violin and momentous trombone.
Both violin and trombone criminally swing on Ornette Coleman's "Bird Food". The quartet works wildly and lyrically, decorated with strings, sticks and horn. Pastor's poignant violin dominates the intervals on John Coltrane's "Crescent". Styne and Cahn's "I Fall In Love Too Easily" is magically interpreted, leading to a wonderful pas de deux strings. Pastor's handiwork ends in a singing rendition of Jobim's "Esquecendo Voce", impregnated with a touch of violin and bass playing doleful euphonies accompanying Pastor's despairing voice.
Transmutations is a music that touches with its intimacy, its fraternity, its simple proximity and truth. Pastor converts and transmutes, and he surprises with the obvious: a state of grace which one could obtain or not maintain by force. Stefano Pastor's violin promises sumptuous musical inspirations.
Tracks: Bird Food, Seul B., Nel Blue Dipinto, Di Blues, Don Juan, Quanrenta, Crescent, Dimorfismo, I fall In Love Too Easily, Vucciria, Esquecendo Voce
Reviewed by: Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez
Downtown Music Gallery, NEWSLETTER - May 26th, 2006
STEFANO PASTOR QUARTET - Transmutations (Slam 512; UK) Featuring Stefano Pastor acoustic violin & percussion, Stefano Calcagno trombone, Piero Leveratto double bass and Maurizio Borgia drums. On 'Transmutations', Pastor's second CD, the ten tracks take material from diverse sources - Mozart to Ornette to Coltrane to Jobim, a show tune and of course the blues - 'transmuted' into excellent jazz vehicles, as well as six originals by the leader. I can't say that I'm familiar with any members of this Italian quartet, but you must admit that the instrumentation is unusual, a violin and trombone in the frontline, with no piano, just double-bass and drums. Ornette's "Bird Food" opens and swings nicely, with spirited solos from the trombone and violin. Mr. Pastor twists the notes/strings on his violin in the same way that Ornette does when he also picks up the violin on rare occasion. Pastor writes quirky songs that move in unexpected ways. With no pianist in sight, their bassist is often the central force here and he is a formidable player, strong solos as well as letting those notes ring or sing the enchanting melodies, stretching out the spirit within. John Coltrane's "Crescent" is done some rather poignant, bluesy passion featuring a long, touching solo from Pastor's violin. While the violin and trombone play the theme to "I Fall in Love Too Easily", the bass solos and centers the tune through its entirety. Piero's bass pumps hard on and swings masterfully on Pastor's "Vucciria", with more spirited solos from the violin and trombone. Mr. Pastor sings Jobim's "Esquecendo Voce" exquisitely as the violin and bass play melancholy harmonies around his soft, sad voice. A quaint conclusion to a modest gem. – BLG
Trasmutazioni
di
Cosimo Parisi
Il passaggio dalle partiture della musica classica all´improvvisazione del jazz e di strutture che sono fondate su altri tipi di ritmi rappresenta una difficoltà che non tutti i musicista sono in grado di affrontare con competenza. A parte l´abilità sullo strumento occorre l´urgenza espressiva ed la passione per un tipo di musica che nopn permette di nascondersi dietro una partitura.
Il violinista Stefano Pastor riesce a combinare, o meglio, a dividere bene i due mondi firmando anche nel campo della musica improvvisata delle incisioni di ottimo livello.
Dopo il suo primo lavoro dedicato alla canzone italiana arriva sulla label inglese Slam con un quartetto insieme al trombone di Stefano Calcagno, al contrabbassista Piero Leveratto ed al batterista Maurizio Borgia.
La musica di Trasmutations si muove su altre coordinate - pur dando spazio ai ritmi di samba di "Quarenta" ed al finale "Esquecendo Voce" di Antonio Carlos Jobim e così trovano spazio accenti ornettiani ed una versione di "Crescent" di John Coltrane.
Pastor gestisce bene il gruppo ed il violino, che nelle sue mani acquista le valenze di uno strumento a fiato. Si integra perfettamente con il trombone e reagisce alla forte spinta propulsiva della ritmica dando all´insieme un qualcosa di speciale, un´originalità di suono che fa del collettivo una formazione di livello internazionale.
Il tour de force su "Crescent" è uno dei migliori momenti dell´album. Un`ímprovvisazione molto ricca di tensioni risolte in modo magistrale in un disco ben organizzato. L´influenza di Ornette Coleman e John Coltrane appare palese insieme anche alla capacità di sintesi, cosa che ci fa sperare bene per il futuro.
Una musica inconsueta e accattivante.
Trasmutazioni Cosimo Parisi
Passing from classic music scores to jazz improvisation and to structures which are based on other kind of rhythms represents a difficoulty that a lot of musicians can't to face with competence. Besides the ability on instrument is necessary to have the expressive urgency and the passion for a kind of music which don't allow to hide himself behind a score.
The violinist Stefano Pastor is able to combine, or better, to divide well both the worlds creating also in the improvised music field excellent recordings.
After his first work dedicated to Italian song he arrives on English label SLAM with a quartet which includes Stefano Calcagno on trombone, Piero Leveratto on bass and Maurizio Borgia on drums.
The music of Transmutations move to other co-ordinates and even if it give space to samba rhythms in Qarenta and in the final Esquecendo voce, it finds Ornettian accents and a version of Crescent by Coltrane.
Pastor leads well the group and the violin which in his hands gains the sound of a wind instrument. It agrees perfectly with trombone and reacts to the propulsive pression of the rhythmic session giving to the ensemble something special, an original sound which makes the band an international collective.
Crescent's tour de force is one of the best passages of the disc. An improvisation full of tensions resolved in a masterly way. The influence of Coltrane and Coleman is clear, with a synthesis capacity which give hope for the future.
An unusual and appealing music.
Transmutations by Stefano Pastor, introduced by a nice cover, as original as its contents, attests the Italian jazz scene's strength. Pastor's work has a definite cultural horizon, firm roots and great energy.
What you should first know about Pastor is that he's a violinist: this means a likely enough eccentric role in the jazz field, as Carles-Clergeat-Comolli said "violin's history in jazz is twisted and conflicting". How could it happen that Pastor plays a leading role, exploring the heart of jazz reasearch, focusing on Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane? I think the answer is in his ability to expand his violin's timbre, which becomes a mutant one, yielded to the musician's demands and ready to interact with the ensemble; inverting the traditional orchestration's options, violin is contrasting to Leveratto's double bass while is according to Stefano Calcagno's trombone.
Transmutations is a real revelation: original tracks are impressive not just in the contemporary jazz's way of emptiness, but for their full thematic writing: "Don Juan" works on european classical tradition, "Quarenta" has a brazilian flavour; "Dimorfismo" and "Vucciria" are agglomerates of different cells, oscillating from syntax to parataxis in a well planned structure.
It's very difficult to settle the highest point of Transmutations: I think it could be "Crescent", which Pastor plays analyzing Coltrane's master take as well as the alternate take (the one with Coltrane-Jones duo).
There are several good reasons to listen to Stefano Pastor's Transmutations: it happens to me so frequently I don't remember any.
Luca Bandirali – Jazzitalia - June 2006
"…an excellent quartet who favours very well the leader's research around the microtonal tune…"
Pino Saulo – Battiti – RAI Radio Tre – 28 July 2006
Jazz På Svenska
The violin's self esteem as jazz a instrument could have been greater. In fact it must be one of the most underrated jazz instruments we have, and this record from the Italian violinist Stefano Pastors great quartet could serve as a fine introduction to it.
Stefano Pastor's way of playing the violin has sometimes been compared to the sound of a woodwind or a saxophone. I don´t really hear the similarities although Pastor has a very personal style and tone.
The music on Transmutations moves between bittersweet harmonies of traditional Italian songs to free form jazz influenced by Pastor's heroes like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. The record contains Pastor's own material as well as two really personal versions of Coleman's ‘Bird Food' and Coltrane's ‘Crescent'. The last one with Pastor, at the same time raw and passionate tone, is one of the albums highlights. Another tune that I often return to is the beautiful version of ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily' that could have been perfect as a mob movie soundtrack.
A really great record that proves that you can produce some really interesting jazz music from a violin - even without sounding like a woodwind
Markus Axelsson Translated from the Swedish
Alias
Coming tohis second work as a soloist the violinist Pastor goes deep into his own way based on strictness on the research and on an extreme control of his instrument, structural elements which don't prevent the superbly easy listening: this means that the ten "transmutations" issued by the English label offer themselves to the listener on a simple level but also appreciated by those searching oneiric, ethereal and intense content in the music. It is in practice a work which de-constructs some melodic, harmonic and rhythmic boundaries putting together Ornette Coleman, Mozart, Coltrane, Jobim and even Modugno. Pastor's almost microtonal violin is here accompained by Stefano Calcagno's trombone, Maurizio Borgia's drums and the immense bass of Piero Leveratto.
Translated from Italian
Guido Festinese – Alias anno 9 n° 35 – Supplemento Settimanale de "Il Manifesto" – 9/9/'06
Stefano Pastor - Transmutations
(SLAM Productions 2005)
Fiolens självaktning som jazzinstrumet kunde varit större. Det bevisar om inte annat den här raden från pressmaterialet för den här skivan:
"His way of playing the violin, is based on a specific and personal research of a sound, that ended up in this days to sound like a "voice" similar for expression to a woodwind or a saxophone."
Nu låter inte alls Stefanos violin som något blåsinstrumet även om hans sound ärklart speciellt utanmer som en... violin helt enkelt, vilket duger gott, för instrumentet måste vara ett av de mest underskattade jazzinstrumenten.
Musiken på Transmutations rör sig mellanbitterljuvmusik med melodier hämtade från italiensk populärkultur till friarejazz influerad av Stafanos storaförebilder som Ornette Coleman och John Coltrane. Gruppen levererar också högst personliga tolkningar av Colemans Bird Food och Coltranes Crescent. Den sistnämda med Pastors ganskaråa men lidelsefulla tontillhör en av plattans höjdpunkter. Ett annatspår som jag återkommer tillär versionen av I Fall In Love To Easilysom hade gjort sig utmärktsom maffiafilmssoundtrack.
Transmutations är en platta som bevisar att violinen gör sig alldeles utmärkt som jazzinstrument - utan att behöva låta som ett blåsinstrument.
Stefano Pastor loves the de-compositions, de-structurings and all the ways in which a jazz musician can propose something different starting by existing musical material. The six compositions by himself recorded in this CD originate by his research and his attempt to transform the melodies he likes. Seul B, in which Pastor pay hommage to Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, is a manipulation of material coming by the origins of the blues. His superb interpretation of themesof Mozart's Don Giovanni, in Don Juan, is a wonderful example of transmutation. Lyricism, depth, tension, energy are expressed in this piece in which appears a meditation about the death, on the condition of human fragility, on the ephemeral as existential value. Intense, precious, hypnotic.
Sabine Moig – Jazzosphere n. 30 – October 2006
Listening to this Italian violinist is a rare experience; I don't know if the violinist Joe Venuti could have a partial influence on Pastor's music. His music, with its bowing, I think is positioned in an intermediate field between Stuff Smith and Billy Bang. Of course the compositions contained in this CD are more modern; there are also some beautiful versions of "Bird Food" by Ornette Coleman and "Crescent" by Coltrane, also "Esquecendo Voce" by Jobim in which Pastor sings briefly, inspired by Chet Baker. His selection is conceived from compositions of Mozart, Mingus and Monk. "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blues", clearly a paraphrase of Modugno's song, is bright and contains also reference to "Come Prima".
The tunes are characterized by improvisations in Ornettish style and are altogether rhythmically swinging.
All the musicians play fluently and Pastor is right using the expression "Transmutations" for this disc. The music is bright and rich of modernisms.
The soloists are very experienced and the bass player Leveratto works very well without the piano.
In conclusion, for the people keen on American violinists, this disc will be a discovery.
Olli Ervasti – Jazzrytmit n. 4 (Finland) – June 2006
