LA based jazz musician Alan Pasqua writes ‘I hope the music created here will give you, the listener, a place to rest for a while,’ on the liner notes for My New Old Friend. And it’s an album that possesses the warmth and space to allow just that. There’s a certain cocktail, almost restaurant ease in which Pasqua on piano alongside Darek Oles (Bass), and Peter Erskine on drums approach the compositions. The six that are Pasqua’s own, are gentle and restrained, evolving slowly, almost absently through Pasqua’s laidback piano chords. It’s quite civilized music, the kind you would expect to be playing in the foyer of a high class dinner party, except that Pasqua’s chordal progressions have the ability to conjure up a weary though evocative sense of emotion. The second piece Barcelona in particular is low key and reassuring. It’s so comfortable that it feels like we’ve heard it before, almost like a TV show theme. Elsewhere the trio pick up Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman with a stripped down late night warmth. Ultimately it’s remarkably low key fare, a welcome respite from the bluster of modern jazz and modern life, just the kind of relaxing refuge that Pasqua was aiming for.
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