Paul Wertico's Drums Without Boundaries

A seven-time Grammy winner who rose to fame in the ’80s and ’90s with the Pat Metheny Group, drummer Wertico has been pushing the envelope from behind the kit for decades. From his early Chicago-based group Earwax Patrol [sic] to his many outings as a leader, beginning with 1993’s The Yin And The Yout, Wertico has been an uncommonly open-minded musician.

Now 70, the intrepid drummer-composer-bandleader has undertaken perhaps his most audacious project to date in the company of the Italian Ichos Percussion Quintet. The results are as bold as they are uncategorizable.

The ensemble shifts nimbly from Scaglia’s Latin-flavored opener “Alchimia” to his free-boppish “Black Two” to Wertico’s freewheeling percussion jam “Corner Conversation,” highlighting the versatility of this project. Guitarist Alex Munk contributes a skronky, distortion-laced solo on the groove-heavy section of vibraphonist Mirko Pedrotti’s suite-like “Hunting,” while Scaglia’s delicate and melancholy “Sicily” has echoes from John Abercrombie’s ECM songbook.

But perhaps the most daring pieces, aside from an 11-minute deconstruction of John Cage’s “Third Construction,” are Wertico’s dynamic and somewhat cacophonous drumming showcases, like “Somewhere In Between,” “Time Well Served,” “Three Movements In Movement” and “You Can Get There From Here.” Thrilling, though not for the faint-hearted. - Four stars! / Downbeat