| Jazz |
Pat Bianchi: Rewriting the Rules of the Jazz Organ
The sun is already blazing over Austin as I write these lines, a familiar kind of early-day intensity that seems to sharpen the senses. Through my large speakers, the Hammond organ of Pat Bianchi’s latest album (recorded in June 2025) fills the room, resonating with a physical force that is impossible to ignore. You don’t merely hear his playing, you feel it. There is weight in every chord, intention in every phrase, a reminder that the organ, when mastered, can still sound seismic in the digital age.
Many listeners will inevitably think of “It Was a Very Good Year,” the standard immortalized by Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, two artists who, in my view, delivered its most enduring interpretations. Yet this album refuses nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. Enter Troy Roberts, an exceptional saxophonist who takes the thematic material and propels it into something altogether more volatile. His improvisations border on the ecstatic, pushing the listener toward a kind of joyful hysteria.
Roberts is a musician I have followed for years, precisely because of his refusal to play it safe. His innovation lies not in abstraction, but in calculated risk-taking, risks that may be meticulously considered, yet always feel thrilling in the moment. Here, his saxophone finds an ideal counterpart in Bianchi’s organ. The dialogue between the two is combustible. Power meets agility. Structure meets daring. The result is nothing short of explosive.
The album quickly reveals a broader emotional palette. By the second track, a more romantic sensibility emerges, allowing space for the remarkable subtlety of drummer Colin Stranahan, whose touch is as precise as it is understated. His sense of time, elastic yet grounded, anchors the ensemble and gives the music room to breathe. Bianchi’s choice of collaborators is anything but accidental. This is a band assembled with intelligence and purpose.
What follows throughout the record are arrangements that feel less like reinterpretations and more like acts of musical re-writing. Familiar compositions are dismantled and reassembled with intellectual rigor and emotional clarity. Such ambition feels entirely natural for an artist of Bianchi’s stature. He has firmly established himself as one of the leading organists on today’s international jazz scene.
His accolades tell part of the story: winner of DownBeat magazine’s “Rising Star” poll in 2016, recipient of the Hot House poll in 2019, and nominee in 2024 for Keyboardist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association (an organization of which I am proud to be a member). But awards alone cannot capture what defines Bianchi’s playing. Known for his bold exploration of new territory for the jazz organ, he fuses deep-rooted tradition with a forward-looking, almost architectural creativity. The influence of his mentors, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Joey DeFrancesco, is evident, yet never derivative. Bianchi does not imitate; he extends the lineage.
To fully appreciate this achievement, one must consider the broader history of the Hammond organ in jazz. From Jimmy Smith’s revolutionary swing to Larry Young’s modal experiments, the instrument has always walked a tightrope between groove and abstraction. Bianchi stands squarely in that tradition, while pushing it forward. He understands the organ’s historical role as both rhythmic engine and harmonic architect, and he exploits both with remarkable fluency.
His career path is as unconventional as it is impressive. Bianchi has toured with Steely Dan, a rare credential in the jazz world, as well as with Chuck Loeb, Ralph Peterson Jr., Tim Warfield, George Coleman, Terrace Martin, Joe Locke, Red Holloway, Dakota Staton, Mark Whitfield, Terell Stafford, Eric Marienthal, and many others. These experiences, spanning jazz, fusion, and beyond, are not merely résumé highlights. They are audible throughout the album. One hears them in his impeccable sense of placement, his instinctive understanding of when to push forward and when to step back.
It becomes clear rather quickly that while jazz boasts no shortage of great organists, Pat Bianchi has forged a singular artistic identity. His playing is unmistakable: expressive, elastic, and deeply personal. It often brings me back to long afternoons spent in Paris, wandering through Beaubourg, standing before Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks. I would imagine them bending and twisting at will while Weather Report played through my Walkman headphones. There is something of that same surreal elasticity here, a music unafraid to bend time, stretch form, and distort expectation, only to snap back with renewed momentum.
Listening from Austin only reinforces that sensation. This is a city that thrives on musical hybridity, on tradition colliding with experimentation. In that sense, the album feels perfectly at home here. It carries the confidence of musicians who know where they come from, and who are unafraid of where they might go next.
This record feels destined to be timeless. Though unmistakably modern, it possesses the enduring quality of great acoustic albums, music built to travel across decades, earning the respect of listeners who will inevitably draw inspiration from its craftsmanship. It is beautiful, elegant, majestic, inventive, and quite literally exhilarating.
More than that, it stands as a quiet manifesto for the future of the jazz organ trio: a reminder that innovation does not require abandoning tradition, but rather reimagining it with courage and intelligence. This is an album to be savored slowly, ideally among friends, and one that will continue to resonate long after the final notes fade.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, January 8th 2026
Follow PARIS-MOVE on X
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Musicians :
Pat Bianchi | Organ/Keys
Troy Roberts | Saxophone
Colin Stranahan | Drums
Track Listing:
It Was A Very Good Year
Jitterbug Waltz
I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Up To Dry
The Song Is You
Confluence
Come Rain or Come Shine
Wise One
Recorded June 10, 2025
Trading & Studio – Paramus NJ
Recorded bay Chris Sulit
Mixed and Mastered by Pat Bianchi