Liner Notes by Bill Milkowski

Coming on the heels of 2022’s Almadraba, his deeply evocative suite drawing on Andalusian culture and brimming with Iberian, classical, and flamenco flavors, Oscar Peñas’ latest finds him returning to his jazz roots. Once again accompanied by 6-string electric bassist Moto Fukushima and drummer Richie Barshay, his regular rhythm tandem for the past 14 years, and violinist Sara Caswell, a member of his working quartet since 2013, the Catalan-American guitarist-composer is also joined by two special guests — guitarist Mike Stern and pedal steel guitar ace Greg Leisz — who help elevate the proceedings on Chicken or Pasta, Peña’s sixth recording as a leader.
“My last project was more involved in terms of composition,” he said of Almadraba. “I arranged everything for a string quartet. Now it’s back to the lead sheet format and minimal arrangements where the idea is, ‘Let’s just play and have some fun.’”
You get that sense of fun right out of the gate with the swinging title track. Peñas introduces his warm-toned guitar signature in tight unison on the buoyant head with violinist Caswell, who swings in a giddy, syncopated Stuff Smith mode on her solo. Oscar’s fluid legato solo over the relaxed midtempo 4/4 pulse laid down by Fukushima and Barshay is melodic and tasty in a Jim Hall vein.
Stern makes his first appearance on “M.A.S. (Mutual Admiration Society),” blowing over the changes (based on the standard “Alone Together”) with typical chopsy abandon. Peñas dials up a touch of compression for a slightly distortion-tinged effect to distinguish his guitar from Stern’s signature tone. “It’s second nature for Mike to play ‘Alone Together’ in that kind of uptempo fashion,” said Oscar. “Just about every time I would see him at the 55 Bar, he would open his set with that song. And he’s just fantastic here.” Peñas rises to the occasion with a potent solo of his own on this swinging vehicle.
The affecting, harmonically intricate “October” opens with some gentle solo fingerstyle playing by Peñas before Caswell, Fukushima and Barshay join in on the sprightly waltz-time theme. An uplifting number that may recall Pat Metheny’s earlier works from albums like Bright Size Life or Watercolors, or even Steve Swallow’s lilting and oft-covered “Falling Grace,” it features a Swallow-esque bass solo by Fukushima, a stirring solo from Caswell and a luminous solo from the leader.
Stern returns on “The Seventies,” a cascading number that captures the refreshing energy and spirit of that transformative decade. As Oscar explained, “When I first started to study jazz guitar, the great players that affected me were Pat Metheny, John Scofield, John Abercrombie and Bill Frisell. Then as I delved into more of the tradition, I discovered Joe Pass and Jim Hall. But those other guys, and especially all those records by the Pat Metheny Group, really set the tone for a new sound in jazz guitar that influenced me and so many guitarists from my generation.” Stern’s solo here is epic. Full of effortless double-timing and signature keening string bends, it sets a high bar for Oscar to follow. And he responds with a more deliberate but no less potent guitar solo of his own. “I’ve always liked the idea of utilizing two guitars, like the Bass Desires group,” he said, referring to bassist Marc Johnson’s band from 1985 featuring John Scofield and Bill Frisell with drummer Peter Erskine. “So Mike was willing to do it and it was perfect for his sound.”
Leisz, whose masterful pedal steel work has colored recent recordings by Bill Frisell and Charles Lloyd, creates the perfect atmospheric mood alongside Caswell’s violin on “Spaghetti Western,” Peñas’ salute to Ennio Morricone, the longtime musical partner to Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, a pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre that gave us such classic Clint Eastwood vehicles as “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” Said Oscar, “I happened to meet Greg when I first moved to New York 16 years ago. He was playing with a friend of mine, Carrie Rodriguez, who has now moved back to Austin, Texas. But during that time, he became acquainted with my music. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and when it came time to record this piece, I thought of him because pedal steel guitar was more appropriate to get that Ennio Morricone-Sergio Leone vibe that I was looking for. And what he added to the track was wonderful. He’s not doing lines or soloing or anything, he’s leaving space and just adding those colors that give it a more textural vibe. And I knew that he was going to do great. I love when you don’t give much direction and it comes out even better than you had in your mind.” Caswell also turns in a stunning solo on this uncommonly evocative number.
“Extraordinary” is an angular blues fueled by Barshay’s shuffle-swing groove and Fukushima’s walking bass lines. Reminiscent of Benny Golson’s “Blues March” (a signature tune for Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers) with maybe a touch of Thelonious Monk’s “Ba-Lue Bolivar Blues-Are” in there as well, this one features unrestrained, blues-tinged solos by Peñas and Caswell along with a virtuosic high-register bass solo by Fukushima. Oscar explained that the title comes from a memorable encounter with avant-garde jazz piano master Cecil Taylor. “When I first moved to New York I was living in the Clinton Hill-Fort Greene area and there was this guy that I was having lots of bellinis and conversations with who was kind of anonymous there. Most people didn’t recognize him but I immediately knew it was the great Cecil Taylor. Anyway, we had many long conversations about music, and one time he asked me what I was listening to and I told him Stevie Wonder, Astor Piazzolla, and Bill Evans. And he was like, ‘Oh, Bill Evans is extraordinary-ordinary.” But he said it not in a jealous way. He was a lover of Bill Evans’ music, and he was right. Bill Evans’ music has that very ordinary quality in a sense because you can hum it in the shower. Everything is very melodic. And when Cecil told me that, I thought, ‘Well, at some point...I don’t know when...but I’m going to make a song with that title, because it’s so great.”
The pensive minor key ballad “As Long As I Have You” is a dedication to Oscar’s wife Zulema. As he explained, “At the beginning of COVID, before there was any vaccine, we both got it. I was asymptomatic while she got it really bad. But we didn’t want to go to any emergency room or anything like that because there were all those horrendous images on tv at the time. So we stayed home ’til she healed, which took about a month. So I wrote that song for her.”
The dreamy closer, “Ethereal,” is one that Peñas calls “the most difficult song on the album.” Based on George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, it features Peñas and Caswell soloing simultaneously rather than taking turns. “We went on tour last year and I brought along some of these new songs, but I didn’t give any instructions. So all of a sudden we’re playing ‘Ethereal’ and Sara and I were improvising together, and I thought, ‘Wow, I like that.’ So it’s not like any of the other songs where there’s a given structure and you expose the melody then introduce solos and maybe you trade fours and eights or something like that. We are improvising at the same time, and that interaction of being in the moment and listening so closely is very precious.”
Regarding the wry title for his sixth outing as a leader, Oscar explained, “During the pandemic, we couldn’t fly, and we were missing that phrase from being on American Airlines or Delta, where the stewardess would come by and say, ‘Chicken or pasta?’
Maybe on his next transatlantic flight, he’ll order both.