Benjie Porecki - All That Matters (2024)

From the cover graphics to its musical content, this is a funky, soulful, bluesy, and yet oddly reassuring recording. Benjie Porecki has at least a half a dozen other titles to his name, and has played with Carlos Santana, Chaka Khan, Nnenna Freelon Stevie Wonder and Tom Scott.

Porecki is primarily a pianist, but hits the Hammond organ for some of the more "sanctified" numbers. From groove to ballad, Porecki plays convincing blues-drenched music, mainly his own compositions. His band provides solid backing, and bassist Michael Bowie is an unsung hero, providing a remarkably consistent and tasteful rhythmic framework in which Porecki weaves his lines. The listener gets a lot of originals, but also Hampton Hawes' "Sonora" and Daryl Hall and John Oates' "She's Gone." Everything is sensitively played, and there are no wasted notes and no gimmicks. It is a spiritual recording, no doubt, but even in its contemplative cat's-eye cover it invites late-day reflections. For that purpose, especially, the recording is more or less perfect. No one will be rocking in their seats, but one suspects that is not the purpose to which this recording was made.

As far as that goes, it can only be guessed that the track listing suggests the sort of emotional trauma that most lives sooner or later face. For sure, music in itself cannot make pain and loss disappear. But if there is any better comfort aside from prayer or an analgesic of some sort, it is difficult to identify it. Whatever the case, this is a worthwhile recording, and in its references to other blues-oriented artists, it can provoke an attack of thought as well as a feeling of relief. That is a most difficult combination to pull off, but Porieki does it with the aplomb of the accomplished artist he is.~By Richard J Salvucci