" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Ortwein has to record one's first album as leader can be reaching too far and trying too hard to achieve perfection. That seems to be the case with It Was Time, wherein Ortwein's versatility is never in doubt—he plays nine instruments on the album—but his musical choices are too often below the norm. Whatever the reason or reasons, Ortwein planned the program to suit his taste and is answerable for the outcome.

Ortwein's main instrument is the bassoon, which he plays on half a dozen numbers (electrified on three); he uses groups of various sizes and shapes (including an ersatz string section on the opening track) to flesh out his designs. Ortwein wrote five of the album's eleven numbers, none of which rises above the ordinary. The problems surface at the outset, on "It Was Time," whose strings do nothing to redeem an otherwise tepid and colorless essay. Ortwein doubles on tenor there, as he does on a sluggish treatment of "After You've Gone,"