Guitar - Duos (Part 2): Spontaneous decisions and sinuous backdrops

By Paul Acquaro

Part two in the series of recent guitar duos, before we move onto trios. We begin today with a couple of actual guitar duos and continue from there ...

Rubén Reinaldo & Kely García Guitarra Jazz Dúo - Acuarel (Free Code Jazz Records, 2020) ****

Guitar and Guitar. I've confessed before about my reverence for the guitar duo - and by this I mean simply two guitars playing together. To my simple ears, the musical ground that a pair of guitarists, attuned to their instruments and in tune with each other, is boundless. A sensitive pair can switch from quiet introspection to explosive outpouring effortlessly, leading the listener almost anywhere. The duo of Rubén Reinaldo & Kely García, two accomplished guitarists and educators from the Galician region of Spain, are exemplars of this configuration. Hailing from different generations, the younger Reinaldo and the established Garcia find much common ground in navigating the tunes of Acuarel. With nods to tradition, both musically and culturally, the two weave fluid melodic lines through rich harmonic passages, filling the musical space generously but still leaving plenty of room to not drown the listener. A wonderful example is the track 'Coscovals' - a modern jazz melody pings off a lilting comp, bright, light, but with a depth that invites the listener to dive deep. The title track is rhythmically alluring piece featuring an intricate interlocking melody. The final track, 'Berimar Blues' takes the album out in a blues-tinted flourish.

The duo reminds me, in some ways, of some of the exemplary guitar collaborations festooning my collection - like Bill Frisell and Dale Bruning, or Joe Pass and Herb Ellis, or - one of my evergreens - Vic Juris and Bireli Lagrene (not actually a duo, but good enough), or even Julian Lage and Nels Cline - no, none of these are truly comparable, but they all demonstrate compatibility, tunefulness, and selflessness. Added bonus: for the guitar players out there, the recording (even the download) comes with a book of transcriptions.

Ivar Grydeland & Henry Kaiser - In The Arctic Dreamtime (Rune Grammofon, 2020) ****½

Guitar and Guitar. Apparently the product of a spontaneous decision to record, American guitarist (and arctic explorer) Henry Kaiser met up with Norwegian guitarist Ivar Grydeland in Oslo and made a soundtrack to the documentary Ellsworths flyveekspedition 1925, an early silent film about arctic explorer Roald Amundsen’s second attempt to reach the North Pole. Less than two hours after starting, they were done, notably more successful than Amundsen in fulfilling their mission. 

 

The opening track already signals that it will be an atmospheric journey, 'Roald Amundsen 1925' opens with an evocative drone and blips of electric guitar. Over a sinuous backdrop, melodic intentions build, reaching a searing altitude around half way trough the 17+ minute track. Projected against bleakness, the guitar's distorted buzz is electrifying and lonely, it feels very much like we're soaring over a endless cracked icy white landscape, listening to the fears in our heads. It is, in a sense, frighteningly gorgeous. The track 'Spitsbergen' is different, arpeggios with a touch of blues, a little Morricone, and a little bit of the musical language from Grydeland's group Huntsville. It feels open ended, somewhat jagged, and tempting. Each track seems to capture a similar mood just a little differently, 'To the North Pole' seems a bit hopeful, 'N-25' a bit forlorn, and Into the Arctic Dreamtime, somewhat terrifying. Quite an evocative recording!

Csaba Palotai, Steve Argüelles - Cabane Perchée (BMC, 2021) ***½

Guitar and Percussion. This recording, from a Hungarian guitarist Csaba Palotai and British drummer Steve Argüelles was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. The two musicians, collaborators living in France, have certainly built their Cabane Perchée - tree house, or as DeepL will have it, 'perched cabin' on some strong branches of rhythm and repetition. Through the crisp, lively recording comes clear, developed ideas that build-up thir energy through circular motifs and strong grooves. 'Bulgarian Rhythm 1' opens the album with a swiftly moving cluster of chords and bare bones percussion accompaniment. The full sound is somewhat surprising given the instrumentation, but it is no exception, as the second track 'Phosphore' shows. Again a repetitive figure from the guitar and a laser focused set of percussive devices keeps the music lively and when Palotai breaks up the figure with short melodic runs the contrast is alluring. However, just as soon as one thinks there is a pattern forming, 'In Tents', the third track, shakes things up. Argüelles plays a prepared acoustic guitar, giving Palotai's acoustic guitar a much different rhythmic base to build on, which he does with slowly expanding chordal voicings, ending with an emotive solo passage. A very nice, composed, acoustic recording.

Álvaro Domene & Killick Hinds - Hocket Pulsar (Iluso, 2021) ***½

Guitar and String Instruments (and some electronics). According to the liner notes, it was Henry Kaiser who introduced the Georgia (USA) based Killick Hinds and New York based Álvaro Domene based on a feeling that they were musically compatible. His hunch proved correct as the duo quickly set forth to create Hocket Pulsar. On first listen, one could be forgiven thinking there is a glitch in their Bluetooth speaker connection. The opening title track is a long, patient expansion of sound. There are glitchy pops and fizzes of electronics over a drone for half of the track, while a more traditional electric guitar appears now and then in the mix. As the track evolves, the guitar takes over with rhythmic plucking of the lower strings and other elongated tones. It takes patience, but the effect is a rewarding experience. The next track 'Voces Magicae' offers a contrast, less electronic sounds and more percussive used of stringed instruments provide the setting. The other guitar strikes a minimalist melody, for a bit, until it becomes goopier both acoustically and electronically. 'Kinesis in Unlimited Dimensions' explores other sounds, growls from the guitar mesh with digital spouts, while 'Meditation on Mediation' takes a quieter but still very active approach, seemingly processing the sounds of the guitar other instruments into an effective blend. Overall a successfully experimental mélange of acoustic/electronic/digital sounds.

Lars Larsson and Gunnar Backman - A Love Supreme (Simlas, 2021) ***½

Guitar and Saxophone. Before we veer out of the electronics, let's talk about (virtual) guitarist Gunnar Brakeman and saxophonist Lars Larsson's A Love Supreme. I suspect naming a recording as such could quickly set up opposing sides: there will be those who hear the music through the lens of John Coltrane and only hear it in comparison to the original, and others who hear the music filtered through the influence of the original. It is best to do the latter here, and in fact, one could be tempted to do the same with Backman's instrument. He pays the virtual fretted guitar, which I would be hard pressed to describe except that the duo used Abelton Live to create an actual musical environment that sounds more like a full band than a duo. The opening track, 'Acknowledgement' evolves into a thick groove with a shredding virtual guitar, which is where the second track 'Resolution' also goes. It seems like Larsson's role is often to provide a connection to the original, whereas Backman takes us deep into a sonic epiphany. There is a lot of incidental sound as well, misty shrouds wafting through underground tech-dystopias, like on the intro 'Pursuance.' In the middle of the track, after a long attractively abrasive guitar heavy sound collage, the saxophonist takes a lengthy, melodic solo, his tone refined. The wisdom of calling your album 'A Love Supreme' is debatable, but the concept employed here, seeing each movement of the original as a stand alone piece to then reshape acknowledges the sincere indebtedness the world has to Coltrane's masterwork, as well its enduring malleability as a source of inspiration.

Chris Alford & Justin Peake - Turning On Our Own Time (2021) ****

Guitar and Bass. The duo of New Orleans based guitarist Chris Alford and bassist Justin Peake have created an excellent free-jazz/folk recording that pulls the listener deep into a place where the surreal feels visceral. Cleanly plucked notes and lingering reverberation of strings stand on equal footing as the two instruments converse. Bursts of ideas follow long expositions, and as busy as it may get, the two never get in each others way. The opener 'Mullerian Mimicry' features a pointy, abstract melody led by the guitar and supported by an insistent bassline that adds percussive elements and counter melodies. The title track takes a more atmospheric turn, the reverb is turned up and the echoing instruments cast a chanting-like pallor over the track. "Ancestral Murmurs' goes even deeper into reverie, this time with less echo, but with similar determination. 'A Course in Water' is a flowing solo finger-picked chord melody and 'Issaquena' features a somewhat indistinct bass thrumming overlaid by a lightly picked single note melody that dips generously into American folk. 'Turning On Own Own Time' is a spare, but generous album that over the course of 14 tracks stays fresh and engaging.

Ross Hammond and ... (s/r, 2020 - 2021) ****

Guitar and Drums, Vocals, Table. At the start of the pandemic California based, Kentucky born, guitarist Ross Hammond released a couple of EPs on his Bandcamp page. They were a diverse lot, an engagement with drummers' Mike Pride and Calvin Weston, one with vocalist Jay Nair, and another with tabla player Sameer Gupta. A strong connecting theme across these diverse duos is Hammond's deep plunge into Appalachian, blues, folk and the hard to describe but you-know-it-when-you-hear-it twang of Americana.  

 

Earth Music, his duo with Mike Pride, begins with a gentle finger picked melody claw-hammer style on the banjo over a solid pulsating drum beat. 'Waiting' drinks deep the country blues, and 'Walking Through' features Hammond's slide playing over a folksy, earthy drone. On Root, with Calvin Weston, Hammond strikes out with a more forceful blues on his slide guitar, employing a lowered tuning to get some gut grabbing tones. 'Snakeline' is swampy and mysterious, while 'Blue Eye' is bright and nearly pop music in comparison! Weston's drumming is groove based, giving Hammond propulsion. 

 

With table player Sameer Gupta on Live at Gold Lion Arts, Hammond's playing is lighter and a touch more open ended. On the beautiful opener 'Misdirection,' Hammond plays open chords, with gentle, bright leading tones weaving around the sound of Gupta's gulping percussion. 'Gone National' must refer to the National Steel guitar, as the sound is different, more muffled and metallic, than the previous track. Here Gupta's rhythmic prowess is a main feature. The tabla and acoustic guitar combination feels timeless and this is expressed nowhere better than on the hopeful sounds of the last track 'Happily Outnumbered.' The final collaboration with vocalist Jay Nair, Hope (a full length album), adds a entirely new dimension to Hammond's work. Dark and expectant, the opening track 'Mother of Compassion' finds a deep and ready connection between Indian musical stylings (the labels Carnatic and Hindustani come from the Bandcamp page) and American blues/folk. The track 'Ocean of Bliss' feels like it pulls to closer to American folk side with open and hopeful sounding chord-melody. Nair's complex melody graces the outlines of Hammond's guitar work elegantly.

Kevin Kastning & Mark Wingfield - Rubicon I (Greydisc, 2021) **** 

Guitar and Guitar (and a little Piano). The album came with the following genre labels: Jazz, New Age, Ambient, Avant-garde, Progressive rock. Rubicon I, the 9th album of the duo of guitarists Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield fits - but never entirely - under all of these labels. Throughout the tracks, there is a gradual accumulation of intent and tension as layers of foundational ambiance build, while injections of clean, incisive lines of electric guitar cut and the buzz of acoustic guitar strings add texture. There are also the unusual timbres and tones to consider, as Kastning uses his self-invented 36-string Double Contraguitar and a 17-string Hybrid Extended classical guitar to contrast against Wingfield's electric guitar and live-electronics. Together the two cover a wide swath of sonic territory that is sometimes familiar, sometimes treacherous (listen to the intro of 'Comoving Distance,' imagine yourself lost and floating between perceptual dimensions, it could get potentially pretty bewildering, no?) and generally fascinating. The tracks are very textural and fraught with possibilities - it seems at any moment something may develop. On 'Dynamic Horizon' an electronic ring can be heard throughout the track, while Kastning switches to the piano and provides a sparse melodic framework that Wingfield soars around with a frazzled guitar tone. 'The Lensing' continues with Kastning's piano and works off a somewhat more traditional musical interaction - Kastning provides deliberative melodic statements and punctuating chords to Wingfield's swooshing lines. The album ends with the 20 minute 'Particle Horizon', which finds Kastning back on guitar, likely the 36 string one. The track begins with atmospheric fill and a clean toned, staggered melody and expands patiently, layering in new sounds, but still keeping a threads of ideas stretching to a climatic moment three-quarters of the way through.

Kevin Kastning & Soheil Peyghambari -- The First Realm (Greydisc, 2021) ***½

Guitar and Bb & Bass Clarinet. My two favorite instruments: guitar and bass clarinet. Maine based guitarist Kevin Kastning's is paired up here with Iran/France based Soheil Peyghambari on their first recorded collaboration The First Realm. Like the previous album, it features Kastning on an assortment of unusual guitars that he has invented, which extend the standard range of the instrument in multiple directions. Peyghambari's clarinet meanwhile adds its own expressive range to the mix. Opening track 'Sleep Memory Walking' starts off in the lower registers of one of Kastning's extended guitars, shortly thereafter joined by soft, low tones from Peyghambari. The two engage deliberately and offer gently unfolding counter melodies, extending each other's melodic ideas. The next track 'As stranded declination tendrils' plays out differently. Kastning creates an ephemeral atmosphere for Peyghambari, who adds tentative, short flowing passages. Each of the tracks evolve with their own unique approaches, for example the closing track 'Perduring toward obsidian transferal' offers moments where the guitar provides a moving base-line low-end (I'd write bassline, but it would not be quite correct) under wisps of Bb clarinet, while the track 'Beside shadows calling forward' is grounded by harp-like arpeggios for the clarinetist to react to. The general mood is subdued and dreamlike, the dynamics are hushed and little changes make for big differences.

Aron Namenwirth & Eric Plaks - Shape Storm (Culture of Waste, 2020) ***½

Guitar and Piano. Aron Namenwirth is a Brooklyn based guitarist who seems to be getting more active lately - he's a part of the group Playfield with Daniel Carter, which has released two recordings on the label Orbit577 and he has released a few albums under his own aegis via Bandcamp. This duo recording from 2020 is a grower. Namenwirth uses a slightly effected sound, I am assuming a wah-wah peddle, to add a bit of texture to his otherwise clean tone. The approach adds extra propulsion to the interactions with the piano - it is slightly goopy sounding, and when applied to repetitive motifs, offers a contrast to the more precise melodic lines. The tightness between Namenwirth and pianist Eric Plaks reveal a long developed musical relationship, they are able to compliment, anticipate, and react to each other seemingly effortlessly. This is a nice duo setting, the two are on equal standing, and as Plaks at times takes the reigns and moves the improvisation into more frenetic territory, Namenwirth kicks in bit of crunch. The track 'Feedback Square' is a great example of this, while a track like 'Seven Sides' indeed shows a more textural and exploratory side of Namenwirth's playing. 

 

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Elliot Sharp and Sergio Sorrentino - Spilla’ (Ants, 2020) ****½

By Jack McKeon

In case there was any doubt about it, the new album by Elliot Sharp and Sergio Sorrentino makes clear that the electric guitar is an instrument unto itself, and must be considered as something wholly different than its acoustic equivalent. Spilla’ (which the liner notes tell us means “‘to play’ in the secret language of the Neapolitan musicians”) overwhelms the listener with a barrage of sounds that seem unable to emanate from two guitars. Pinched harmonics, muted arpeggios, tapping on guitar pickups, soaring volume swells, and guitar picks being dragged over roundwound strings layer over one another for over an hour. The listener may be left wondering what these players are after on this recording. Are they enemies or brothers? Is the guitar simply the medium at hand to reach a greater understanding, or is Spilla’ all one great big love note to the 6-string?

The album consists of two recordings of Sharp’s “graphic scores.” These pieces, “Hudson River Nr. 6” and “Liquidity” are the first and third recordings on the record, and are broken up by two extended improvisations recorded live in Vercelli, Italy. Much like the techniques of mid-century composers Earle Brown or Christian Wolff, Sharp’s graphic scores ask the interpreter to approach the musical performance with a diversity of media in mind. As the question of these musicians' relationship to the guitar continues to swirl around the listener’s head, this mixed-media approach seems fitting given the backgrounds of the musicians. Sharp, a veteran of the New York avant-garde, has built a career around collaborative sonic experiments since the late 1970s. He is a multi-instrumentalist and technical polymath, often thought of as one of the first musicians to incorporate computers into his live performances. This pairs well with Sorrentino’s trajectory as a guitarist wholly committed to the “new” — whatever that may mean — while immersing himself in strings of yore. Sorrentino has performed works by Morton Feldman and Steve Reich, had his work played on concerts that also showcased compositions by Frank Zappa, and played the “Battente” baroque guitar with the Accademia del Ricercare Ensemble.

Their collaboration breathes new life into the oft-overused phrase “extended technique.” Sharp and Sorrentino reveal a desire to steer away from patterns, vamps, or familiar sounds. As soon as they seem to fall into a style, they take off in a new direction. That being said, listen for their favored pairings. The duo seem to like sustained harmonic notes that flourish over athletic tapped patterns. Often — most notably on “Liquidity” — they move towards cacophonous overflows of sound where the rapid picking of muted strings at the upper register of the fretboard begins to sound like castanets beating out the final palpitations of the heart. Never allowing their listeners to get too comfortable, Sharp and Sorrentino even go as far as to displace the tonal center of their pieces by detuning / re-tuning their strings and using elastic bends to baffle the listener. In the best way, there is nothing “familiar” about this album. A disorientation as reintroduction, Spilla’ is the system shock you didn’t know you needed.

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Eugene Chadbourne and Henry Kaiser – Wind Crystals: Guitar Duets by Wadada Leo Smith (Relative Pitch, 2019) *****

By Nick Ostrum

First, a brief history. Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith have collaborated before, most notably on their Yo Miles! Project, as well as in various other settings. In fact, Smith had actually written “Wind Crystals” for Kaiser’s first recording for Eugene Chadbourne’s label…and the seeds of this recording were planted. Forty years later, Chadbourne and Kaiser decided to pay homage to Smith by recording several of his compositions for dual guitar/strings and rerecording the piece that started it all (with “it” meaning this four-decade triangle of on-off [and recently mostly off, it seems] collaboration).
Wind Crystals begins and ends with contending versions of the title track. The first is the 1977 version. The last, the 2017 one. The first is sparer and captures the spirit of windchimes. The second is one of the most active pieces on this album, and possibly one of the best. All sounds are acoustic, but there are times in the latter piece that I hear howls and hums amidst the frolicking dialogues. What a fine and different interpretation.

Other tracks are similarly off-kilter but focused. Pieces such as “Shabazz,” “Blue Lightning Blue,” and “Blue Case” run replete with bluesy undertones. Even more, however, they disassemble the tradition, using its pieces as a sort of spolia with which to build a new, warped edifice or sonic fragments with which to construct an aural collage. (Yes, Derek Bailey seems a major influence, though the tracks here have somewhat more melody and rhythm than Bailey ever let slip.) Other tracks, such as “Pacifica” have a twangy vibe and are in striking contrast to, but also in awkward continuity with, the version on Spiritual Dimensions. At points, they even capture the trills, runs, and even the cavernous qualities of Smith’s horn, albeit in a more sinuous, skrony, broken bluegrass sort of way.

In short, these are inventive and absolutely compelling interpretations of these compositions. If you are a fan of Wadada, I would recommend checking this out if for no other reason than to experience some of the alternate potentialities of his music. If you are a fan of Dr. Chad and the Kaiser, you already know what you are in for: craggy guitar music played to explore strings, vibrations, resonances, and spaces, rather than muffle them into something mellifluous and smooth. Even considering the catalogues of all three musicians/composers party to this project, Wind Crystals, in its dedication to the acoustic avant-garde, is really out there and a real triumph of invention, resourcefulness, and composition. One of the best albums I have heard all year.

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Fredrik Rasten - Six Moving Guitars (SOFA Music, 2019) ****

By Spencer Friedman 

Six Moving Guitars is the musically and conceptually ambitious debut record from composer/guitarist Fredrik Rasten. The recording was made by Rasten and five collaborators -- both musicians and dancers -- at a church in Norway in 2018. The performance is an interactive sonic exploration of the space in which it was recorded, each performer wielding an acoustic guitar tuned in just intonation, a manner of tuning wholly different than how instruments are typically tuned. A choreography is played out with the guitars, which was developed as a way to link the unique sound of the guitars in just intonation and the space they were being played in. Rasten developed material and various playing techniques that are played out by both musicians and non-musicians. This is intentional, as Rasten refers to the music as " a study in how people, without necessarily being trained musicians, can act together in a musical situation based on awareness of listening and spatial orientation."

Musically the record is filled with seemingly simple plucked and strummed guitar patterns. The six voices bounce small ideas off one another, thoroughly in conversation, and ultimately create a complex fabric of sound. It is slow moving, steady and consistent, breathing gradually and moving between sections. Before you know it the music has reached a new section, bled into from what came before it. This is music that very successfully invokes elements of Minimalism, and nearly New Age.

Rasten has created a hypnotizing, beguiling listen, both in part to the aforementioned way the music unfolds, as well as the textures coming from the non-traditionally tuned guitars. Overtones abound -- they wobble and throb, and often it is hard to place from where a sound came. There is a spareness to the recording but the sound is nonetheless full, aided in part by the waving. encompassing chordal textures.

Though separated into five tracks, Six Moving Guitars is really one long piece. Consistent throughout is the footsteps and incidental noise generated from the movement of the performers. This becomes an essential part of the recording, an element not unlike the clinking of glasses of music recorded at a club. It acts as well as a near percussive drone, shuffling under the guitars like a quiet cymbal. The pulse really only changes during the fourth piece "Running," during which the choreography seems to be the namesake for the piece, as rhythmic running steps beat quickly in time, achieving a tone different than what came before. A phasing effect is even subtly achieved, as the steps come closer and drift further from the mic. The effect is mesmerizing.

When listening to Rasten's record one may recall the music of the late guitarist Rod Poole (as well as Poole's Acoustic Guitar Trio with Nels Cline and Jim McAuley), a master practitioner of the guitar tuned in just intonation. Though of a different overall aesthetic and intention, there is indeed a comparison. Both make shimmering, ringing acoustic guitar music, that achieves a feeling of boundlessness among many sonic worlds. Rasten has released a beautiful debut record, and I'm excited to see what comes next for him.

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Guitar Roundup

By Paul Acquaro

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog ‎– YRU Still Here? (Yellowbird, 2018) *****

Guitarist Marc Ribot is a long standing favorite of mine. In all of his guises - whether the folk and blues solo work, his always spot-on accompaniment, the 'fake' Latin band, or the raucous Ceramic Dog with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith, he always has something exciting to offer.

On last year's YRU Still Here the guitarist is pissed and political. This is a monster of an album full of hard-charging proto-punk/funk tunes and snarling lyrics, it balances political and racial drama with humor and sly takes on a myriad styles from the retro-robot funk of "Oral Sidney with a U", the Middle Eastern flavored "Orthodoxy", or the Neil Young's Trans/Ennio Morricone mashup of "Rawhide", and the Cubano Positizo's like "Pennsylvania 6 6666" with lyrics invoking brutality from Ismaily's childhood in an intolerant all American town. "Fuck La Migra" is a check on the early Trump abomination, and a angry fuck you to their mendacious policies. However, my favorite tracks are the straight ahead rockers, like "Shut that Kid Up". Sans lyrics, just guitar, bass, and drums it bristles with attitude that says as much about the precarious state of the world as the others.

Samo Salamon & Tony Malaby - Traveling Moving Breathing (Clean Feed, 2018) ****½

The interplay of musicians in a free improvisation setting is something that, even after all of these years listening and writing about music, still astounds me. What is it that makes a session work? I know that there are as many approaches to it as there are musicians, but, when say a trio clicks, they can really make some unreasonably good music together. Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon works here with a free jazz saxophonist colossus on this recording - there is rarely a setting in which Tony Malaby does not impress, and the percussion work of Roberto Dani has fit into situations ranging from rock to theater to free jazz and has been working with Salamon for well over a dozen years. The sum of these parts more than meets the qualification of sounding reasonably good and go well into the unreasonably good.

Salamon goes for the jugular on several of the songs, letting the electric guitar marinate in distortion and heavy rhythmic passages. Malaby’s saxophone work runs the gamut, from the sounds of clicks and the compressed mouth pieces to soaring in the high register, to funky tattered passages. Dani provides both free and associative playing as well as driving straight ahead rhythms when needed.

Andreas Willers & Jan Roder & Christian Mariën - Derek Plays Eric (Jazzwerkstatt, 2018) ****½

I am not sure of the percent of, or even which Derek and Eric we're talking about here - be it Derek Bailey, or Derek and the Dominos, or Eric Clapton, or whomever, but the playing of German guitarist Andreas Willers is absolute killer on this recording. The guitarist whose debut album was a solo album on the venerable German FMP label in 1981, is working here with bassist Jan Roder and drummer Christian Marien, and the result is a power trio that is both powerful and nuanced. The opening "Steampunk '69" is a crusher of an opening track - straight ahead rock rhythms, melodic excesses reminiscent of Live at Village Gate by Larry Coryell, The follow up 'Plodding Along' features a looping bass line over which the guitar delivers shimmering strokes. But maybe it's all a set up for the third track "Roost'r / Tunnel Boogie", where the slide comes out to devastating effect as the elastic groove perfectly underpins the swampy guitar playing. Then, the set up of "Gentle Maya: Dance of Maya / Eat Your Blues / Valedictory" is unmistakably John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra's opus, and it incorporates prog rock a la Gentle Giant. The follow up, "Goobye Pork Pie Hat / The Marshall Needs El Juicio", begins with a pulsating straight ahead delivery of the great Charles Mingus song, but then erupts into guitar-hero shredding, which is just a whole lot of fun. "I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blues" is an acoustic blues / Derek Bailey mash up that makes no logical sense but works so well. Listen closely as well to the track "Laili", the guitar-bass tandem interplay seems like a slightly dirty secret. There is a ton of variety here, straight ahead rock fun and more than enough off the beaten path playing to keep you listening for a long long time.

Álvaro Domene - The Compass (Illuso, 2018) ***½

The next two records are the most experimental of the lot today, and in fact it's this solo recording from New York based Álvaro Domene that takes home the prize for being the most unusual. It's not so much an album of songs, though the tracks are all split up and named with some intention, but a reassessment of what a guitar can do. Sure there are sounds that border on metal, with sudden riffs like on Coulomb's Barrier", but these soon dissolve into squelches and smears of sounds. The track "EMS of Despair" starts with ambient tones stretched until they disappear, followed by tense partial arpeggios and tingling tonal clusters, and "Mudskipper" has an almost playful beginning with serious attention being paid to the whammy bar (or a pedal, I'm not sure if whammy bars are a much of thing anymore) bending tones before delving into a slightly more conventional solo over an apocryphal drone. The album was recorded without overdubs or multiple tracking, and there are times when Domene sounds like a frightful demolition team, but it's just him and his dark vision.

Henry Kaiser and Max Kutner - Wild Courses (Iluso, 2019) ****

I'm typically a fan of a guitar duo. There is so much musical ground that can be covered, colors to be revealed, and ideas to exchange that there is a virtual endless array of possibilities. on Wild Courses, Henry Kaiser, a relentless and prolific musical explorer and Max Kutner ,who has a surprising array of projects going on as well, get together for a real celebration of the strings. The duo uses 12-string acoustic and electric guitars and an 8-string bass to create and thoroughly explore their musical world. The opener is gentle, "Lucky Fool", where Kaiser's bass provides not so much a solid footing, but random outcroppings that Kutner on a high-tuned 12-string uses to pull himself up. The interchange is delicate, Kutner's sounds is mandolin precise and ringing (reminding me a little of John Abercrombie's electric mandolin work). The follow-up "The Silence Wager" features two 12-strings, but one is searing and distorted while the other is tuned low and wanders windy paths through clusters of notes and tones. The bottom drops out on "Dreams Interpreted by Opposites", which is a spacious and ambient float interrupted by electronic squalls. Two tracks "Boot Mistaken for an Axe Sheath" and "Did it matter, does it now" are both acoustic duets with somewhat conventional song forms - albeit very 'somewhat'. The former begins with a interesting rhythmic riff, which the other guitar then joins with a counter melody of equal, but not exactly aligned groove. The two follow in parallel play, with implied connections. The latter is begins with a preconceived riff that is more motion than motif, but leads into a delicate interweaving of melodic ideas. 'Glider' introduces some slide guitar over a bluesy accompaniment - quite a contrast to some of the more experimental tracks, and a nice anchor in the middle of the recording.

Cuong Vu 4TET : Change In The Air (RareNoise, 2018) ****

How had I left this album untouched for so long? I mean, this is the Bill Frisell album I wanted to hear after I picked up "Gone Just Like a Train" from a little record store in Hoboken back in 1998. At least that's how I felt the moment the track "Alive" picked up. Here was the guitarist playing with that Americana swagger and twangy Tele that brings tears to my eyes.

Seattle based trumpeter Cuong Vu has joined forces with Frisell before, in fact in 2016 they released Ballet (The Music Of Michael Gibbs) - and worked together over a dozen years ago on the trumpeter's It's Mostly Residual (Auand, 2006). However, like  on  Ballet, they are joined by bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor, who each brought a set of recordings to this session. The aforementioned 'Alive', with the sauntering comping by Frisell and soaring melodies from Vu, is from Poor, as is the soaring "Lately", which features a lovely melody and a serene harmonic development.

The album begins with a standard that never was. Poor's "All That's Left of Me in You" is in title and spirit something of a bygone era, preserved in the pages of a Real Book for the next generation. Vu's solo is scrumptious and Frisell's accompaniment is perfectly balanced between comping and gentle splashes of color. However, the real prize here is Bergman's 'Must Concentrate', which in a short four and half minutes uses its hopeful melody to give Frisell and Vu to burst into (well contained) flames. Vu's "Round and Round" is a much freer piece, where there seems to be little but suggestions from the composer as to how accompany his open ended melody, and reprises two tracks later as "Round and Around (Back Around)", with a much more solid ending statement. The album is capped off with a composition from Frisell, "Far From Home", leaves a tinge of melancholy in the air.

Jakob Bro - Bay of Rainbows (ECM, 2018) ****

Here is a gentle coda to this round-up: the sumptuous sounds of Jakob Bro whose playing simply rolls and flows like a gentle waves in say, a Bay of Rainbows. With the help of Thomas Morgan's sympathetic bass lines and the deeply nuanced drummer Joey Baron, there is little that can go wrong, and little does. The album is a live recording from NYC's Jazz Standard in NYC from this trio which also released "Streams" on ECM in 2016. Bay of Rainbows also continues the deep collaboration of Bro and Morgan, whose playing together now goes back at least a decade. Bro is a master of using space and time to hone his songs. Morgan, similar to his work with Frisell on Small Town, engages Bro in a sophisticated tug of war. It never rushes, or is rushed, and it never feels drawn out or overdone - the waves are the result of a gentle, but insistent flow. Some standouts are the atmospherically thick and dripping "Red Hook", and the crunchy 'Dug", which bursts with restrained tension. However, it's not the stand-alone songs that matter as much as it is the confluence off the musical streams.

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Mary Halvorson / Bill Frisell – The Maid With The Flaxen Hair: A Tribute To Johnny Smith (Tzadik, 2018) ****

By Martin Schray


Sometimes I love reading scorchers (especially on amazon and youtube) of albums and artists I like a lot. Mary Halvorson, for example, often seems to disappoint people who are confronted with her music without having heard her before. On her new release, The Maid With The Flaxen Hair, a duo album with Bill Frisell, she pays tribute to the music of guitarist Johnny Smith. A listener ranted that this was a perfect example of “the bankruptcy of modern jazz guitar, taking one wonderful song after another, burying the melody in all sorts of extraneous effects“. For him the album was just awful and he wondered what kind of tribute to Johnny Smith this was. Well, one that makes perfect sense, of course.

Compared to Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis and Grant Green, Johnny Smith is by far less famous. On the other hand, especially among musicians, Smith, who was also familiar with classical music, is widely considered as one of the greatest guitarists of the cool jazz era of the 1950s and early 1960s - and he has influenced both Halvorson and Frisell. Together, they play ten numbers associated with the guitarist, most of them ballads.

Bill Frisell’s connection to Johnny Smith goes even further back. He studied with him in 1970 at the University of Northern Colorado, where Smith had moved after the death of his wife in order to take care of his daughter. Frisell wasn't impressed by Smith’s lessons, coming down on his playing as “old fuddy duddy corny schmaltzy stuff“. He’s often regretted this statement since then, because he soon discovered the grace in Smith's elaborate and lyrical playing. “I didn't get it at the time. I wasn't hearing the beauty. I’m ashamed of myself and embarrassed to tell you this“, he later said about Smith’s style. One of Frisell’s signature tracks, “Shenandoah“ (from Good Dog, Happy Man), is based on Smith’s version of the traditional song and dedicated to him. Frisell did also copy Smith's arrangement of the folk song "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair“ and it's this arrangement that Halvorson plays note for note here. What is more, she plays it on a guitar designed by Johnny Smith. And what an outstanding version this is. Halvorson’s playing is ultra-precise, she takes the mellowness out of Smith’s version. It’s simple, clean and clear, the melody is crassly put to the fore, so that one has the impression that each note stabs you. This is foiled by Frisell's wobbly, yet elegant accompaniment.

Although the love of the two guitarists of Smith’s music constantly shines through, they make his versions their own as they meander through these well known compositions. As to Halvorson she does this with her hallmark sound created by a volume pedal and a Line 6 delay modeler plus expression pedal, as to Frisell it’s his reverberant, spacious, open style. Another highlight is “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning“, a classic the duo plays with the utmost respect, almost dissecting it. “Walk Don't Run“, a Smith original and the only uptempo track here, closes the album. It’s a joyful, sparkling number, that sounds as if the notes were made of glass. “I'm nowhere close to getting it right, but I'm going to keep on trying and trying“, Frisell says on playing this tune. That’s a bit too coquettish, of course.

The Maid With The Flaxen Hair is a virtuoso album that not only every guitarist should listen to. Moreover, it’s a very good introduction to Johnny Smith, no matter what the negative comments say.

It’s available as a CD. You can buy it from www.downtownmusicgallery.com or from the label: www.tzadik.com

Listen to “Scarlet Ribbons From Her Hair“ here:

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Round-Up 2018

By Chris Haines

This past year has a been one of two halves for me, the first mainly listening to the many new and great albums that have continued to steadily pour forth, and the latter half discovering lots of old classics and not so well-known riches from the past that seemed to have escaped my clutches until now. If anyone’s interested, my current favourite of these is the Miles Davis live album We Want Miles. Anyway here are a few more albums that were still in my ‘in-tray’ at the end of the year.

Juhani Aaltonen & Raoul Bjorkenheim – Awakening (Eclipse Music, 2018) ****

Here’s an album from two fellow countrymen who have both gained a wealth of experience over the years of playing with a variety of different musicians from all sorts of backgrounds. Although I should have expected it, as they are both fine pedigree improvisers, the thing that struck me on first listen of Awakening was the incredible musical communication between the two musicians. Above all the pieces, melodies, varying sounds, timbres, and techniques, was for me not just the communicative intent, but also the complete delivery of it. Throughout the course of the album the instruments converse on an equal plane and dance around each other’s patterns with freedom, ease, and confidence. Across the six pieces on the album Aaltonen’s flute playing is sublime and articulate providing Debussy-esque arabesques to Jethro Tull-like locomotive breath punctuations, as well as a variety of techniques including singing through the instrument (no mean feat on a flute!), rapid flutter tongue notes and passages to expressive vocal outbursts to mention a few. None of these techniques are exploited in a structural way or as an alternate sound source, but instead are delicate colours and subtle fluctuations on the unwinding melodic thread that unfolds throughout the album, being delivered with complete fluidity. Bjorkenheim’s guitar playing is the perfect foil for Aaltonen’s delivery, providing harmonic, contrapuntal and rhythmic counterplay to the proceedings.

Heikki Ruokangas – Remote Control (Self-released, 2018) ***1/2

Having reviewed Ruokangas’ album Mono and Dialogues with Henrik Hako-Rita earlier this year, Heikki has just released an EP containing four short tracks. From his beautiful acoustic melodic playing, supported by acoustic bass, and a subtle wash of keyboards, to his more out-there electric lead work, along with synth sounds and an unforgiving electronic drum patch. His guitar sounding a cross between Robert Fripp’s ‘Turkish Trumpet’ sound and the actual trumpet of Jon Hassell on the title track itself. The EP consists of what sounds like two tracks from two different sessions with the running order being arranged alternately, which provides a contrast between the material and the different sounding environments.

Manuel Mota & David Grubbs - Lacrau (Drag City, 2018) ****

Here’s an album that I ‘clocked’ earlier on in the year when it first came out, but just didn’t get around to highlighting. I personally like both of these guitarists and their solo music, so I was interested to find that they had released these improvised duets as Lacrau. The five pieces on this album are of a good length and range from just under five to thirteen and a half minutes. The whole album has a very quiet and reflective manner with careful interplay and the accompanying sounds being placed not in a sparse way, as the melodic thread has much forward motion and the pieces are far from being static, but the calmness and slightly sombre mood of the music becomes the governing principle making for some very intriguing work. This is the first time that these two ‘cult’ figures have recorded together, so this is a real gem not to be missed.

Louis Beaudoin-de la Sablonniere, Eric Normand, Louis-Vincent Hamel – Brulez les Meubles (Tour de Bras/Circum-Disc, 2018) ****

Again released earlier in the year, this interesting guitar trio hails from Quebec and provides us with some great explorative playing, moving between more written parts and freer improvised elements. Across the seven tracks some pieces are clearly written, being credited to individual members and containing more compositional devices, whilst others are credited to the trio as a whole. From structurally repeated phrases through to freely chromatic passages, the music is confident and delicate in an understated way and offers subtle use of colour, more bop orientated figures, skittering percussion, introspective melodic lines, driving rhythms, and more spacious moments. Their press release name drops Jim Hall, Bill Frisell, Sonny Sharrock, and John Abercrombie as possible influences, and although no one influence dominates, it certainly gives you an idea where there coming from. This one seems to have dipped under the radar this year, and didn’t deserve to, so dig it out and have a listen!

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Ruokangas/Hako-Rita – Mono and Dialogues (Eclipse, 2018) ****

By Chris Haines

Having reviewed Heikki Ruokangas’ trio album last year, here’s another of his, this time an album of solo pieces and duos with fellow guitarist Henrik Hako-Rita. Compared to the trio album, this time out is a lot more freer and with more ‘out there’ playing than his previous outing. In some respects the pieces on this latest album are more honest and they get down and dig in the dirt, with raw emotional content never far away from the surface of the music, which makes it all the more compelling and interesting. Dissonant and chromatic playing frequently rubs shoulders with more traditionally structured and beautiful melodies, and harmonic structures do their best to contain the stream of conscious playing that spills over the edges of the musical vessels. The second track on the album, Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ is a great example of this, which after the initial statement the guitar takes a flight of fancy, not so much soaring into the stratosphere, but more unearthing and tearing holes in the fabric of the harmonic structure, before returning to a variation on the theme to end with an unresolved feel. ‘Warma’ is a solo acoustic piece, containing echoes of Derek Bailey, with it’s edgy and angular phrases and strong attacking of the strings, which the legendary Masayuki Takayanagi would have approved of, as he believed that the strength in which you plucked a guitar string was a good barometer of your inner strength as a person. All of this could also be applicable to ‘Mechanical Crow’, which if anything sounds even more indebted to Bailey’s improvisational gymnastics approach.

As mentioned previously there is also some wonderful melodic material on this album, something that made Ruokangas’ trio album stand out when I first heard it. ‘Ghost Waltz’ is a duo, with a haunting but beautiful melody simply underpinned by straightforward chordal arpeggios, allowing the shape of the melody to speak for itself, with clever use of volume swells and harmonics that become part of the melodic line and not just a superficial add-on which is so often the case. ‘Flamenco Of Rust’, seems to be an exercise in deconstruction, as is the cover of ‘Jos Lahdet Laila’ an old Finnish pop song, but the former also contains the alluring melodic material from which it is born and to which it returns, albeit too briefly in my humble opinion as I could quite easily have listened to some more of this splendid chord/melody playing. The final piece, ‘The Last Robot’ has a gorgeous melancholic ostinato that repeats throughout whilst the second guitar weaves in and out the line in a way that ranges from the subordinate to the most important element, providing interest and sustaining the idea for the duration of the piece.

An album full of contrast, particularly between dissonance/angularity and reflective/structured melodic material, but also stylistically with full-on free jazz blowing assaults, more mannered improvisational environments as in the European vein, blues influenced solos and standard song formats to the rockabilly/surf rock sound of ‘The Real Boy’ are visited across the ten tracks. It will be interesting to see where this upcoming artist will be heading next.

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Ian Brighton/Henry Kaiser – Together Apart (Fractal, 2017) ****

By Chris Haines

This is an interesting album, and good to see (and hear) Ian Brighton on another recording after his comeback album Now and Then from 2016 after a nearly forty year lay-off. On this release each player recorded their parts individually, sending them to one another so that they could then overdub their parts over the existing track, with Henry Kaiser being solely responsible for mixing together the final product.

For an album of improvised duets, it actually starts with two solo pieces, ‘In Memoriam – Jack and Rose Brighton’, and ‘Spoonful’. Brighton’s dedication to his late parents is a beautiful piece full of bell-like harmonics, sustained tones, ethereal sounds and sharp attacks that gradually fade away. This is followed by Kaiser’s solo contribution, the blues piece ‘Spoonful’, which I had doubts about on seeing it in the track listing and on hearing the all too familiar opening strains. However, throughout the course of the piece Kaiser juxtaposes the prominent riff against more angular and fragmented phrases that just about pull the piece in line with the rest of the album.

So to the duets, starting with the aptly titled ‘Getting Started’, a tour-de-force of string harmonics creating an intricate web of rhythmic interplay involving hocketing lines moving from one part to the other. Other highlights for me out of the nine duets include, ‘Sounds of the Soil Pt2’ (dedicated to Tony Oxley, the legendary British jazz and improvising drummer/percussionist) a piece exploring noise based materials such as scraping, rubbing, tapping, and buzzing strings, creating a very direct sounding piece. Then there’s the resonant ‘Cathedral Voices’, with a nod towards ‘The Chapel of Splintered Glass’, a track on Brighton’s first album Marsh Gas from 1977 that also exists within it’s luscious reverberations, although this time utilising studio effects to create the sustained delay and not being recorded in-situ like ‘Splintered Glass, which was recorded at Chelmsford Cathedral. Also, ‘175 & H’, (a reference to the Gibson ES 175 guitar that Brighton uses) a sparring piece that is characterised by it’s cutting attacking notes and sounds, which nearly slips into a fragmented melody with chordal accompaniment structure for the middle section.

One would think that with two very different guitarists that have highly distinctive individual styles the pieces might jar or at best be reduced to a collage only texture, especially due to the way it was recorded. But actually for most of the recordings the individual parts are sympathetic towards one another and blend well as would be hoped for within a duet context. Only the final track ‘In the Last Place’, for me, fails to work as a coherent piece, with Kaiser’s trademark distorted guitar, full of dive-bombing notes, and rock tremolo arm histrionics sitting uncomfortably against Brighton’s much cleaner, direct and honest style. Overall Together Apart is a success with it’s swirling menagerie of harmonics, dissonant fragments, volume swells, and twanging strings that have been freely utilised, mainly within an empathic and sympathetic set of pieces that work, most of the time, with each other’s playing.

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Two Ways of Using the Guitar: Thurston Moore and Loren Connors

Thurston Moore & Umut Caglar – Dunia (Astral Spirits, 2017) ***½

Loren Connors – Angels That Fall (Family Vineyard, 2017) ***½

By Daniel Böker

Two ways of using the guitar. I brought these two very different approaches together because there is a wide range of sounds and aspects that keep the guitar interesting, even after all these years. Maybe there is a connection to my own biography as a listener. First there was a-ha, I have to admit. Then there was the music my elder brother listened to, funk and soul. That had a great influence on me. But my next great influence, and that has never stopped was the sound of a guitar, and the fascination still sticks with me, always searching for new sounds. This brings me to the two albums here that I chose to write about.

First, Thurston Moore & Umut Caglar – Dunia. It is first and foremost a Thurston Moore album. An album as we know it. Just type his name in the search button on the Freejazzblog and you will find a whole bunch of reviews. That is because he is all over the place. He cooperated with almost all the 'big names' in the improvised music scene, and it is a pleasure to see or hear him play.

His sound, his way to treat and play his guitar is recognizable. That is with both his 'incarnations' with the song-oriented pieces with Sonic Youth and on his solo albums and with the improvized music, along with all the other 'heroes' like Mats Gustafsson, The Thing, Merbow, Joe McPhee, John Zorn, to name a few.

As I said his sound is recognizable, and this year for the first time I was bored, at least with his new solo album Rock'n'Roll Consciousness. I heard nothing new, nothing surprising. So I was a bit skeptical when I had the chance to review his collaboration with Umut Calgar. Would I meet just the same familiar sounds and structures?

On the one hand it is exactly that. It is, as I said in the beginning, a Thurston Moore album and following the question of what the guitar can sound like, Moore formed his answer years ago. He is in most parts refining the grammar and the vocabulary at this point, but he won't learn a new language.

While I listen to the album Dunia, I realize that it is not necessary to learn a new one. The one he is capable of is in this case sufficient to keep me listening with interest.

Caglar and Moore seem to speak the same language. (And from now on I will leave this image behind.) The two guitars fit together well.

The first track 'Kensaku' starts off with a lightness of sorts. The two guitars start with some high tones, some scratching over single strings and the more like that. That gives both players the opportunity to show their different sounds and their ways to play. As in a good movie (to pick another arbitrary image) you often know the end beforehand and the interesting question is how the protagonist will get there.

It is already clear in the beginning that the duo will reach a state of sheer noise and will build a so called wall of sound. And so they do. So the interesting question is, how will they get there? And in this respect they both do a good job. Especially with the first track.

The second track 'The Red Sun' is almost already there when it starts. Maybe it is too harsh to say that the variations in the wall of sound are not that big. I don't know how it feels to play such sounds. For me as the listener to this noise the power is very impressive but after a few minutes I realize that I am searching for changes. There are changes. of course, but the dominating impression it leaves with me is the power, the wall of sound, the end of the story without telling the beginning.

So Dunia is an album played in the language Moore developed throughout the years. It adds some words to it. And that is worth listening to it.

Second: Loren Connors – Angels that Fall. Connors on the other side chooses a completely different way of using the guitar. The album reviewed here is just a short detail of his output. Short because it is only one track of 17 minutes, a one-sided vinyl. And 'only' because it is one of his latest releases and we try to be as near to the present as possible with our reviews.

But writing about this album is also writing about Conners and I admit I like his sounds, his music a lot. It is a completely different and sometimes it sounds as if the guitar of Loren Connors was a total different instrument than the one Thurston Moore is playing. (I guess that is exactly what I've always liked about the guitar, it has an almost unending wide range of sounds and possibilities.)

There is a lot of echo on this album, also with other recordings Connors has released. There is a lot of echo and a lot of space. It is not silence exactly, but he has the time to wait for the next tone, the next sound, to add

There is a calmness to the music of Loren Connors that is almost unique. On Angels that Fall there is a constant swoosh of a background noise. Listening carefully you can hear him work his guitar. He uses the strings (of course) but also the corpus of the guitar. And he uses the silence in between.

Writing about all the calmness and silence it would be wrong if I created the impression of a slow or even boring album. (Album might be a huge word for just one track. This is actually one reason why I didn't rate it with four stars.)

Exactly that waiting for the next tone for the next thing to happen creates a great intensity. Near the end of the track there are percussion like sounds and the whole track gets louder and stronger, and then for a few last notes he changes the instrument and plays the piano with the same concentrated calmness he's played the guitar.

For sure Connors also has his own language he developed with and for his instrument. And with this language his sound is recognizable. But it is a total different language. He builds tension through calmness and it carries a dark notion with it sometimes.

His work is definitely worth a try.

And for me the guitar is still one of the most interesting instruments.

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Guitars! (Part 2 of 2)

By Paul Acquaro

Part two of my guilty pleasure. There just may be a third on the way too, but not before I get to a few other items on my list.

Ross Hammond - Mason Lawn (Prescott, 2016) ****½

Typically when I am listening to an album for review, I am on the way somewhere, maybe to work, maybe to a concert, on a train, in a car, on the go, in the busy throes of life and work. However, when I finally got to guitarist Ross Hammond's duo record with percussionist Jon Bafus, it was early on New Years Day and I was taking a spatziergang in the German countryside. Long rolling hills, open fields, bare trees blowing in a gusty and sometimes rainy wind; however, with blue skies on the horizon, the first tune just felt like the perfect soundtrack to a new year. On 'Like Being Kissed by God Herself', Hammond's acoustic resonator guitar spills forth with purposeful motion, riding on Bafus's insistent yet feather light beat. It's like being swept along by music itself, open and chiming, hope and creation is woven deeply in its melodic simplicity and forthrightness. The next track, 'On the Incline', Hammond is on the electric guitar, a sound we haven't heard from for a while on record, several of his latest recordings have focused on the solo acoustic guitar. It's a good sound. Hammond prefers a slightly distorted sound and saturated in the type of Americana jazz-rock that takes cues from both Neil Young and Bill Frisell and makes it entirely his own thing. The track itself unfolds slowly, building vistas with care and patience. The title track begins with a dark blues riff from the open tuned lap steel guitar. Bafus's percussion is hypnotically repetitive, providing a groove for Hammond's evocative and slightly sinister melodic ideas.

Masonic Lawn, is a mesmerizing musical statement from the always searching Hammond. His focus on American folk and blues, and synthesis with improvisation and jazz elements has yielded musical treasures before, and it seems like he may have hit a mother-load here. A perfect soundtrack for a walk in the country and most likely, anywhere else.

Eric Hofbauer - Prehistoric Jazz Volume 4 (Reminiscing in Tempo) (Creative Nation Music, 2017) ****

Boston based guitarist Eric Hofbauer has been on my radar for a bit of time now, his Prehistoric Jazz series - named after a Leonard Bernstein description of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps - has been an exploration of early 20th century modern classical composers such as Shostakovich, Webern, Ligeti and Machaut. On Volume 4, Reminiscing in Tempo, Hofbauer takes on the through composed piece that Duke Ellington wrote in honor of his mother. With his quintet of himself on guitar, Jerry Sabatini on trumpet, Todd Brunel on Bb clarinet & bass clarinet, Junko Fujiwara on cello and Curt Newton on drums, the guitarist shifts around the tonal arrangements and discovers parts of the piece that allow for improvisation and expansion doubling the length of the original song to 24 minutes.

The start of the song feels very traditional, almost reverential to the original, but listen closer and Hofbauer's clean clear acoustic guitar is doing something else. There are breaks in the cadence, and a later break down that may have you thinking of Derek Bailey, especially his late career take on standards. It's a musical jungle gym for the guitar fan, a close listening to Hofbauer's note choices and abstract connections to the song's structure is absolutely required listening. This short album is packed tight with ideas. Check out the other volumes as well!

Rob Price - All Regions Player (Gutbrain, 2017) ****

I ran into guitarist Rob Price a while back at the Stone in NYC. I cannot recall what the show was, but it was a guitarist ... maybe Frisell or Ribot ... either one would make perfect sense. Anyway, I had been a fan of his earlier works - 'At Sunset' and 'I Really Do Not See the Signal' - both smart and adventurous works with a crack quartet touching on many musical styles. I asked what he has been up to and he said he was working with a trio working out post-surf guitar takes on soundtrack themes, often playing the music set to film projections. Then, last year (2017) he released a special 100 copy run of an album from the trio, All Regions Player, which indeed sounds just like his description, a spaghetti western imbued set of tracks that draws on both Morricone and the Ventures. This is a really fun album, from the opening arrangement of 'Gunfight at the OK Corral' to the fantastic version of the theme from 'The Taking of Pelham 123' - the song reflecting the barreling of a runaway train in full blown jittery glory. 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' takes an approach that stretches the anthem way beyond its natural shape.

This set is certainly not free jazz, but it is full of imaginative arrangements of soundtrack music that has been molded into a highly enjoyable power trio fusing a love of film music and surf music. The trio is, in addition to Price, Ben Gallina on bass and Andy O’Neill on drums. Price is also long time figure in the Downtown New York City scene and is donating the proceeds of the album to support the Downtown Music Gallery. So, two great reasons to buy this CD: excellent and fun music, and supporting the beating heart of free music. (Check out the DMG event calendar, they have live music every week, including shows by Price). Buy here.

Samo Salamon - Free Sessions Vol 1: Planets of Kei (NotTwo 2017) ****½

Before digging into Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon's Planets of Kei, I did a little research on the blog. My colleagues Chris Haines and Conor Kurtz covered two different Salamon recordings of recent vintage and both similarly remarked on how the guitarist himself had the least amount of play-time on the recordings. On Free Sessions Vol 1: Planets of Kei this seems to be fully rectified. Salamon delivers a health dose of acoustic guitar on this album, in full free interplay with Szilard Mezei's viola and Achille Succi's bass clarinet and alto sax. The lack of drums and bass, and the use of only acoustic instruments, may seem to suggest a somewhat quiet album, and to some extent that is true, but it exhibits more than a few moments of fire and intensity that seems to be inspired by the sparseness of the instruments rather than held back by it. Right away on the opening track "Trio 1", the three are a-buzz, literally. From the rattle of the acoustic guitar stings, to the fizz of the bass clarinet, and the rub of violin strings, there is a crackling energy emanating from the group. To break things up, the next track is entitled 'Duo Achille & Samo', which is just that, the guitar and bass clarinet in a complex rhythmically interlocking dance. Salamon's lines grow longer and filled with chordal tones, while Achille plays elongated notes behind him. A later track 'Duo Samo & Slizard' begins in a similar fashion, but now with the guitar and viola. The two engage in a spirited melee, the viola often producing melodic lines spiraling out, while the guitar delivers staccato rhythmic figures. The track 'Trio VI', may be my favorite on the album. Starting with a repetitive finger picked figure on the guitar, the saxophone soon joins with an entropic melodic snippets. The free lines are quite interesting to follow, and the trio is adept at utilizing the spaces between their notes as much as the notes that they make, to propel themselves, especially in the final moments of this track where the friction between the three starts smoking.

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