Bill Coon: Standard Elegance

     The title of veteran guitarist Bill Coon’s latest CD tells it all: Standard Elegance. Wielding either an archtop electric guitar or an acoustic nylon-string version, Coon offers solo renditions of eleven selections of well-known standards, plus one original (the charming Fall Rain at Night) and what you might call a modern standard, the Lennon-McCartney penned And I Love Her. Coon’s technique is impeccable, and the smoothness of his sound belies the complexity of his approach to solo playing. That may be a another way of saying that he makes it sound easy. Any way you put it, the music of Standard Elegance is warm and intimate, and a pure pleasure to listen to. 

Cellar CMF121225; Bill Coon (archtop electric & nylon-string guitars); Burnaby, BC, January & August 2024; All the Things You Are/ Yesterdays/ And I Love Her/ But Beautiful/ I Cover the Waterfront/ Prelude to a Kiss/ East of the Sun/ The Nearness of You/ How Deep is the Ocean/ Nuages/ Fall Rain at Night/ Here’s That Rainy Day/ We’ll Be Together Again; 48:18. cellarlive.bandcamp.com