A pair of guitar duos: Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp/Eyal Maoz & Eugene Chadbourne

     Two of modern music’s most outré guitarists, Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp, unite for an absolutely wild session they’ve dubbed Realism. Now this collaboration, involving acoustic guitars and electric guitars plus Morris’ effect pedals and Sharp’s electronics, is nearly as far from realism as you can get. I say “nearly” because the instruments are usually recognizable as guitars. Noisy, scrabbly, and definitively weird, their abrasive sounds will certainly not be to everyone’s taste. But so what? As producer and current ESP honcho Steve Holtje reminds us, one of the early slogans of the label was “you never heard such sounds in your life,” and that’s certainly true of this set. Totally improvised, and chock-full of surprising moments, this music twists and turns in so many directions at once it can feel somewhat dizzying. From the first fairly gentle flurries of sound on Shapes Mentioned to the whoops and clangs of the lengthy Arrokoth, Realism is both insanely beautiful and beautifully insane. Totally recommended.

 ESP-Disk’ ESP5084; Joe Morris (g, effects) Elliott Sharp (g, electronics); Brooklyn, NY, July 17, 2023; Shapes Mentioned/ Neither Odd Nor Even/ Light Asking/ Freezing in Hell/ Soft Version/ Arrokoth; 64:40. espdisk.com

    Another guitar duo, Eyal Maoz & Eugene Chadbourne, has a big batch of fun on The Coincidence Masters. Freely improvised music needs surprising coincidences to result in more than a random jumble of noise, and veteran weirdo Dr. Chad along with Maoz are more than ready to create the right conditions for those surprises to erupt. Where the Morris/Sharp duo is prone to big noises with lots of electronic effects, Maoz and Chadbourne take a calmer approach to their interactions. Chadbourne’s many projects over the years have nearly always had a humorous edge to them, and The Coincidence Masters is no exception. It comes through in the quietly subversive back and forth that the pair engages in, as well as the titles they’ve given for their improvised encounters. Song titles like And Now, All Is Left Is The Titles Search and The Last Track point directly at their playful attitudes in the recording studio. But in the end, They are no less serious about their music than the more raucous Morris/Sharp duo. Listened all the way through, the CD feels like a kind of suite, with track times running from the thirty-eight seconds of Eager for the Ad-Lib to a pair of lengthy excursions in Unexpected, Also For Us, clocking in at just over ten minutes, and the longer Naming Comforts People. The Coincidence Masters is a delightfully entertaining showcase of improvisation, mastered by none other than Elliott Sharp! 

Infrequent Seams (CD, digital album); Eyal Maoz, Eugene Chadbourne (guitars); NYC, June 10, 2022; Words Are Not Intended/ Two Guitarists/ Improvisation Enthusiasm/ On-the-Spot/ Eager for the Ad-Lib/ Unexpected, Also For Us/ And Now, All Is Left Is The Titles Search/ We Need It/ Naming Comforts People/ All Through / The Last Track; 52:05 . infrequentseams.bandcamp.com

Julian Lage: Squint

  With Squint, his debut as a leader for Blue Note Records, guitarist Julian Lage completes an unusual musical relay. It goes like this: towards the end of the 1950's, saxophonist Boots Randolph prevailed upon young vibraphonist Gary Burton to move to Nashville, where he made his earliest recordings with Randolph, guitarist Hank Garland, and pianist Floyd Cramer. That sojourn lasted for a couple of years, until Burton relocated to New York. The first Gary Burton quartet with Larry Coryell on guitar recorded Duster in 1967. Coryell was succeeded by, among others, Jerry Hahn, Mick Goodrick, and Pat Metheny in various Burton units over the years. In 2003, Burton introduced his new band, bringing Julian Lage to immediate prominence. Lage went on to record four CDs with Burton, with his own first record as a leader for EmArcy in 2009. Now Lage himself has completed the circle by moving to Nashville, where he recorded Squint at home and at the legendary Sound Emporium Studios. Anyone who’s heard any of the Burton titles or Lage’s collaborations with fellow guitarist Nels Cline (Room, 2014; and Currents, Constellations, 2018) knows that Lage is a consistently exciting and inventive player. His trio of the last few years featuring Jorge Roeder on bass and Dave King on drums has attained a beautifully poised sound and they more than do justice to Lage’s tuneful originals. The opening Etude is a relaxing solo piece, welcoming us to the session. Eight Lage compositions by the trio are on the program, along with Johnny Mercer’s Emily, popular with improvisers since its debut in 1964, and the more obscure Call of the Canyon, by Billy Hill, sung first by Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey in 1940 and later by Gene Autry in a 1942 film of the same name. Highlights include the perky groove of Saint Rose, the sweetly delicate treatment of Emily, the trenchant interplay of the trio on the up-tempo Familiar Flower, and the utterly relaxed Short Form. Squint is happily recommended. 

Blue Note B08Y4H43VJ; Julian Lage (el g) Jorge Roeder (b) Dave King (d); Nashville, TN, August 15-19, 2020; Etude (solo guitar)/ Boo's Blues/ Squint/ Saint Rose/ Emily/ Familiar Flower/ Day and Age/ Quiet Like a Fuse/ Short Form/ Twilight Surfer/ Call Of The Canyon; 45:32. www.bluenote.com

Joel Harrison: Guitar Talk

Guitarist Joel Harrison, impresario of the Alternative Guitar Summit, debuts his new label AGS Recordings with Guitar Talk, a long program of encounters with 4 other guitar slingers. There are also a pair of duets with the eminent electric bassist Steve Swallow, and the set concludes with a pair of Harrison solo excursions. Given the string-driven firepower of Harrison and fellow guitarists Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, Pete McCann, and David Gilmore, I was expected a rowdier experience than the surprisingly mellow path that prevails. The highlights for me are the duos with Swallow, who brings a matchless swing to Harrison’s dedication to him, and lends an air of mystery to another Harrison original, I’m Still Asking the Question. The first of Harrison’s solo tracks finds him exploring Duke Ellington’s Reflections in D, premiered by the maestro in a 1953 trio rendition. Here it becomes a potent elegy, lovingly performed and imbued with deep spirit. The only jarring passages in the entire set come in Harrison’s closing solo version of America the Beautiful, with some chunky chords here and there and some biting lead guitar. Definitely worth a listen, especially for guitar fans. 

AGS Recordings AGSR-001; Joel Harrison (g); no dates or locations specified; It Fall On You (with Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder)/ Sunday Night With Vic (with Pete McCann)/ Autumn in Olivebridge (with Ben Monder)/ Rebound (with Pete McCann)/ I Knew Right Away (with Steve Cardenas)/ Song for Steve Swallow (with Steve Swallow, b)/ Winter Solstice (with Ben Monder)/ I’m Still Asking the Question (with Steve Swallow, b) Black Mountain Breakdown (with David Gilmore)/ Reflections in D/ America the Beautiful; 64:46. agsrecordings.bandcamp.com

Rez Abbasi: Django-Shift

  It’s dizzying to contemplate the fabric of cross-cultural threads on Django-shift, with the music of Django Reinhardt adapted by guitarist Rez Abbasi and his trio. Start with everything that Django himself heard, from his native Roma music to European classical music and American jazz and show music. Then account for the explosion of music and guitar styles over the intervening decades, advances in electronic sound production, and the paths and talents of the musicians, and your head will start to spin. The music of Django Reinhardt has been a sensation since he and violinist Stéphane Grappelli first formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. There have been plenty of tributes and collections of Reinhardt’s songs, as well as festivals devoted to his music, all generally adhering more or less closely to the original contours of the arrangements. At a suggestion from California’s Peter Williams, who inquired about an Abbasi project for his next Django Festival, the guitarist took him up on his offer. Now Abbasi and his co-conspirators are here to blow the cobwebs off of the music and bring it all to modern, clamorous life. Abbasi sticks to an acoustic instrument throughout the date. Joining him is Neil Alexander on organ, synthesizers, and live electronic manipulations. On drums is Michael Sarin, whose playing I’ve enjoyed in ensembles led by Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, and Erik Friedlander, among others. His work here is stellar, from his brushwork on their lovely version of Django’s Castle to the boldly eccentric drum solo that brings the trio’s uptempo romp through Hungaria to an end. The overall theme here is reinvention, with Abbasi largely keeping Django’s melodies intact while, in his words, “recontextualizing” them with fresh “harmonic content, rhythmical cadences, meter changes, textural development” and a healthy amount of improvisation. Abbasi and company’s deep dive into Django’s music results in a successful effort that combines deep respect for the source material with a host of unexpected twists and turns. In addition to Django’s original compositions, the trio also takes on two songs from his repertoire. Anniversary Song, based on a popular Romanian waltz composed by Ion Ivanovici in 1880, has been performed by artists as varied as Al Jolson, Pat Boone, and a quintet co-led by Art Pepper and Lee Konitz (!). This smoothly grooving version gives the lead at first to Alexander’s pinched organ sound, with vigorous accompaniment by Sarin’s drums and Abbasi’s determined strumming. The middle section has a seriously smoking guitar solo, as the tune revs up to a big finish. Kurt Weill’s September Song concludes the program in a imaginative recasting that has Abbasi sneaking up to the well-known melody over Alexander’s swirling organ lines. I love Django’s music, and I’m happily surprised at what Abbasi and friends have done with it. Definitely recommended, especially to Django fans. 

Whirlwind Recordings WR4762; Rez Abbasi (fretted & fretless acoustic g) Neil Alexander (org, elec, synths) Michael Sarin (d); Astoria, NY, February 6-7, 2019; Diminishing/ Swing 42/ Heavy Artillery/ Django’s Castle/ Anniversary Song/ Cavalerie/ Douce Ambiance/ Hungaria/ September Song; 48:32. www.whirlwindrecordings.com

Christy Doran: 144 Strings For A Broken Chord

Christy Doran enlisted 19 fellow electric guitarists, 4 electric bassists, one lonely drummer, and a conductor for a 7-part composition he calls 144 Strings For A Broken Chord. Even before I started to listen to this rather beautiful music, I was captivated by a photograph of the entire band on stage with an impressive array of guitars, amps and pedals. Expecting a total onslaught of sound, I was pleasantly surprised when the opener, Cannon Street Canon, proved to be a nuanced exploration of the classical structure. The contrapuntal format is perfectly suited to this agglomeration of guitars. Doran built the band around his current trio with bassist Franco Fontanarrosa and drummer Lukas Mantel. He gives Fontanarrosa the only solo on Cannon Street Canon. Curiously, Doran doesn’t solo himself on any of the tunes. While most of the pieces make some room for solos, they tend to be quite short, and the full ensemble is really the focus. Andromeda begins with a four note melody. With licks passed around the ensemble over a perky beat from Mantel, the band proceeds to develop and elaborate on the simple theme for over 11 minutes. Bassist Wolfgang Zwiauer and guitarist Walter Beltrami are the featured soloists over richly textured guitar lines. The jittery Gunslingers is next, the occasion for a series of brief solos by guitarists Christopher Guilfoyle, Yves Reichmuth, and Philippe Emanuel Schåppi popping out of the ensemble, followed by an electric bass duet by Fontanarrosa and Andi Schnellmann. A broken chord is one in which the notes are played successively, and with so many strings available, there are plenty of possibilities for precisely how this can work. Broken Chords is a wild tune with tempo shifts and dynamic extremes amid the entrancing weave of electric guitars. Laurent Méteau’s screaming guitar solo is one of the disc’s many highlights. I am particularly taken with the funky and audacious Bad News Babe, a multi-part piece loaded with dissonant power chords and piercing licks. There’s a heavy metal feel to a number of sections, which hint both at parody and homage without ever really deciding which. Like all of Doran’s pieces in this setting, it’s got delicate sections right up against more robust passages. This is the longest track on the session, at just over 13 minutes, but the fullness of the sound and the intriguing paths that the music carves out justify the length. What follows is the shortest track, Goin’ In On the Way Out, with a lovely section of guitarists playing part of a scale, then passing the baton, as it were, to another player. The finale, Bows and Wahs, is deeply mysterious, with a dark subterranean feeling for most of its 10-minute length. Lukas Mantel’s steady and minimalist drumming holds down the center, with guitars and basses flowing around him, quietly at first but building slowly into an intense scrum of sound. Franz Hellmüller takes an energetically spunky solo to conclude the tune, and the disc. Via the thoroughly committed playing by all hands of Doran’s well-crafted compositions and the conducting of John Voirol, what could have been an undifferentiated mess is an eminently viable format and a triumph for all concerned. Definitely recommended, and the transparent sound quality and careful mix make 144 Strings a superb listen on headphones.
Between The Lines BTLCHR71245; Walter Beltrami, Manuel Büchel, Glauco Cataldo, Christy Doran, Lucia D’Errico, Dave Gisler, Christopher Guilfoyle, Franz Hellmüller, Laurent Méteau, Urs Müller, Yves Reichmuth, Florian Respondek, Simon Rupp, Philippe Emanuel Schåppi, Philipp Schaufelberger, Nicolas Stettler, Urs Vögeli, Christian Winiker, Christian Zemp, Gael Zwahlen (g) Martina Berther, Franco Fontanarrosa, Andi Schnellmann, Wolfgang Zwiauer (el b) Lukas Mantel (d) John Voirol (cond); Stalden, Switzerland, September 13-15, 2016; Cannon Street Canon/ Andromeda/ Gunslingers/ Broken Chords/ Bad News Babe/ Goin’ In On the Way Out/ Bows and Wahs; 59:47. challengerecords.com

David Cruz: EP

Canadian guitarist David Cruz offers a musical calling card on his EP with half a dozen trio performances designed to entice listeners and maybe get himself a few gigs too. Cruz has a clean sound, an easy-going manner of soloing, and the good taste that leads him to program tunes like Sam Rivers’ Beatrice, Billy Strayhorn’s Take the ‘A’ Train, and John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. Sympathetically supported by bassist William Dietrich and drummer Miles Fuller, Cruz makes a strong first impression with this set. His version of ‘A’ Train is sweetly downtempo, bringing out the innate lyricism of Strayhorn’s much-beloved anthem. The vigorous In Hindsight, one of three original tunes, swings hard, with strong solos from all hands. Avery, another Cruz composition, is a tender ballad that lopes along with style. Giant Steps is the quintessential test for a modern saxophonist, and it sounds equally challenging on guitar. With Fuller’s drumming driving the trio, their version is fluid and dynamic, but at just over two minutes, they don’t give themselves much of a chance to improvise. The EP concludes with another Cruz original, Chocolate Blackout, a cheerful mid-tempo number that leaves this listener feeling pretty good. Spend half an hour with David Cruz’s EP and you’ll experience some enjoyable guitar - based jazz. Well worth a listen.
Self-produced; David Cruz (g) William Dietrich (b) Miles Fuller (d); Toronto, ON, February 2019; Beatrice/ Take the ‘A’ Train/ In Hindsight/ Avery/ Giant Steps/ Chocolate Blackout; 27:15. www.davidcruzguitar.com