Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor: Acoustic Guitar Duets (Livia LRCD2404)
Recorded in Dublin in July 1985, this session was first released the following year. Livia’s remastered reissue contains a 16-page booklet with photographs and expanded sleeve notes. The obvious empathy between these two master guitarists reaches telepathic levels throughout this super session of standards.
Because both Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor are equally virtuosic players, alternating on comping duties, it’s occasionally difficult to determine who is soloing, with the exception of Stewart’s exhilarating rendition of the Irish reel Farewell To Erin. However, there is a clue in that Taylor, who accompanied Stéphane Grapelli for several years and whose major influence was Django Reinhardt, veers towards a Quintette du Hot Club de France style. Stewart, who follows a Wes Montgomery / Kenny Burrell path, evinces a bluesier approach.
Notwithstanding this technical detail, this record is an example of jazz guitar duetting at its apotheosis. Another bonus is that the tracks are mainly drawn from either the Great American Songbook or numbers closely associated with bebop – e.g., the duo’s scorching version of Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce as opposed to the slightly more twee Hot Club repertoire (such as Tea For Two perhaps?). The net result of this meeting of two guitar giants is an album replete with exquisite, mesmerising performances.
Bill Bruford: The Best Of Bill Bruford – The Winterfold & Summerfold Years (Summerfold BBSF031)
The original drummer in prog-rock group Yes and long-term powerhouse for King Crimson, Bill Bruford has navigated a varied career, always as a consummate professional. During the 70s he recorded solo albums beginning with Feels Good To Me (EG/Polydor, 1978) followed by One Of A Kind (EG/Polydor, 1979) featuring on the former the beguiling vocals of Annette Peacock and on both the guitar phenomenon Allan Holdsworth and revered bassist Jeff Berlin. Bruford also participated in supergroup UK (with Holdsworth) and served stints with Genesis and Gong.
But his talent wasn’t limited to drumming: he had already proved his sophisticated composition skills with the labyrinthine Back To The Beginning on Feels Good To Me. He was also good at recruiting talented musicians to play in the varying line-ups of his jazz group Earthworks such as former Loose Tubes alumni Django Bates and Iain Ballamy. Earthworks produced some fine albums, represented on this three-disc box set by 16 tracks that reflect the varying iterations of the band, including sessions with saxophonist Patrick Clahar and pianist Steve Hamilton. Check out the exuberant Stromboli Kicks from Dig? (EG Records, 1989). He also recorded a trio album of intricate interplay If Summer Had Its Ghosts with Ralph Towner and Eddie Gomez (DGM, 1997) of which the title track presented here is a shining example.
Additionally, the box contains examples of Bruford’s eagerness to experiment outside of the conventions of rock or jazz such as his duet albums with Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz, duetting with Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap or his percussive foray with Chad Wackerman and others on the World Drummers Ensemble’s A Coat Of Many Colors (Summerfold, 2006). He also expanded his jazz quartet to a nonet with the Earthworks Underground Orchestra including Robin Eubanks, Steve Wilson and Tim Garland.
Bruford retired from professional playing in 2009, initially to concentrate on a music PhD and to oversee his Winterfold and Summerfold record labels from which this box set derives its subheading. Intriguingly, he emerged from retirement in 2024 to join avant-jazz guitarist Pete Roth and bassist Mike Pratt in a tour of concerts in the south of England. Playing to ecstatic audiences, the band featured a repertoire ranging from Charlie Parker covers to originals by the trio. Notably Bruford played a much-reduced kit with just four drums, as depicted in the penultimate photograph of this box’s accompanying 24-page booklet.
Oz Noy: Fun One (Criss Cross Jazz Criss 1422CD)
During Oz Noy’s recording career he’s been accompanied by a panoply of star musicians such as Jim Beard, Randy Brecker, Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta and Dave Weckl. Fun One is his 15th album to date and it’s mainly populated by well-known standards.
Noy can be generally characterised as a take-no-prisoners guitarist so it’s good to hear him in a more reflective mood on numbers like Thelonious Monk’s Ruby My Dear and on Clifford Brown’s Sandu, which he adorns with a blues-infused solo. Similarly, Miles Davis’s Solar is given a respectful workout. But there are other approaches such as the bitingly angular version of Milestones. There are a couple of Noy-penned originals here of which the title track is the ebullient opener.
Noy is accompanied on this album by stellar musicians – David Kikoski on piano, James Genus on bass and Clarence Penn on drums. For those uninitiated in the works of Noy, this is a good place to start.
Alden Hellmuth: Good Intentions (Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT-679)
Alden Hellmuth is a young saxophonist from Hartford, Connecticut and Good Intentions is her debut recording. All eight tracks were composed by Hellmuth in 2022 whilst living abroad and as she explains, were born from conflict, both internal and external, “as an artist trying to shape and define my own authentic voice”. The album was recorded by her sextet in Brooklyn, New York in June 2023. Influenced by the likes of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, the tunes are captivating and intricately composed and arranged. Hellmuth’s alto sounds crystalline throughout and the tracks benefit from top-notch musicians such as Josh Evans, evincing florid trumpet on Ambrosia & Vetiver, and Lucas Kadish, who contributes limpid guitar on the intro to Stream Of.
Thumbscrew: Wingbeats (Cuneiform Records, Rune 520)
Guitarist extraordinaire Mary Halvorson first worked with drummer and vibist Tomas Fujiwara in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum’s sextet in the mid-2000s. The pair hooked up with bassist Formanek in 2011 when he was depping in Bynum’s group. The rapport between the three is palpable and results in the trio’s written compositions sounding like spontaneous inventions. Wingbeats is their eighth album together but they’ve also played on Halvorson’s Code Girl recordings. Halvorson’s Greenish Tents features Fujiwara on vibes and a collective staccato interlude bookended by a sombre bass line. Fujiwara drives Knots forward with sparse snapping snare drum interspersed by Halvorson’s spellbinding guitar and Formanek’s resounding, sonorous bass. Thumbscrew’s reinterpretation of Mingus’ Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk illuminates an old favourite in an idiosyncratically new light.