Return of the Guitar Man - The New York City Jazz Record

Balance (Solo Acoustic Guitar)
Rolf Sturm (Water Street Music)
by Elliott Simon
Nylon-stringed guitars have a beautifully mellow
timbre at the heart of the delicate coloration and
intricate fingerpicking characterizing classical and
Latin folk styles. Transitioning jazz to the instrument
can be difficult without sounding, well, too Latin, too
classical or, in dreadful cases, toy-like. However in the
hands and fingers of a few, the intimacy and purity of
the instrument can be harnessed for unparalleled solo
jazz guitar. Rolf Sturm’s Balance retains the virtuosity
and nuance of masters like Joe Pass and Gene Bertoncini
but also includes Sturm’s quirky cleverness and
country ethos, making for a stellar session.
Sturm knows his guitar and plays all over it but he
also knows his jazz. Squarely in the jazz tradition he
takes advantage of the underlying chordal structure of
standards as both improvisational fodder and
inspiration to create new music. The bluesy feel of
Johnny Green’s “Out of Nowhere” serves as a supple
springboard for deft soloing while “Stella by Starlight”
is reimagined as a flamenco dancer-cum-country
beauty.
All of the five standards on Balance, however, are
further transmuted into original music through witty
anagram, chordal, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic
manipulations. The aforementioned turn into a
beautifully melodic creature with a spicy dash of funk
entitled “Straight Belly Salt” and the fragile but upbeat
CD closer “New Outer Hoof”. The longing and
compassion inherent in “Beautiful Love” is elegantly
rendered but Sturm also creates its more passionate
cousin, “A Foul Lute Vibe”. Alternately while the core
bossa coloration of “Black Orpheus” remains intact
and its tender pathos is highlighted, he is given a new
fancier suit of melodic clothing in “Le Burpo Shack”.
Balance has Sturm on technical par with the great nylon
stringers while his instrumental and compositional
approaches open up new jazz avenues.
For more information, visit waterstreetmusic.org
Tower Vol. 1
Marc Ducret (Ayler)
by Ken Waxman
Best-known for an association with New York
saxophonist Tim Berne that goes back to the ‘90s,
Parisian guitarist Marc Ducret proves with this quintet
CD that sharp, spiky jazz-rock improv can still be
created. But the reason Tower Vol. 1 is of such high
quality is that the self-taught guitarist knows how to
tweak the style so that its intellectual as well as
rhythmic qualities are emphasized.
Ducret, who has been a professional playing in a
variety of contexts since he was 17, surrounds himself
with a unique French-Danish lineup that’s similarly
versatile. There’s no double bass here, its function
18 October 2011 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
taken by the blaring pedal point of Fred Gastard’s bass
saxophone. The work of trumpeter Kasper Tranberg
and trombonist Matthias Mahler showcases distinctive
plunger solos as well as more expected stacked horn
riffs. Furthermore, just as the guitarist can pump out
kinetic rock-oriented licks when he wishes, so drummer
Peter Bruun emphasizes the beat, but his rim shots and
rebounds can be irrefutably refined as well.
Distinctively “Interlude: L’Ombra di Verdi”
doesn’t reference so-called classical music so much as
West Coast jazz of the ‘50s. The textures are carefully
voiced so that everyone is clearly heard even when
playing in unison. Despite a mid-section interlocking
pulse closer to rock than jazz, Ducret’s slurred fingering
mated with Tranberg muted trumpet ends the piece
with taut, staccato lines more atmospheric than brutal.
Similarly, the two “Real Thing” tracks encompass
everything from muscular backbeats to jocular nearcabaret
style vamps, plus polyphonic horn honks and
squeals. Ducret’s undulating fills and multi-fingered
string snaps impress throughout, especially in “Real
Thing #2”, which is concurrently speedy and nuanced.
The stop-time treatment finds the guitarist’s flanges
thickly matching both bass sax snorts and trumpet
triplets before the three players together relax into a
multi-layered finale.
More Tower sessions featuring Ducret in different
settings are promised in the near future. Hopefully
they’ll be as noteworthy as this outing.
For more information, visit ayler.com
Easy Living (OJC Remasters)
Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass (Pablo-Concord)
by Andy Vélez
Joe Pass, born in 1929, began playing with pro bands
when he was still in high school. He toured with
Charlie Barnet, served a stint in the navy, went through
a problematic period with drugs until cleaning up and
then worked with George Shearing among others. It
was only after he signed with Norman Granz, with
whom he made scores of recordings both as a leader
and a sideman, that he reached international and
enduring fame as a jazz guitar master.
Among his best-remembered albums are a series
of Virtuoso solo albums and The Trio, recorded with a
frequent partner, Oscar Peterson, and Niels-Henning
Ørsted Pedersen. From early on, Pass’ playing was
distinguished by him being a stylistic consolidator. By
frequently working without bass or drums backing he
was able to expand the guitar’s range and incorporate
the bassline counterpoint to simultaneous chords and
melodic lines. The resulting effect was that he could
swing on guitar as if he was an entire group.
All of which made him the perfect companion for
the great “First Lady of Song”, Ella Fitzgerald. Their
partnership included four studio albums and a handful
of posthumously released live recordings. The first
was the Grammy Award-winning Fitzgerald and Pass...
Again. In recalling that earlier collaboration Pass said,
“I could change keys with her, anything I wanted to
do, she’s there, she hears, no problem.”
How syntonic their pairing was is evidenced on
these acoustically spiffed-up 1983 and 1986
performances. This is late career Ella and occasionally
there is some quaver in her delivery. Which is irrelevant
because her musical know-how remained abundant.
There’s still lots of honey in Ella’s pot as is evidenced
on “On Green Dolphin Street” and nary a cliché in her
lyrical emphasis on a gentle and vulnerable revisiting
of “Moonlight in Vermont”, a song she recorded
decades earlier with Louis Armstrong. Kurt Weill’s
“My Ship” is perhaps the only first-time recording for
her. The reading is limpidly pure, augmented by Pass
with a brief and breathtaking solo.
Throughout Easy Living, she and Pass breathe
their music as if from the same heart. Often in live
performances Fitzgerald would urge this or that
musician to “play pretty for the people.” These two
greats are incomparably...pretty.
For more information, visit concordmusicgroup.com
“Throughout Plectrum, on a series of tried-andtrue
standards, Portolese constructs arrangements
that would stand up in any format, marked by
harmonic insight and a commitment to melody.”
-Neil Tesser (Examiner.com)
www.frankportolese.com