CD release show:
GUITAR TALK
Celebrating the Guitar Talk CD, guitar duos released on AGS Recordings, feat. Joel Harrison, Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, Pete McCann, and David Gilmore. Varied groups of duos. Compositions by Joel Harrison.
Guitar Talk is a collection of intimate guitar duet recordings featuring some of the finest jazz players on the planet. Ben Monder, Steve Cardenas, Pete McCann, David Gilmore, and legendary bassist Steve Swallow join Joel Harrison on nine of original compositions Harrison penned in 2019. The other two cuts are solo efforts, a gem-like rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Reflections in D”, and a haunting solo take on “America the Beautiful”.
The impetus for this stripped down outing came after Harrison released America at War (Sunnyside 2020), a CD which included nineteen musicians. “I wanted to do something quiet, relatively simple,” says the composer. “I realized that in my body of work I had avoided one of the most obvious and natural goals: to write simple, short instrumental songs that centered around a memorable melody. Perhaps I’d wandered from this time-honored task in search of challenges around larger ensembles, longer forms, and matters of harmony and rhythm.” Indeed these pieces are full of memorable melodies, gorgeous harmony, and spirited, sometimes telepathic interplay.
“Sunday Night with Vic” refers to the late Vic Juris’ Sunday evening residency at the 55 Bar, where Harrison spent happy audience-time. “Song for Steve Swallow” fulfills a longtime dream to record with the storied bassist. “It Falls On You”, the sole trio track, offers a stirring descending melody line that seems to contain both hope and mourning. Many of the tunes were written with their duo partners in mind. “Rebound”, for instance, is pitched to Pete McCann, who at six ft. four and with audacious technique seems like the fast forward of the jazz guitar world. Recorded in several different locations in early 2020, just before the Covid 19 pandemic lockdowns, these tunes were mixed by Liberty Ellman and mastered by Dave Darlington.
“I’ve always loved guitar duos,” says Harrison, who plans Guitar Talk as the first of a series of duo recordings to be released on AGS Recordings. Guitar Talk is one of two inaugural recordings released on AGS Recordings, the guitar-centric record label he co-founded with Anthony Pirog as an offshoot of the Alternative Guitar Summit, an annual festival of creative guitar music founded in 2010. In Side by Anthony Pirog is AGS Recordings’ other inaugural release.
And the album’s title, Guitar Talk? It bears the same name as Harrison’s new book of interviews with twenty-seven visionary guitarists coming out on Terra Nova Press on June 15, 2021. In a sense, these duets are the musical equivalent of the printed conversations.