Louis Stewart - Louis the First [Livia Records LRCD 2401]

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved

Derek Jewell - Sunday Times: "With luck he really could become the best jazz guitarist in the world."

Jack Carter - Crescendo: "Stewart's performance on these tracks clearly demonstrates that there will be many more albums, many more accolades."

Ronnie Scott: "Louis is a superbly talented natural musician. In my book he's one of the world's great jazz guitarists."

Ray Comiskey-Irish Times: "an excellent example of jazz guitar by a master."

Hugh de Camillis- Guitarist Magazine: "Guitarists Joe Pass and Ike Isaacs have both expressed to me that in their opinion he is the most promising young guitarist around at present... An excellent offering to grace the shelves of any record collection. I hope there will be more to follow."

• The above are press comments from the original LP release of Louis the First

As a young man, so the story goes [not apocryphal], iconic Jazz guitarist Tal Farlow would listen to pianist Art Tatum’s piano wizardry on radio broadcasts in his family’s workshop and try to duplicate - on the guitar no less! - Art’s lightning finger runs, rapid glissandos and breakneck improvisations on the guitar!

Six strings versus 88 keys?!

After listening to guitarist Louis Stewart on the recently released Louis the First [Livia Records LRCD 2401], one has the feeling that Louis channeled his inner Tal and was privy to, if not the actual Tatum radio broadcasts, then a practice regimen similar to that of Farlow’s.

When Louis is in full stride, his improvised lines are a blur. Thankfully he uses this abundance of technique sparingly and in the service of the music on the nine tracks that make up Louis the First - five of which are trio, one a bass-guitar duet and three are solo guitar.

The music on this new CD dates back almost 40 years, yet it sounds like it was played and recorded only yesterday. 

Louis is a brilliant musician from every point of view: tone control, fluidity of ideas which dovetail into intriguing melodic improvised “lines” and a determined and unrelenting sense of swing.

He comes to play.

My preference are the five trio tracks. I think that his playing with bass and drums tends to settle him; his blazing technique is more readily brought into focus within the confines of this format.

Of the nine tracks, two are Jazz standards: Milt Jackson’s Bluesology and Wayne Shorter’s Footprints.

Four are from the Great American Songbook: All the Things You Are, Body and Soul, Alone Together, and Autumn Leaves.

Three are Modern Day Classics: Send in the Clowns, Here’s That Rainy Day and Jobim’s O Grande Amor.

This sweep of repertoire speaks to Louis' well-developed musical sensibilities as he is able to take the process of making Jazz into a variety of settings and create memorable interpretations and improvisations in each of them.

To my ears, the highlight of the recording is the duet with bassist Martin Walshe on Body and Soul, a song Jazz historian Ted Gioia describes as “the granddaddy of Jazz ballads, the quintessential torch song, and the ultimate measuring rod for … players of all generations.”

Louis and Martin barely hint at the original melody and instead dive deeply into intricate improvisations built around substituted chords and a wonderful “give and take” between the warm sounding acoustic instruments. The listener is treated to a 4.19 minute adventure in romantic balladry.

Alone Together with its unusual 14 bar A-theme based around a tonic major and the last 12 bar restatement concluding in a minor finds the trio digging in and rocking the peculiarities of the composition into an appealing series of hard-driving improvisations.

Wayne Shorter’s Footprints is just the ticket for creating improvisations that sound freeform but are actually based on formal structures which are hidden because they are not easy for the ear to discern. Louis, Martin and drummer John Woodham take full advantage of the blues progressions of the tune, which are similar to Miles Davis’ classic All Blues, to create a comfortable ¾ groove that is full of well-constructed improvisations encased in a dark, somewhat edgy feeling.

Recorded in 1975 when Louis was very much coming into his own as an artist, this is some of his best work: exhibiting total command of the tone and tenor of the instrument while creating interpretations that are full of risks that culminate in music that is accomplished and emotionally satisfying.

Stewart makes it all sound so easy and yet as the late pianist Bill Evans once said: “Making things sound easy in Jazz is 2 % talent and 98% hard work.”

At the time of these recordings, Louis had put in the hard work and paid his dues. As a result, we are in the presence of an accomplished artist, or to paraphrase his lifelong friend, pianist Jim Doherty: “By 1975, Louis was on fire so the time had come to record him as a leader.”

In addition to the superlative music on hand in Louis the First there is “a 16-page booklet with the original sleeve notes and new, extended notes including recollections from his close friend Jim Doherty and a trove of previously unseen photographs.”

With this CD reissue, Dermot Rogers has created another loving tribute to Louis Stewart, a guitarist who during his lifetime [1944-2016] was universally acclaimed as “the first true world-class Jazz musician to emerge from Ireland.”

Why not purchase a copy of this superb recording and join in the celebration. For order information go to https://liviarecords.com/product/louis-the-first/