Acoustic Guitar Duets - Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor

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

The best thing about this album is that Livia Records founder, Gerald Davis had the vision to produce it in the first place.

The second best thing about the recording is its reissuance by Dermot Rogers as part of his continuing efforts to make the music of guitarist Louis Stewart available again in enhanced digital formats, encased in first-rate artwork with ample detailed information and commentaries also included.

Both in its inception and resurrection the fact that this recording happened at all is a fortunate happenstance because in the 1980s when it was originally recorded there wasn't a big demand or interest in Jazz played on unamplified guitar.

Amplified guitar was a big deal when it was first brought to Jazz in the early 1940s by Charlie Christian. The instrument could finally be heard in ensemble Jazz formats along with the other, much louder instruments.

Of course, Charlie Christian did much more than simply plug-in the guitar as Ted Gioia reminds us in the 2nd Edition of his History of Jazz: “Christian would prove to be a leader and instigator of the defining modern style: namely bebop … with hard-driving monophonic lines, drenched in chromaticism and executed with lighting speed.” 

Ted goes on to say: “Yet Christian's advocacy of the electric guitar represents only the smallest part of his contribution to jazz. With his daring sense of intervallic high jinx, his dancing triplets and swinging sixteenth notes, his instinct for pouncing on the altered higher notes of the harmony, extracting the maximum amount of emotion from these flatted and sharpened tones.”

Almost 50 years later, if you now “unplug” the guitar, stylistically what Ted describes above is what’s on offer in Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor’s Acoustic Guitar Duets. [Livia Records LRCD 2404].

The ethereal quality of acoustic guitar replaces the amplification and when combined with Louis’ and Martin’s genius at developing melodic continuity, the sophisticated elements of the modern approach contained in Christian’s style [along with a little Tal Farlow, Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery thrown in for good measure] are woven together to create a remarkable series of duets.

Louis and Martin are obviously delighted to be in one another’s company and there is a sense of playful competitiveness at work here which results in both of these supremely gifted guitarists being spurred on to take chances in their respective improvisations.

At times, the lightning speed with which the ideas flow forth from these supremely gifted guitarists is enough to take your breath away.

The basic format for each track is one guitar playing rhythm changes while the other solos over these, but occasionally, Louis and Martin solo simultaneously and when they do, for example on Pick Yourself Up - not to put too fine a point on it - all heck breaks loose.

Often the background rhythms are cleverly embellished as is the case with the 6/8 triplet feel which underlies Morning of the Carnival. 

The beautifully remastered sound brings out the full, rich acoustic tone that each of these guitar masters is able to achieve, an additional treat for both casual listers and guitarist purists alike.

Louis and Martin are constantly looking to alter the sameness of the two guitar sound with clever arrangements such as the unison statement of the melody on Jive at Five. Here they add the additional element of a “walking bass” background to the accompaniment to make the music swing harder.

Billie’s Bounce, which finds them harmonizing the opening theme, is a wondrous example of the fine art of Bebop guitar picking at its best with lots of substituted chords, rhythmic displacement and guitar trickery brought forth to spellbind the listener. 

The exquisite sonority [texture of the sound] that these two guitar masters can produce is demonstrated on the two folk songs contained in the album: Taylor’s arrangement of Coming Through the Rye and Stewart’s modally embellished chart on Farewell to Erin. 

The firepower that Louis and Martin hold in reserve most of the time is released in finger busting style on a fast paced version of Cherokee. The track is an amazing example of how they are able to get ideas from-the-head-to-the-hands in a blisteringly fast manner. The jointly improvised tag [turnaround] that closes the piece is one for the ages; I almost didn’t want it to end.

Beautiful guitar balladry is on display in their interpretation of Darn That Dream. Here, they actually achieve a singing quality in the guitar, one with a rich, juicy tone - almost an impossibility with no ability to sustain a note without the amplification and yet, it’s there. Their powerful hands produce so much energy in striking the strings, that when a note is released it generates a vibrato much like the human voice.

My favorite track is Bernie’s Tune because the fun that Louis and Martin are having becomes palpable on this light-hearted romp. You can just see them “gassing” one another in the studio with lick after lick [phrase after phrase] seemingly floating out of their guitars.

Louis and Martin make it all sound so effortless but as the late pianist Bill Evans once said of his own achievements it was a case of “2% talent and 98% hard work.”

If you are looking for a joyous Jazz journey, I guarantee that you will find none better than the listening adventure contained in Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor’s Acoustic Guitar Duets. [Livia Records LRCD 2404]. The musicianship on this recording has to be heard to be believed.

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