Teaming up with a guitarist in duo form gives lots of play room. Here are a couple of meetings that show the breadth and width.
Cool toned guitarist Brad Myers teams up with bassist Michael Sharfe (and some cameo guests) for a cozy and intimate album. Myers subscribes to the Jim Hall spaciousness, and he swings with subtlety on relaxed pieces like the title track (with Dan Karlsberg’s exotic melodic) and the delicate “Waltz New.” Sharfe’s bass is deeply sonorous as Myers taps into his inner Pat Metheny on the evocative “Country” and Norm’s Ridge” while the percussion suavely pulses forward n “Great Pumpkin Waltz” and drives forward assertively on the bopping “In Y our Own Sweet Way.” Delightful in a plethora of ways.
On the other spectrum, electric guitarist Enzo Rocco teams up with reedist Carlo Actis Dato for a dozen free form improvisations that mix Mingus-like bop, Mediterranean folk melodies and sound effects akin to a Neopolitan traffic jam on Via Nazionale. Dato’s baritone sax mixes squawks, fuzzy reed blurps and frenetic explorations as Rocco forms a circle dance on”Apolide” and directs traffic on “Rumbabamba.” Deep grunts on the bass clarinet get bluesy on “Briciole” and dance like a dervish on “Setubal” while the tenor bops with tonguing to tender guitars strums on “La Ronda Del Visconte” and the two get dreamy on the impressionistic “Taxfrei.” Italian passions percolating like a pizza inside a wood burning stove.