This is about the third album that I’ve reviewed by Jeff Beck alumnus and guitarist Nicolas Meier, and it might be his most impressive yet. It’s definitely the most ambitious, since it has 3 discs worth of music. The three separate albums show the wide scope and brilliance of this artist, who plays a wide variety of guitars, from nylon fretted, to fretless, 12 strings, jazz guitar and glissenter, both in solo format and with his band of Kevin Glasgow/b, Richard Jones/vi and Demi Garcia Sabat/perc.
The first album, Magnificent, has the team in a studio session, filled with dark Middle Eastern exoticism in the thriving “Mesudiye” and creating a caravan cadence on “Hip”. The mix of various guitars and Jones’ violin, teamed with the lithe rhythm pulsations, keep the team both light on its feet and pulsating forward as on “Under an Olive Tree” and the tricky “Semur’s Bridge”. In concert, the Live album swings hard on “Manzanita Samba” and Saharan atmospheres for “Riversides” and “Caravan of Anatoli”. The interplay between the four is quite symbiotic and almost telepathic as on “City of the Three Rivers” and “Adiguzel” with Meier knowing when to hold back the reins or let loose on jaw dropping solos.
Last but not least is his solo album of Stories, an intimate interpretation of originals and jazz standards. His nylon strings are gorgeous on “Le Vie En Rose” and “C’Est Si Bon” while the fretless strings resonate of exoticism for “Stories From The Garden”. His jazz tonings are spot on for a patient “My Foolish Heart” and the rich “Blues For Alice” and the tensile Glissentar closes things out on the evocative “Esmeralda”. There used to be the joke that “it’s all done with strings”, but in this case it’s a compliment. Look for this one.