Here’s a UK guitarist you might want to give a second and third listen to; Steve Bnks has a tone and style that is caught somewhere between Steve Hackett’s fusion and Pat MEtheny’s wondrousness. He teams up with Sam Crockett/ts, Rebecca Nash/key, Henrick Jensen/b and Mark Whitlam/dr for a collection of creative and impressionistic originals.
The album is divided into two parts. The first is a four-part “Emboldened Suite” that starts with some rich piano and sinewy guitar work the sears on “Fear” before Whitlam’s crisps sticks lead the charge for Crockett’s postbopping tenor with a bouncy Nash on the swinging “Belief”. A lovely duet between Crockett and the lithe leader take place on “Unity (Prologue) before the rhythm team digs in underneath Crockett’s Trane-ish work on “”Unity (Main Theme)”.
Banks is his most panoramic gliding and soaring around the gentle cadence of “Two Brothers”, dancing around Whitlam’s cymbals on “Just Listen” and getting folksy on the misty toned “Always And Forever Yours”. This is a guy I want to see in concerts; any plans on hopping The Pond?