I usually don’t put two separate releases together to make up my Ringer(s) of the Week, but this pair of sessions are so intertwined that to make separate articles would be redundant. You either “get it” or you don’t. Lord willing, you do.
When you think of “music of the Balkans, Greece and Turkey,” as Tev Stevig’s Joni Jol subtitles his disc, you expect to hear bouzoukis, ouds and baglama’s. What this guy has done instead is take the western clawhammer guitar and take traditional material (as well as some of his own) and create a fascinating mix of Mediterranean chords and melodies with sonorities of America. When you first listen to pieces such as his own “Cherambe” or “Ruchinista” you might think to yourself that “this is just American folk music, but as you dig deeper, you start to unearth the fragrant herbs of oregano, cumin and paprika within the melodies. Traditional material such as “Ramo Ramo” and “Craftmen’s Dance” have the rich earthiness of Tzadziki sauce and will touch you as deeply as a stroll in downtown Epidauros. Wondrous work here.
Guitarist/pianist Hristo Vitchev has released some wonderful jazz material, but nothing he’s done previously will prepare you for this one. Here, it’s just him and clarinetist Luibomir Krastev, and they go back into The Great Bulgarian Songbook and come up with material as golden as olive oil and as fragrance as freshly brewed demitasse coffee. Completely unrushed and unashamed, material such as “Little White Cloud” and “Beautiful Young Lady” have an alluring warmth that penetrates your most reflective thoughts. The alluring melodies, themes and submissive interplays on “Are You a Tulip, Are You a Hyacinth” grabs you as if you’re walking arm in arm down a winding village street, greeting the vendors of the local shops and taking in the scents from the local bread, meat and cheese markets. Krastev’s tone is warm and rich, and while he “slums it” with a Bb stick instead of the traditional and more ethnic C, he makes up for the allowance with some luminous long tones. As for Vitchev, he sounds like he was born for this disc, as he goes from foreground to background as if he were in a circle dance, taking the front of the line at just the right time, and slapping his heels with perfect timing and verve. This is one to savor over and over again.