If you’re a guitar fan (and if not, WHY AREN’T YOU?!?), here are a pair of guys that are a bit under the radar, but you’re gonna like for their creativity and style.
Oakland based guitarist Ken Husband’s leads a hip little trio with Aaron Germain/b and Otto Huber/dr through a collection of vibrant originals. Husbands has a clean and clear deliver on his solos, but he mixes it up with the foot pedals to give each song extra dashes of flavor. Funky tunes such as “East Coast Groupings” or the rockish back beating “Lucky Seven” have Husbands’ strings change character with intrigue. Huber and Germain keep things interesting with undercurrents that could pull down a lesser man; they give fascinating rhythms to the deceptive blues “Keep it Going” and the wonderfully bopping “Goodbye Eddie” while the team sizzles together on the samba “But I Don’t” while Husbands’ strings deliver warm orange embers of delight. A cooker.
Guitarist Tom Change works on mixing heavy metal concepts with left of center jazz on this ambitious collection. He’s got a two sax team of Greg Ward/as and Jason Rigby, and along with Chris Lightcap/b and Gerald Cleaver/dr, he incorporates the exotic percussion of Akshay Anatapadmanabhan and Subash Chandran for some rich flavors. Lots of kinetic energy bounces around on pieces such as “Variations fof Piano Op.27” while more heavy metal thunder a la Led Zeppelin is felt on “Spinal Tap/Goes to 11” and “Bar Codes” that mix Strat guitar licks with free flying reeds. Some funky pieces such as “Scatterbrain” spotlight Change’s dexterity on the frets, while clean picking is delightfully delivered with vocals, percussion and sax on the fascinating “Tongue & Groove.” A link between heavy metal and Ornette Coleman-who’d have guessed?