Here are a couple guys that work their way through six strings, mixing elements of jazz and rock
Guitarist Ken Silverman cuts a wide swath of styles here as he goes through a collection of originals and his own arrangement of a Prokofiev piece with his team of Sam McPherson/b and Andy O’Neill. He likes to have fun with his strings, sometimes giving them a vibrato’d tone with some trimbal drumming on the title track on which he also gets a bit frisky and free, while he bends notes like Santos and Johnny on a sleepwalking read of “Visions Fugitives #1.” There’s a nice groove supplied by McPherson and O’Neill where they change gears on a funky Memphis backbeat on “Elbow Grease” and some twangy Chet Atkins picking builds up steam under O’Neill’s brushes on “Little Ditty.” A bit of surfer guitar a la Bob Boyd and Dick Dale has the band venture out (pun intended) on a funky “Odyssey In Blue.” Fun instrumentals with lots of picking and grinning.
Matt MacDougall adds some texture to his band with keyboards (Alex Wignall), and saxes (Jeff Coffin/ts, Adam Carillo/ts-as-ss) along with a trio format of Arianna Fanning/dr and Roy Vogt/b. The leader shows a bit of Santana on his sound during “A Year That Never Happened” along with some lyrical keyboard work by Wignall, while he shows he likes to rock and boogie on the hopping “Kid With Every Problem” with Coffins’ thick sounding tenor. Some nifty drumming by Fanning and a hip bass line makes “Modern/Miscellaneous” a good vehicle for MacDougal and Coffin to get some chops out, and the leader shows his softer side on the gentle pickins of “We’re Both At Fault.” Upbeat and energetic.
SoundSeer Records