Guitarist Doug MacDonald trades in his usual hollow body guitar for a Fender Telecaster on this recent session, and while he considers it a major change direction in his playing, the session is a typical swinging affair that one is used to in the leader’s hands, even if he were playing a ukulele.
Ok, so he uses some pedals a little bit, and there’s a tad more bite to his sound. Still, Angelenos Doug Webb/ts, Aaron Janik/tp, Josh Nelson/p, Mike Gurrola/b and Charles Ruggiero/dr are all on familiar turf with the MacDonald originals and handful of covers, and the swinging is easy on “Desert Blues” and the Basie-ish “Bubbles in the Wine” with Nelson sounding like he’s on the corner of 12th St. and Vine. Webb bops well on “Gee’s Flat” and Ruggiero snaps up “Si Miner” with MacDonald breezing on the samba’d ”Whispering”. No matter the axe, MacDonald cuts it right.