Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Steve Howe/Martin Taylor: Masterpiece Guitars

285

Steve Howe/Martin Taylor: Masterpiece Guitars

By

Sign in to view read count
Steve Howe/Martin Taylor: Masterpiece Guitars
The so-called Great Guitars was a touring trio of jazz masters: Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd, and Barney Kessel. Ellis jokingly called their title "modest," but it was accurate, and it remained so when Martin Taylor, a naturalised Scotsman a generation younger, filled in after Kessel was incapacitated.

Taylor's here, but the title's especially precise because it refers to the instruments that he and Steve Howe play. Howe's background might be partly in rock, but it's wholly in an obsession with the guitar which few non-players can share. The late Scott Chinery's obsession was exercised in assembling the mind-boggling collection of rare wonderful instruments photographed here in a thick booklet insert and also recorded on the disc. He was, it seems, generous with them.

Uncannily wonderful, this is a succession of seventeen performances composed by tape-splicing and multi-tracking—stunning playing. At one extreme there's a maybe seven-guitar ensemble passage (it's hard to work out the exact numbers), at another Taylor comps on one guitar and solos (or duets, since he comes out of alternate speakers) with successive (approximately) sixteen-second passages on respectively eighteen guitars: "Blue Bossa" comes out as still human, swinging bebop.

Howe hardly plays jazz, but he can accompany as well as solo in styles not remote from Taylor's usual swing-to-bebop acoustic-based playing. Sometimes jazz and sometimes other music (mainstream is a fair approximation), the set has a nice programme balance between differently paced and variously scaled performances. As curiosities or anything else go, it's all exceptionally musical, and loving. Charlie Byrd is presumably listening in a double heaven.

Manzer, Comins, Megas, Triggs, Buscarino, and other guitar types: the booklet will be for some a volume of poetry, for some a tiny art book. The only things like it are collector's items, or CDs designed to soothe, surely none represent such virtuosity or such musicality. Forget the strangeness—it's hard to think of any comparable result of such enormous dedication the venture represents. Scott Chinery's guitar collection and generosity with it was startling, this project more so. Tragically, it's also his memorial.

Track Listing

1. Two Teardrops (Howe, Taylor) 3:32 ; 2. No Pedestrians (Taylor) 3:31 ; 3. Smile (Chaplin, Parsons, Turner)2:58 ; 4. La Questa (Taylor) 1:40 ; 5. All the Things You Are (Kern) 4:27; 6. Thought Waves (Howe) 3:13 ; 7. Thank Heaven for Little Girls (Lerner, Lowe) 3:29 ; 8. Ginger (Taylor) 4:23; 9. Blue Bossa (Kinny Dorham); 5:22 ; 10. Tailpiece (Howe) 4:47; 11. Cherokee Ridge (Taylor) 3:20 ; 12. The Sunshine of Your Smile (Cooke, Ray) 3:04 ; 13. Goofus (Harold, Kahn, King) 2:07 ; 14. Moon River (Mancini, Mercer) 3:26 ; 15. Ae Fond Kiss/Farewell to Erin (trad.) 3:31 ; 16. Somewhere (Bernstein) 2:46 ; 17. Harpnosis (Howe, Taylor) 4:47

Personnel

Steve Howe
guitar, electric

Steve Howe, Martin Taylor (guitars).

Album information

Title: Masterpiece Guitars | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: P3 Music

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Love Is Passing Thru
Roberto Magris
Candid
Sunny Five
Inside Colours Live
Julie Sassoon

Popular

Eagle's Point
Chris Potter
Light Streams
John Donegan - The Irish Sextet

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.