Joel Shapira Quartet releases invigorating collection of jazz standards and Latin songs

Coolness is defined by action, not words. Joel Shapira approaches guitar playing like a veteran baseball player on a hot streak would approach the plate, brimming with an obvious yet calm swagger. When he swings for the fences, there's no obnoxious boasting, just an easy self-confidence that is bred from years of experience and a complete understanding of the game. On Open Lines, Shapira never hogs the spotlight, doesn't let the musicians that fill his quartet take a passenger seat. Instead, he's a team player that isn't afraid to share a groove even when he's smoking all over it.

A collection of jazz standards and Latin songs, Open Lines invigorates older material like drinking ice tea at the end of a desert journey. Pete Whitman's towering tenor saxophone and Dave Schmalenberger's steady drumming set its swinging rhythm on “Simone" but Shapira's guitars weave webs of translucent harmony. As Shapira continues to jam, his fingers working all sorts of unexplainable magic, Whitman's sax sways to its intoxicating spirit. Ornette Coleman's “Turnaround" is given a similarly inspired treatment as Whitman's saxophone offers an upbeat and laid-back framework from which Shapira cuts loose on his guitar.

The Joel Shapira Quartet's version of Miles Davis' “Nardis" is a dazzler. Tom Lewis' deep, mesmerizing bass lines and Schmalenberger's punchy drums provide the backbone for Shapira's wintry, reflective guitars. On “How Insensitive," it doesn't seem as Shapira is playing anymore but actually painting; each carefully plucked note is like the stroke of an artist's brush. In other words, it is breathlessly gorgeous. Dreamy textures elevate “It Could Happen to You" and “Time Remembered," evoking the kind of sentimental imagery that music is supposed to do.

Throughout it all Shapira keeps his cool, never wavering in his goal of simply knocking you out with his impeccable guitar playing.