Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Rob Levit: Touch the Spirit

141

Rob Levit: Touch the Spirit

By

Sign in to view read count
Rob Levit: Touch the Spirit
Rob Levit is an amazing guitarist and a deep, feeling musician. Uncertain Path (Symbol System, 2004) revealed his electric side alongside a band, and now Touch the Spirit explores his solo relationship with the acoustic guitar, both steel and nylon, with a bit of electric thrown in. Levit is also a bit of a Renaissance man—he painted the album art. Openly indebted to such guitarists as Tim Reynolds, John McLaughlin and Pat Metheny, he also specifically mentions Keith Jarrett (and his 1986 ECM album Spirits) as inspiration.

The 24 cuts naturally are on the short side, meant to explore Levit's extremely prodigious guitar technique, rather than make any extended musical statements or even follow a suite of movements. This is not to say that technique dominates musical content, although it is very easy to be overwhelmed by it. Rather, the many individual pieces are tied together by Levit's emotional communication and his extremely eclectic musical tastes. By the end of the record, you may realize that you are in the presence of a very giving person who just happens to be able to play the hell out of the guitar in many different styles.

Most of the tracks are truly solo, but a few are overdubbed with a second guitar voice and sometimes percussion or voice. The many different sounds of the title cut make it feel overtly spiritual, from the opening meditation bell to the low, Tibetan-sounding single-note chant with overtones. Against these spiritual world-sounds, Levit plays lines on the steel-string guitar that sometimes sound Eastern, thus setting up the rest of the record.

"Radiance," a pretty musical vignette dedicated to Keith Jarrett, has two intertwining fingerpicked guitars. "Disjunction Blues" explores the blues and extends it with blazing picking and finger styles, while "Naked Blues" brought me back to Steve Stills' "Black Queen" at times, also showing that Levit can sing the lines he plays.

The longest track, "The Borderland"—which contains many different layered sounds, including deep distortion and high harmonics, behind drums and percussion—is a true musical journey. Levit plays the main Eastern-sounding line on an electric guitar with overdrive and effects. The overall feeling is a combination of the hypnotic and the ecstatic.

Levit seems to be bursting with the need to touch the listener with his music. He has many things to say and a nearly unlimited technique with which to say them. But there is never a moment on Touch the Spirit when empty string-shredding takes precedence.

Track Listing

Touch the Spirit; Sunken Cathedral; Radiance; The Traveler; The Gift of Lilies; Disjunction Blues; The Atonement; The Journey West; The Stranger; Country-blue; Through the Gap; Drum Wisdom; My Empress shall not Weep; The Borderland; The Bridge; Song for Christopher; Homecoming; A Flash of Joy; Naked Blues; Forgotten Song; The Ancient; Child-like; Branches; The Last Step

Personnel

Rob Levit
guitar

Rob Levit; acoustic steel string and nylon string guitar; electric guitar, vocals, percussion

Album information

Title: Touch the Spirit | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Symbol System Records

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.