Bill Banfield: Take Time To Listen

A prolific composer, educator, author and guitarist, Bill Banfield's Take Time to Listen is a bravura in-concert solo performance, comprised of 16 pop and rock classics, and thoughtful Banfield originals. The session is a display of virtuosity, taste and improvisational ability.

"This Time," the opener, is an extended rhapsody over a droning ostinato. Banfield's expositions spin and devour one in an enjoyable aural web. The first standard on the session is "Summertime." Banfield's take here is darker with the melody in the upper register of the instrument while darkness stirs below. Flights of interrupted solo lines interspersed with melodic segments abound on it. Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" is presented with its melody both solo voce and with chordal accompaniment before Banfield launches into a melody-improvisation mix. An introspective original, "Fragile" is a sadder minor key commentary. The suspended ending here is impactful. The track is a display of the guitarist's creative and emotional expressive depth.

Across this session, Banfield is unencumbered by the presence of other instruments, thus allowing him free-wheeling flights. There is interest, suspense and obvious joy as his improvisations flirt with melodic fragments then rapidly spin off into colors both vivid and faint. As an established and esteemed composer (and Pulitzer Prize adjudicator), his creative wheels are churning way ahead while the listener is still intrigued by what was just played.

He covers "For the Love of You," a 1970s soul hit for the Isley Brothers, at close to its original tempo. His inventions on the melody here again take off bbefore another suspended ending. "Your Song," from the combined pens of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, has been frequently recorded. The "solo voice" effect of Banfield lends an obvious vocalized presence to the track. Banfield's solo paints a vivid portrait as "butterfly trills" and occasional jazz-blues riffs play over the resonant base. "Pass Me the Blues" is a deeply swinging offering that skips off into Banfield's perhaps most soulful (and Wes Montgomery-like playing on the date. It is the shortest cut on the album, but it is a highlight.

"Song for Earl," a memorial piece Banfield wrote in honor of Earl Klugh, is an up-tempo take. Fluctuating between melodic thirds and an energized accompaniment, it is a blue salute to a mentor. "Her Serenade," another original, offers a lovely melody with a hint of Latin rhythm drive. The lovely "Mirabella" provides a similar vibe. The classic "Someday My Prince Will Come" is a complete improviser's canvas sans the well-known melody, from the very first note to the last.

Take Time To Listen is an apropos invite to a concert by an extraordinary artist.

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