RECORDS JAZZ GUITAR

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30042, 29 January 1963, Page 16

RECORDS JAZZ GUITAR

The guitar, the Cinderella o£ Jan ataee the death of Chariia Christian in 194 R. has been undergoing a minor reiMuasance lately. The man mort responsible, the first really influential guitarist since Christian and one of the few to have contributed anything significantly new to the library of jazx guitar In the last 20 yeara, is Wee Montgomery. a veteran musician from Indiana who plays amplified guitar, finger-style. Wee Montgomery, though he has been a professional musician since the early 19405, first came to notice when he began recording for Riverside a few years ago. He is a brother of Monk and Buddy Montgomery, who achieved some popularity with a group called the Mastersounds about four yeans ago.

His solo lines have a lithe power, with rhythmic toughness. Metodically and harmonically his solos have an inevitability of their own. “Bags Meets Wes” (Riverside RLP.4O7), his second LP to appear here (the first was issued on the World Pacific label by toe now defunct Lotus Company), does not contain his very best playing; but it is still of sufficient quality to be an essential purchase for anyone with an Interest in jazz guitar. Montgomery’s octaves (one of his trademarks; they “give you a double sound with a good tone to it") are always crisp and cleanly articulated; these give him much of his power. His solos bristle with internal tensions, resolved and unresolved. On several tracks here ("Stairway To

The Stars,” "Blue Roz” and Milt Jackwm’s “SJCJ”) be

really gets into something. Jackson, on the other hand, skitters across the top of the music lightly as a windblown elf. His solos have a lacy, airy delicacy curiouoly antipathetic to the cloying vibrato of the vibraharp. Both the prinripela receive brilliant support from the rock-solid rhythm section of Wynton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and the muftirhythmic drummer. "PtiiLly'' Joe Jones.

Charlie Byrd is a 36-year-old musician who ptoys acoustic gutter, finger-otyle. with a strikingly flexible technique and freedom of line. <On home ground sit the Showboat Lounge, a Washington, DC, night club where the waitresses wear soft-soled siloes so no noose will disturb toe listeners, Byrd, who has studied with Segovia, casually mixes Jan and clfHeimi music. His first LP to appear in New Zealand. ''The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd” (Riverside 0LP.3007), contains only jazz. It is a thorough listening delight.

Byrd is a virtuoso, perhaps •the most accomplished technician to emerge in jazz since the late French gipsy. Django Reinhardt, though Reinhardt’s achievements are toe greater, because of his unique physical disability (Reinhardt had only two fingers on his left hand; toe others were burned » shrivelled stumps in a caravan flrel. One of Reinhardt’s prettiest tunes ("Nuages," beautifully played) anid John Lewis's

elegaic tribute, “Django.” are among the eight cameolike selections on the first aide. Byrd's fingering n impeccable. his melodic sense deft and irapredtotable. The second side of the LP is devoted to four longer cuts. "The House of the Rising Sun” s a toUay romp on two chords; ‘ Rm* Dem Harmonica” is what toe title implies, light as tfatatiedown; "Taboo” has an iotietent baas solo by Keetar Batts; and "To Gin iff” is an attractive ballad Byrd dedicated to his wife. The mono recording has unusual presence.

“Musfc alone hat the pou -tr to make us penetrate into ourselt’M; the other arte oyfer ui only eccentric pleasures."—Honors do Bateac.