Jim McAuley, The Ultimate Frog (Drip Audio, 2008)
These two double-disc releases share a lot in terms of mood, timbre, game plan. They’re worlds you can get lost in; time well-spent.
McAuley, a West Coast acoustic guitar improviser, goes some way toward reconciling the arid experimental sound of Derek Bailey with the warmth and lyricism (and nylon- and 12-string textures) of Ralph Towner. Pairing off in duos with Nels and Alex Cline, bassist Ken Filiano and, most remarkably, in a session dating back to 2002, the late violinist and AACM pioneer Leroy Jenkins, McAuley casts his net over 24 tracks — pieces of tangled-up beauty, unlikely worlds of string and percussion tone. He closes with a solo-guitar home recording of “For Rod Poole,” lamenting the senseless 2007 murder of his colleague in the seldom-mentioned Acoustic Guitar Trio. Seeing as Nels Cline was the third AGT member, Poole’s spirit hovers strongly over the Cline-McAuley duos, which teem with Dobro and slide and prepared-guitar esoterica, even a Marxophone.
[Forward four minutes in for rare Acoustic Guitar Trio footage.]
Gestrin is the Vancouver pianist who played so deftly on Michael Blake’s important album Amor de Cosmos. He devotes his double-disc to duos and trios with 12 different musicians, including cellist Peggy Lee (check out her CD New Code), drummer Dylan van der Schyff, guitarist/dobroist Gordon Grdina and fellow pianist Miles Black. At two hours, it’s an ocean — perhaps a Great Lake — of intimate, flowing and often strange music, less severe and more ethereal than the McAuley set. A marvel in its own way.
Comments are closed.