Детали релиза : VA - Three Guitars (2003) [FLAC (tracks) Hybrid SACD]

John Abercrombie is the consummate guitarist's guitarist. His recordings -- stretching over a prolific 30-year career -- have explored every fruitful vein of modern jazz guitar playing, from swinging straightahead post-Jim Hall standards work, to swinging organ soul-funk trios, to hushed multilayered ECM acoustic, to free jazz and beyond, all stamped with Abercrombie's inimitable melodic sensibility. In the liner notes for this amazing album, fellow guitarist Larry Coryell describes Abercrombie as "cliche-free." It's an apt comment. On this record, Abercrombie teams up with a young Brazilian guitarist/flautist/vocalist named Badi Assad and Coryell himself, who made his name playing on archetypal early fusion albums in the '70s, and went on to play more straightahead fare in later years, with an unmistakable stinging attack and verve for gutsy lines.

On this record, the three musicians play all acoustic music in a profoundly intimate setting, recorded in a church in NYC's Chelsea district. For Abercrombie, this is a particularly welcome return. In the liner notes for the CD, Abercrombie confesses that he hasn't touched his acoustic guitar in three years, which is a damn shame. "Characters," his first solo album on ECM, contained exquisite acoustic playing of nearly Bach-like subtlety and stateliness; his two recordings with master guitarist Ralph Towner (the second, "Five Years Later," is sadly out of print) were intimate duets that equalled the telepathic majesty of Jim Hall and Bill Evans' masterpiece, "Undercurrent." In recent years, alas, Abercrombie has increasingly relied on effects-laden electric playing that sounds pinched and gimmicky compared to his earlier work. Hearing his distinctive acoustic playing here is like greeting a much-loved old friend after years' absence.

Assad's presence gives this session an overall Brazilian flavor. On a couple of tracks, she adds Flora Purim-style vocalizations that do not detract from the quiet loveliness of the tracks. Abercrombie brings a few of his best compositions to the session, from the recent "Descending Grace" to two from his debut album as a leader, "Timeless" and "Ralph's Piano Waltz." "Timeless" is simply one of the most beautiful jazz melodies ever written, as primordial as an Indian raga and full of wise sadness and meditative calm. Abercrombie has only recorded the tune a handful of times, so its reappearance here is a major event. (Towner's group Oregon's cover of it on their album "Friends" was one of the high points of their own 30-year career.) Abercrombie adds a folksy quality to its introduction on this album, and when Assad comes in on kalimba, the music approaches the glistening loveliness of Coryell's own early album with the Oregon crew, "The Restful Mind." Fans of that record, and of Abercrombie's work with Towner, should pick up this album right away. For those new to Abercrombie's work, this album provides a fine introduction to his more introspective side, while Coryell is in fine, vital and tasteful form throughout.

Altogether, this is one of the most beautiful acoustic guitar albums in years. A classic recording.