A couple of months ago, Livia Records issued The Dublin Concert, a previously unreleased live recording of Louis Stewart with Jim Hall in 1982. Livia has now released another album of the great Irish guitarist in a guitar duo setting: Acoustic Guitar Duets, a studio recording with Martin Taylor from 1985.
Unlike The Dublin Concert, this album has been released before: on cassette then vinyl in 1986, then CD on a German record label in 1996 with the addition of “Billie’s Bounce” and “Bernie’s Tune”. But this reissue is the one to go for. It comes in a handsome gatefold sleeve, with a 16-page booklet containing all generations of sleeve notes plus new notes and photographs, and includes a recently discovered alternate take of “Stompin’ at the Savoy”. Best of all, like other Livia releases it’s been digitised and remastered by sound engineer (and professional saxophonist and clarinettist) Seán Mac Erlaine. He’s done an incredible job. The sound is clean, bright and detailed, as if recorded yesterday rather than restored from one-inch studio and quarter-inch master tapes nearly 40 years old.
For Stewart aficionados, a draw will be the rarity of hearing him playing acoustic guitar, alongside a then younger player with a different style but equal virtuosity. The two first played together in the early 1980s in Stéphane Grappelli’s quartet, and on this recording they sound very comfortable with each other – playful, in fact, the music full of joy and surprises, and effortless switching of roles between soloing and accompaniment.
Taylor has said that his influences were piano players, especially Art Tatum, and that his guitar playing is like the left and right hands of the piano – different lines rather than a traditional chords-and-melody approach. Add Stewart’s lightning bebop fluency and the result is a complex tapestry of sound that at times defies belief. “Cherokee”, for example, sounds almost like three guitarists playing, such is the effortless weaving of soloing, chords, walking bass, and ornate counterpointing.
Other tracks are a laid-back “Pick Yourself Up”; a lengthy (9:43) workout on the bossa “Manhã de Carnaval”, topped and tailed with lovely flamenco-style playing; touches of Django Reinhardt on Harry Edison and Count Basie’s “Jive at Five” and Gerry Mulligan’s “Bernie’s Tune” (two tunes that, incredibly, Taylor had never played before); tight unison playing and counterpointing on “Billie’s Bounce”; a gentle pastoral feel to “Coming Through the Rye” (an old Scottish song originally called the “Miller’s Wedding” until Robert Burns wrote the eponymous lyrics); two takes of “Stompin’ at the Savoy”, where the head is played in octaves (it must have been hard to choose a master take, as both versions are great); a romantic “Darn That Dream”; and a lively version of the Irish reel “Farewell to Erin”.
A real treat for fans of Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor – and, indeed, for anyone who appreciates virtuoso jazz guitar interpretations of songbook, bebop and traditional tunes.
