Peter Bernstein’s association with Dutch guitarist Jesse van Ruller stretches back to the time shortly after van Ruller won the Thelonious Monk jazz competition in 1995. In 2018, they appeared onstage together in a Jim Hall tribute tour in Italy. Since then, they have toured as a duo on a number of occasions. London was fortunate to host them at Pizza Express Jazz club in Soho for two nights as part of their European tour. Peter was playing his usual Zeider Archtop while Jesse had a personalised Westville Aruba with a tone that sounded as beautiful as it looked.
Peter had said that he and Jesse had got together a week or so before the tour to work on the setlist. My impression was that the first couple of numbers, Getting Sentimental Over You and Duke Jordan’s No Problem had been agreed on beforehand after which, everything else was improvised, both setlist and the music. The interplay between Peter and Jesse was nothing short of astonishing, as the pair appeared totally focussed on their playing with barely a glance to each other. Yet clearly they were listening to each other throughout the improvisations for cues to swap lead and rhythm playing so that their interplay was seamless. Equally astonishing was how well they complemented each other stylistically with such tasteful and melodic jazz.

We were listening to intricate and at times demanding jazz, which Bernstein acknowledged in complimenting the audience for their “extreme tolerance for guitar”. He further observed “You’re tough” drawing a ripple of laughter from the audience. The duo were playing with obvious enjoyment with more looks and smiles at each other as the evening progressed. Easy Living, the Billie Holiday ballad, was simply gorgeous and Bernstein informed us with a wry smile afterwards, “We added an extra beat to each bar”. Tommy Flanagan’s Beyond the Bluebird was a contrast with a sprightly intro that swung into a fast piece of improvisation. We heard a Jim Hall tribute using his arrangement of With a Song in My Heart after which the pair declared an intention to “Carry on with something else”. This turned out to be a very bluesy version of No Blues. A long time fixture of Peter Bernstein’s repertoire, Horace Silver’s Peace featured, after which Peter explained how it was ten bars long in all twelve keys and should be required learning for all aspiring guitarists.

The audience insisted on an encore. A quick discussion “Let’s do a Blues of some kind. B flat”? and a wonderful evening of music came to an end.