Search - Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis :: Great Guitars

Charlie's Blues is the showstopper

Douglas T Martin | Alpharetta, GA USA | 01/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This meeting of three jazz guitar giants does not disappoint. Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel are fluent in the Charlie Christian/Les Paul vocabulary; Charlie Byrd plays in a mostly Latin style. Supported by Joe Byrd on bass and John Rae on drums, the entire quintet plays only three songs together: "Undecided", "Topsy", and "Benny's Bugle"."O Barquinho (The Little Boat)" is performed by Charlie Byrd and the rhythm section; it's a nice little bossa nova number that lets John Rae demonstrate his versatility. Then Byrd moves out and Kessel and Ellis join the rhythm section for "Slow Burn", a bopping Kessel composition.Charlie Byrd performs his own composition "Charlie's Blues" backed by bass and drums. The tune starts off with a polite guitar intro, then turns into a slippery Blue Note-style funky groove - I would never have believed that something like this could be played on a 12-string guitar - literally a jawdropper. Whenever I play it for anyone the response is stunned silence followed by the question "was that just ONE guitarist?"Kessel and Ellis perform as a duet for three songs. On "Latin Groove" Ellis provides some amazing percussion work on his archtop guitar - tapping the body, picking muted strings - I've never heard anyone do this better. This is followed by a sublime blues duet "Down Home Blues". Then Ellis and Kessel play boogie-woogie piano riffs on "H And B Guitar Boogie" - on guitars of course. Kessel tells the crowd about how much they both love boogie-woogie piano but since the piano player couldn't make it they would play his part; dividing the duties of the right and left hands between them, Kessel tells the audience "It takes two good guitarists to sound like one very ordinary piano player." Actually, there is nothing ordinary about it - it's great.The quintet reunites and Herb Ellis plays one of his best solos ever in the Charlie Christian song "Benny's Bugle"; maybe the best bop guitar solo ever. The song ends with the guitarists trading fours - and listener sitting in stunned amazement.Recommended for anyone interested in jazz guitar - this was my introduction to jazz and I've never looked back."