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Lluís Gómez Quartet
Self-released
web.mac.com/lluisgomez

International bluegrass is no more consistent in sound and influence than the familiar North American variety. No surprise then that Spaniard Lluís Gómez’s Quartet recording is an eclectic album that will either challenge listeners- again- as to ‘What is bluegrass, anyway?” or be embraced by those who celebrate acoustic instrumental virtuosity.

Barcelona-resident Lluís Gómez is comfortable playing his 5-string banjo in a number of musical settings including one devoted to traditional Irish music. On Quartet, Gómez is joined by three like-minded musical compatriots to explore original bluegrass, jazz, and newgrass sounds.

Entirely instrumental, Quartet features Gómez with longtime friend and musical mentor Ricky Araiza (guitar), Joan Pau Comellas (harmonica), and Maribel Sánchez (bass.) Joining the quartet on mandolin is American Tom Corbett, who also contributes some guitar, Tim Carter and Jose Mari Pulido (banjo), Bernard Molloy (fiddle), and Victor Estrada (theremin.)

The album’s initial track “Doctor’s Tune,” an ode to Gómez’s friend Pete Wernick, wouldn’t be out of place on any Alison Brown album, with mandolin-inspired images of waterfalls and other natural elements forming in this listener’s mind. Comellas’ harmonica breaks are especially appreciated within the confines of this light tune.

Elsewhere, upright bassist Sánchez is allowed to take a prominent role on the bass-rich “Forget the Fiddle,” an Araiza original that features a tapestry of mandolin notes that is quite remarkable. Araiza’s guitar fills and breaks are breathtaking in numerous places including on “Hutnik’s” and “Russtheny,” a tune inspired by two of Gómez’s favorite guitarists, Russ Barenberg and Pat Metheny.

The sounds Gómez coaxes from his 5-string are both exotic and comfortable; he can play it fast (“Stop the World”), he can play it slow (“Desestres”), and always he plays it in a manner that is completely jaw-dropping. On “Moving Cloud,” the most traditionally folk sounding tune on the album, Gómez- and Molloy’s fiddle- remind us of bluegrass’ Celtic origins.

And stick around for the eerie interlude within the album’s final track, “Walkin’, featuring a possible first- a banjo and theremin duet- as well as shades of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

Quartet is an inspiring collection of acoustic, instrumental music rooted in the sounds of bluegrass but reaching out tendrils to a place where genre labels are inconsequential.

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Guy Davis

Sweetheart Like You

Red House

 

Guy Davis, having appeared in Red Deer a couple times over the past few years, approaches the blues like no one else. He knows the blues, but realizes it can be much more than 12-bars and out.

 

Naming his latest for the Bob Dylan number that kicks off the album, Davis interprets the song- featuring the distressing but timely lyric “they say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings”- in a manner only he could pull off.

 

Davis doesn’t give a rip about expectations and musically goes wherever he pleases. Sometimes it works- as on the originals “Back To Storyville,” “ Sweet Hannah,” and” Words To My Mama’s Song”- and sometimes it doesn’t, as when Davis hits a false falsetto on “Slow Motion Daddy.”

 

As a new-traditionalist, Davis doffs his fedora to those who came before him. He brings several World War II-era songs to a contemporary setting, covering Son House’s “Down South Blues” and a pair of Lead Belly tunes. Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” is impressively presented. 5-string banjo isn’t heard on every blues album, but Davis puts the instrument to excellent use on a live take of Muddy Waters’ “Can’t Be Satisfied.”

 

I’ve never heard a Guy Davis album that didn’t make me both smile and think. Sweetheart Like You continues that streak.

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Various Artists

African Reggae

Putumayo

 

Musicologist can argue of Africa’s influence on Jamaica’s reggae, but for listeners the discussion is moot. What matters is the groove, and African Reggae has that in abundance.

 

Honouring the 64^th anniversary of Bob Marley’ birth February 6, African Reggae assembles fairly recent tracks from Africa’s strongest purveyors of the reggae sound. The sensual, vibrant sounds are magnetic, and draw-in even the most rhythmically challenged listener.

 

Familiar approaches to reggae are presented by artists including Ismael Isaac and Mo’Kalamity & the Wizards. The sounds of Guinea’s Nino Galissa and Ba Cissoko with Tiken Jah Fakoly are less within the traditional reggae pocket, adding kora (harp) and the tradition of the griots (storytellers) to the mix.

 

Nigeria’s Majek Fashek’s Man of Sorrow positively rocks and comes closest to Marley’s approach, a fitting conclusion to an enchanting, brief examination of African reggae.