Thomas Decock & Artan Buleshkaj - Plain Songs (sg)
T
self produced
Thomas Decock and Artan Buleshkaj carve out new territory on the border between jazz guitar and Americana.
Their choice of material is always interesting - opening with compositions by Jon Scofield and Paul Motian, they also take in well-worn tunes like Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" and "Oh, what a beautiful morning" by Rogers and Hammerstein. This one has the two guitars chiming together like church bells. The arrangements are always imaginative and the playing beautifully poised.
The opening title track didn't immediately convince me but the album gets stronger as it builds. The combination of two similar sounding jazz guitars sometimes feels a bit colourless to me, although I know many people love the subtlety. One of the charms of Americana is the clangorous tones colours of banjo, mandolin, steel strung acoustic guitar in combination. Many signature techniques like hammer-ons and flat picking are deployed cleverly here, but they can lack the snappy energy of a banjo or a twangy Telecaster.
But this album is too good to let my prejudices get in the way! The combined sonorities of the two guitars works brilliantly on Thelonius Monk's "Locomotive" along with some cunningly oblique improvisation, which takes this wonderful piece into very different territory from Monk's original.
An acoustic guitar offers further variety on Shawn Colvin's "Shotgun down the avalanche", which is short and sweet. There's a bluesy, spiritual feel to "Mountains of Illinois", a very fine Chet Atkins tune - one of the joys of this album is the space given to music which is rarely if ever heard in a jazz context. Likewise for Doc Watson's "Deep river blues".
Several tracks use amplifier tremolo to great effect, particularly the faster vibrations heard on "Maraba Blue" by Abdullah Ibrahim. Combining tremolo with echo works wonders at opening up the beautiful harmonies of Joni Mitchell's "Marcie".
Rosa Balistreri's "Mi Votu E Mi Rivotu" closes the album, the Italian idiom adding a "Spaghetti Western" feel. If you enjoy the combination of two electric guitars this is a tasteful album well worth hearing.
© Stephen Godsall
Stephen Godsall is a composer/multi-instrumentalist based in Southern England. To find out more go to https://www.youtube.com/@StephenGodsall
