Guitar Visions

Guitar Visions launches with a lovely guitar duet featuring Bireli Lagrene and Sylvain Luc on Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely." Relying on acoustic guitars, the duo exchanges leads, complementing one another and gently egging one another on. In case this selection seems a bit soft, as in bordering on easy listening, Lagrene's next cut, "Bei Dir War Es Immer So Schön," edges away from radio fodder and moves closer to Django Reinhardt territory. He can play it mellow and sweet or he can cut loose on a barrage of single notes and chords that temporarily overwhelm melody and timing. Both of these cuts are fairly recent (1999 and 2002, respectively), but Guitar Visions stretches from early protégés Charlie Christian and Reinhardt to John McLaughlin and Philip Catherine. This, of course, is a feast for guitarists (and guitar music lovers), and serves as a good introduction to several of these players. The tracking and the various styles, however, can make for awkward segues, as when Barney Kessel's mellow "Foggy Day" makes way for Lucky Peterson's electric "Truly Your Friends," made all the more awkward by the vocal on the latter track. The track listing is also problematic, because it never cites the original source and date. These quibbles, though, are small in the face of over-65 minutes of fabulous guitar work by a handful of fine players. Guitar Visions is melodic and rich, and will probably send the listener out to collect a number of albums that helped form this collection. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.|