Guitars On Life

Guitars on Life is a duo offering by acoustic guitarists Jack West and Walter Strauss. Both are Californians. The recording was released in tandem with Essential Curvature, a compilation from Wests folk-jazz band who released five excellent albums between 1996 and 2003. He developed a solo style that allows him to play his trademark eight-string acoustic, slide guitars, bass, and percussion -- simultaneously, which he does here. Strauss is best known for his global folk work with Malian musicians including kora masters Mamadou Diabate, Sidiki Diabate, and kamale ngoni great Mamadou Sidibe, among others. Hes also worked with multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven, Cuban violinist Tanmy Moreno, Scottish fiddler Jonny Hardie of the Old Blind Dogs, and many others. West caught Strauss live in 2023 and approached him to begin the musical conversation that resulted in this album that contains no overdubs and was cut predominantly live from the studio floor. Both men are pioneers of the modern acoustic guitar and compose music that crisscrosses genres. Here, West plays rhythm and slide while Strauss primarily plays lead guitar. Co-produced by both men, Guitars on Life contains seven originals and an instrumental cover of Stevie Wonders "I Wish." "More Guitar" opens the set on an incendiary note. West is relentless interpolating percussive chords, which are complemented by Strauss precisely played lead. West also lays down basslines as Strauss solos with precision, delivering forceful notation on his solo. The duo adds occasional harmonizing chords in shared tempo acrobatics. The Wonder tune begins with Wests popping, slapping bassline as Strauss fingerpicks the lyric. Wests syncopated backbeat funk meets his partners fluid arpeggios as they meet on the chorus. Over six-minutes long, it is at once welcome and dazzling. On "Youth," the duos basic instrumental roles remain, but the undercurrent offers a gentler blues texture. Strauss complex runs remain fluid even as he adds and subtracts notes in the flow. West is an endlessly inventive rhythm section. "Across the Bardo" finds the duo switching places. West claims the lead initially, delivering deft slide runs. His "finger drumming" and expansive chords add counter ballast when Strauss solos. On "Double Bounce," West plays deeply funky, percussive guitar as Strauss picks up the blues in call and response before soloing with a greasy rhythmic competence. "New Way Up" unfolds gently but insistently with a lyrical presence and complex resonance as rhythmic firepower pushes then feints in delicate accents. "OO" takes jazz syncopation to a new level. West frames the tune with insistent bass picking as Strauss careens across his experience of West African traditions for a touch of the exotic in his solo. The pair close with "Follow the Water Down," a spacey, atmospheric, elegantly textured ballad that recalls Steve Tibbetts work on Northern Song. Guitars on Life freshly enters the dusty annals of acoustic jazz guitar with a brave, new chapter in using musical forms, advanced harmonic interplay, and bracingly creative compositions. ~ Thom Jurek