This superb recording makes you wish these two guitar maestros had spent even more time together in the studio.
Livia Records LRCD2404
Louis Stewart, Martin Taylor (acoustic guitar)
Recorded Trend Studios, Dublin July 1985
Almost forty years ago, two virtuoso jazz guitarists entered a Dublin studio, and over two days, recorded an hour of sublime music and dazzling musical performances. By the time this album was recorded, the two musicians – Irish guitarist Louis Stewart and English guitarist Martin Taylor – were already well established on the music scene. Taylor was twenty-eight and Stewart, forty-one.
Louis Stewart was inspired by Les Paul and Barney Kessel, and in 1968, won the most outstanding soloist award at the Montreux Jazz Festival, when he was just twenty-four. He recorded many albums as leader and was also sideman to artists such as Benny Goodman, Tubby Hayes and JJ Johnson. His fast, fiery playing was influenced by his love of Charlie Parker and bebop. Stewart died of cancer in 2016; he was 72.
Martin Taylor starting playing guitar at four; was playing in his father’s band (bassist William ‘Buck’ Taylor) at eight, and at fifteen, became a professional musician. His playing style has many influences including Django Reinhardt, Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery. He also cites Art Tatum as an inspiration.
Taylor has also released many albums as leader, and played with an array of musicians including, Karl Jenkins, Jeff Beck, George Harrison, Peter Ind and Bill Wyman. The late Emily Remler cited Taylor as being her favourite guitar duo partner. From 1979 to 1990 he was a member of Stephane Grappelli’s band, and in the mid-1980s, Stewart and Taylor were both playing with Grappelli. Through this they forged a strong musical bond, which led to this duet album.
There are a number of unsung heroes behind this album. The reason we have this recording is down to the late Gerald Davis, a native of Dublin, who was a cross between an artist (he was a painter, but also had interests in theatre, poetry and music); an impresario and an entrepreneur. He inherited a five-storey building in Dublin from the family business, which he turned into an art studio and gallery. He later offered space to local jazz musicians and was soon putting on performances. Davis realised that no one was documenting Dublin’s thriving jazz scene, so he set about recording the various acts with a reel-to-reel recorder. He became a huge fan of Louis Stewart’s playing.
In 1977, he founded the jazz label Livia Records, and its first studio production was the album, Louis The First. In the summer of 1985, Stewart and Taylor recorded this album together in the studio, with Davis producing. Irish Times jazz correspondent Ray Comiskey was an eye-witness at the sessions and recalls Stewart arriving on crutches (he was recovering from an accident). He also remembers the relaxed atmosphere in the studio, with much banter between the two guitarists (fuelled by packs of Guinness provided by Davis).
The album was originally released in 1986 on cassette, and later, LP (in abridged form, due to the LP’s limited recording time). In 1996, it appeared on CD on a small German label. When Davis died, Livia Records went into hibernation, but in 2022, jazz fan Dermot Rogers revived the label and has been busily issuing new and old releases, including this one.
Sound specialist Sean Mac Erlaine digitised the original analogue source tapes, and was responsible for mixing and mastering. He’s done a splendid job. Finally, the Arts Council of Ireland has provided some funding for the project.
The album packaging is excellent. The CD comes in a fold-out digipak, with a sixteen-page booklet containing photographs and copious liner notes, including Ray Comiskey’s eyewitness account and liner notes from the original LP and CD releases (the latter includes a note from Gerald Davis). There’s also information about the two guitarists, plus a review of a concert they gave to promote the album on its initial release.
The album contains ten songs and eleven tracks (one of them is an alternate take of ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy,’ appearing for the first time on this new release). The tunes are a mix of jazz standards, tunes from the American songbook and two folk songs, with arrangements by the guitarists.
As soon as you hear the first few bars of the opening track – Jerome Kern’s ‘Pick Yourself Up’ – you know these two musicians were in sympatico. The interplay between them is spellbinding: one of them solos or plays the song’s theme, while the other provides imaginative rhythmic support, then in the beat of a heart, they switch roles or double up on the theme or solo together. It’s a masterclass in musical harmony in every sense of the word.
The guitarists’ sheer inventiveness for creating an array of sounds, tones and textures is well illustrated on the duo’s swinging version of Basie’s ‘Jive At Five.’ This tune is accompanied by what sounds like a walking bass line and gentle brush strokes on a snare drum. There are three fast bebop numbers: Parker’s ‘Billie’s Bounce,’ Gerry Mulligan’s ‘Bernie’s Tune’ and ‘Cherokee,’ all packed with dazzling runs and lightning licks. There’s an exciting rendition of the Bossa nova standard ‘Morning of the Carnival.’ It’s full of fire, passion, and flamenco flourishes. At close to ten minutes in length, it’s the album’s longest track, but never outstays its welcome.
The two jaunty versions of ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy,’ are played in the spirit of Wes Montgomery, and there’s no harm in that. Bassist Marcus Miller once said that the hardest songs to play when he was in Roberta Flack’s backing band were ballads, and the album’s only ballad, ‘Darn That Dream,’ shows that Stewart and Taylor were just as masterful when it came to playing songs at a slow tempo. Their tender playing really captures the song’s mournful lyrics of lost love.
Taylor arranged the ballad folk song ‘Coming Through The Rye,’ whose serene sound, with its harp-like coda and final ringing note, is like the sun slowly setting on a warm summer’s evening. It’s a divine performance. As is Stewart’s playing on the faster paced ‘Farewell To Erin,’ which was arranged by him. Stewart plays with great intensity over a driving rhythm. This superb recording makes you wish these two guitar maestros had spent even more time together in the studio.
