Tone Poets CD

 Creative artistry at its very best
CD1 Solos (57:37), CD2 Duos (57:31)-- Good tone is all about what sounds good to one’s ears and when the instrument sounds full with plenty of depth in the notes. They ring out in clarion fashion and sustain. An instrument’s player and their technique determine tone, but the instrument must be reasonably well-made also. Hearing good tone is a rather subjective exercise because people hear tone differently. One musician’s priorities may be different than another’s. Sounding nice should be the main objective and not necessarily playing a lot of notes or technically challenging material. As an experiment to investigate tone, David Grisman assembled a number of gifted musical poets able to express beautiful and lyrical music. What a great idea that both titillates and stimulates our aural sense. The lean arrangements result in splendid clarity on an entire body of music that is both relaxing and ethereal largely because tone is often best captured and demonstrated in slower selections. The 2-CD set features a stellar cast of mandolinists and guitarists who all performed and recorded over a 4-year period on the same vintage 1922 Gibson “Lloyd Loar” F-5 mandolin and 1933 Martin OM-45 guitar. The mandolin is affectionately nicknamed “Crusher,” and the orchestra model guitar was produced for only five years in the 1930s and was chosen for its ringing treble. The same microphones were also used (Neumann KM-84s for the mandolin; Neumann KM-84 and KM-85 for the guitar), and recording was done directly to the same ½” 2-track analog Ampex ATR-100 tape recorder. No equalization was added during recording. Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes both used a metal nut to temporarily convert the OM-45 to a slide guitar. Tone Poets is a continuation of the Acoustic Disc label’s successful Tone Poems projects that explored the unique relationship between musician and instrument. Besides Dawg himself, the contributing tone poets (42 altogether) include David Bromberg, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, John Jorgenson, Mike Marshall, Ronnie & Del McCoury, Tony Rice, Andy Statman, Bryan Sutton, Tim O'Brien, Frank Vignola, Chris Thile, Don Stiernberg and Frank Wakefield. I was a little sad to see only one woman (17-year-old Eva Scow) included, but she wasn’t the youngest player invited to participate. That honor goes to 16-year-old mandolin prodigy Jacob Henry Jolliff of Forest Grove, Or. As Grisman offers in the liner notes of the 28-page well-illustrated CD booklet, “It ain't the car, it’s the driver!” Disc one alternates solo mandolin and guitar pieces. What is so exhilarating is that each player’s techniques (whether using flatpick, fingerpicks, duo stylings, slides or bare fingers, standard or alternate tunings) are a sheer treat to experience by these masters. Multiple genres of music are also represented in the pieces chosen. There is classical, bluegrass, blues, jazz, gypsy jazz, hymns, traditional folk, Brazilian, and new acoustic. I am reluctant to pick a few favorite selections because every single one demonstrates penetrating virtuosity and innovation. The 15 duos on disc two range from Tim O’Brien and Bryan Sutton playing “You Are My Flower” to David Grisman and Tony Rice closing nearly an hour later with a 7-minute rendition of “Blues for Vassar.” Tone Poets is creative artistry at its very best. As with an earlier Tone Poem project, I wonder if a companion book of music and/or tablature for the Tone Poets project would be possible. I’d love to hear another volume in the Tone Poets series, and it could even include one disc of trios and one of quartets. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)
Submitted by Joe Ross (Roseburg, OR.)
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