| Jazz |
This is an album that you won’t have the pleasure of discovering on Bayou Blue Radio, a matter of style that doesn’t align with our programming. However, it is an excellent album worth sharing with all of you who are interested in jazz guitar, as Kristen’s quality of interpretation shines through. Here, you’ll find various modes of jazz guitar playing executed to perfection, along with particularly intelligent and clever arrangement of the titles.
Playing solo jazz guitar requires a lot of musical skill and is akin to a magic trick, as it’s not possible to cover the melody, bassline, rhythmic groove, an improvised solo, and accompany the chords all at once. Thus, Kristen must create the illusion that all these elements are present by skillfully interweaving pieces of each into a given performance.
Clearly, Kristen has a unique vision for her music, far from heavy effects; everything here is focused on the playing, precision, and delicacy, making this album timeless. There’s a poetic and almost novelistic quality in her interpretation of the tracks, and one can easily imagine the difficulty of recording solo guitar on 25 tracks of this album—a relentless effort to achieve such precision in guitar playing.
The album consists of original pieces, jazz standards covers, and some arrangements of folk tunes or traditional hymns. It needs to be listened to closely, with very good speakers to fully appreciate this double album. Indeed, everything is to be detailed, such as her gentle attack on the notes with Swiss-watch precision—a true tour de force. Let’s even suggest this album to those studying the guitar; there’s something for everyone, a source of inspiration, a way to reflect on what music is and how to convey it, here in solo, demanding a silent listening, far from other ways of appreciating music. I am even delighted with her version of ‘The Girl From Ipanema,’ not trying to imitate the original interpretation but applying her own vision… It feels good! For the editorial teams of Bayou Blue Radio and Paris-Move, it’s a ‘Coup de cœur’ (heartfelt favorite).
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, January 14th 2024
::::::::::::::::::::::::::