Hettory

Meditación 2009 CD - special $11.

Hettory - Stick Guitar (SG12) and Box Guitar
Sound samples at: www.myspace.com/hettory

review by Greg Howard

Hettory performs almost nightly as a soloist and also in his trio with bass and drums at jazz clubs in El Paso, Texas. As a tapping guitarist he has released three CDs prior to his latest album, Meditación, the first from any artist to feature the new short scale Stick Guitar™ (SG-12™). On two of these nine original tracks he plays the Box Guitar, a 12-string tapping guitar from Australia.

Hettory tunes his SG-12 like two guitars, so most of these pieces sound something like very tight "guitar duets" with occasional synth or percussion accompaniment. There's a little overdubbing, but for the most part it's just his fingers on all the strings playing live melody together with live accompaniment. In addition to tapping, Hettory occasionally uses more conventional guitar techniques including strumming and some beautiful slide work on "Entornos / Surroundings". The sound of his Stickup-equipped SG-12 is warm and articulate. The tunes (all titled in Spanish and English) are not all as low-key as the CD title would suggest - many are very energetic - and they're all engaging, often building on repeating riffs and "geometric" musical patterns, but with surprising harmonic twists and turns.

Meditación is a great entrée for the Stick Guitar. Other SG-12 players are using Stick type inverted 5ths along with this instrument's higher melody range, taking advantage of its shorter scale length. In this case Hettory's marriage of the double guitar tuning with the Stick's distinctive tapped sound creates a unique listening experience.

Track listing (all track s by Hettory):

INTRO
ENFOQUE / FOCUS
ENTORNOS / SURROUNDINGS
BODISATVA / BODISATTVA
KARMA / KARMA
MEDITACIÓN / MEDITATION
DENTRO / INSIDE
DEDICACION / DEDICATION
PAZ MENTAL / MENTAL PEACE

Jim Lampi and Michael Manring

North 2008 CD $15.

Jim Lampi - Grand Stick
Micheal Manring - Electric Bass

Sample tracks at: cdbaby.com/cd/lampimanring

Review: Peters at CD Baby

The chance to hear a masterful musician is a wonderful thing; the chance to hear two of them play together is just heavenly. And that's just what this album is. Featuring world class Chapman Stick artist Jim Lampi, and world-renowned bass player Michael Manring, this instrumental album has touches of jazz, classical, and new age nuances, while remaining utterly listenable yet intriguing. The Chapman Stick is an unusual stringed instrument, sounding at times like a bass or guitar, at other times like a mandolin, and on the first track here, "True North", it sounds something like a harpsichord. Bringing to mind the nuanced performances of luminaries like Jaco Pastorius and Yo-Yo Ma, sounding at once composed and spontaneous. Though inspired by frozen wastelands, this album is anything but cold or discomforting.

Review: Emmett Chapman

I'm heading North this winter, as far as I can go into the land where form overtakes color, and where color fades to B&W and delicious shades of gray, which in turn take on every subtle pastel shade of the "Rainbow" (last track of the album) - brilliant pink ice, warm yellow bears and blue glacial ridges.

As on a forsaken island, things get simple, almost cartoon like - far less elements to contend with. Same is true in Northern regions where a cover of snow and ice meets the eye. Form is everywhere revealed because the eye wants to see it, following the lines.

Listening to this CD on a cold California day, "North" has that kind of simplicity, a grand unified concept from start to finish - just the fretless bass in the lead and The Stick in a myriad of accompanying roles, yet both as equals on the sonic stage. Jim creates a rich variety of icy landscapes for Michael, the explorer, to navigate. Jim's crisp dynamic Stick style is the perfect foil for Michael's smooth, horn like expressions.

Conceptually it's a live album with a minimum of electronic processing, the color and expressive "effects" coming from the players' fingers alone. Michael achieves sustained harmonics from his four bass strings, an "orchestra" of expressive tones, evoking "music of the spheres" (the logic of overtones extending the line). He also explores the extremes in time, from the most elongated, whale like tones (vowels shaped from strings and fingers alone) to intricate, driving passages reminiscent of Jaco Pastorius.

The Stick in Jim's hands is an extremely dynamic instrument and from song to song he uses it in ingenious ways - huge ranging chords, muted rhythms, plucked psaltery like arpeggios, the bravado of flamenco guitar, chiming bells, high counter-melody against Michael's baritone lead, and of course those two-handed Stick bass-with melody rhythms of endless permutation.

Of the twelve songs, ten are composed by Jim and Michael distilled from their duo improvisations. The other two are "Naima", a jazz standard by John Coltrane, and "Over the Rainbow", a Broadway standard by Harold Arlen. The feeling is always live, but with polish, precision and discipline.

How far North shall I go? Look at the cover art. That's where I'm headed, where the bones are bare, the bear is warm and I'm warmed to the bone.

North is available from Stick Enterprises and CD Baby.

Track listing: