SAMO SALAMON - Dolphyology (Complete ERIC DOLPHY for solo guitar)
Samo Records: 2022 (2 CD set)
Samo Salamon (6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, mandolin)
Recorded in Maribor, April 2021)
Operating within his usual milieu Slovenian guitarist, Samo Salamon is a purveyor of rock inflected jazz liberally embellished with excursions into free form territory. Denied access to group contexts by the pandemic he has taken the opportunity to fulfil a long held ambition, namely to transcribe the compositions of Eric Dolphy, whom he cites as a major artistic influence, to arrangements for solo guitar. Recorded at his home using a single microphone he covers, in single takes, no fewer than twenty - eight tunes from Dolphy’s corpus de l’oeuvre ranging from his work with the Chico Hamilton Quintet via his Prestige years through to his heights of creativity with Blue Note.
Many of Salamon’s interpretations are terse and episodic and the unadorned recording captures quite a lot fretboard static but cunningly these are often incorporated into the guitarist’s `out of the box` free-form passages. When he stretches the pieces out to four or five minutes we do get a greater sense of the melodic characteristics of the original music and with the space to apply contrasting voicings, a greater aural variety with touches of blues, bop and the occasional folk elements, principally Iberian but also with some quasi oriental aspects. Nevertheless, whilst Salamon is successful in exploiting these possibilities and at the same time capturing the essence of Dolphy’s mercurial talent I found it a rather hermetic exercise and a bit too much of a muchness. I won’t condemn it as an act of self-indulgence but think that it’s one for serious devotees of solo guitar only.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Samo Records: 2022 (2 CD set)
Samo Salamon (6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, mandolin)
Recorded in Maribor, April 2021)
Operating within his usual milieu Slovenian guitarist, Samo Salamon is a purveyor of rock inflected jazz liberally embellished with excursions into free form territory. Denied access to group contexts by the pandemic he has taken the opportunity to fulfil a long held ambition, namely to transcribe the compositions of Eric Dolphy, whom he cites as a major artistic influence, to arrangements for solo guitar. Recorded at his home using a single microphone he covers, in single takes, no fewer than twenty - eight tunes from Dolphy’s corpus de l’oeuvre ranging from his work with the Chico Hamilton Quintet via his Prestige years through to his heights of creativity with Blue Note.
Many of Salamon’s interpretations are terse and episodic and the unadorned recording captures quite a lot fretboard static but cunningly these are often incorporated into the guitarist’s `out of the box` free-form passages. When he stretches the pieces out to four or five minutes we do get a greater sense of the melodic characteristics of the original music and with the space to apply contrasting voicings, a greater aural variety with touches of blues, bop and the occasional folk elements, principally Iberian but also with some quasi oriental aspects. Nevertheless, whilst Salamon is successful in exploiting these possibilities and at the same time capturing the essence of Dolphy’s mercurial talent I found it a rather hermetic exercise and a bit too much of a muchness. I won’t condemn it as an act of self-indulgence but think that it’s one for serious devotees of solo guitar only.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
