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Reviewer: Jim Fisch, 20th
Century Guitar Magazine |
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If I had a chance to characterize a solo guitar performance by Gene Bertoncini in a single word, the first adjective would be "transcendent". His latest CD, is such a performance and speaks as much of his cognitive powers as it does his fretboard mastery. Simply put, Gene's talent for solo guitar is what sets any great musician apart from the pack. It is the ability to find the pure essence of a composition. On the surface, this seems deceptively simple, especially given the fact that all of the selections are relatively familiar and easy to listen to. They speak to the listener. It is the guitarist's imaginative arrangements and clever reharmonizations which give them a new depth. Bertoncini is a painter of vivid musical pictures. The inspiration for How are things in Glocca Morra is found in the skirl of bagpipes, while the plaintive Round Midnight is haunted by a church bell's toll. His reading of orchestra leader Claude Thornhill's theme song Snowfall is evocative of an ice flurry, captured with crystalline delicacy in a nylon string tone that absolutely glistens. Gene's romantic nature comes to the fore in the straightforward approach given the simple, folk-like melodies of Greensleeves and Edelweiss, Often though, as in I remember you, he will instill darkly shaded minor tonalities underneath the major theme, thus taking the tune in unexpected harmonic directions. All of this is done with a knowing appreciation that composers like Hoagy Carmichael ("Stardust"), Johny Mandel ("The shadow of your smile") or Jimmy Van Heusen ("But beautiful") have given him perfect vehicles for self-expression. Body and Soul is a temporal and spiritual masterpiece.
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