SLAMCD265 Esmond Selwyn – The Axe: Solo Jazz Guitar

Guitarist Esmond Selwyn performs 22 tracks, mainly standards, in a mixture of live and studio recordings.

Esmond Selwyn: guitar

“Has a richness of harmonic detail that is rare in unaccompanied playing and seldom reached even by the acknowledged masters of jazz guitar. The technique is immaculate with self-accompanied lines of such sophistication it often appears a second guitarist is playing rhythm or that Selwyn is overdubbed. It may be that he hasn’t achieved wider recognition simply because he has preferred not to. If so, it makes his achievement all the more extraordinary. If not, time we wakened up to his genius.” – Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th edition)

“If you listened blind, you might think Pablo had uncovered yet another unreleased Joe Pass session, but no, this is by Welsh guitarist Esmond Selwyn. Selwyn’s playing has superficial resemblances to Pass in the thoughtful single note picking and the rippling flourishes at the ends of lines but the liner notes of this CD instead cite Tal Farlow and George Van Eps as his main influences, and you can hear that…Selwyn’s treatment of “All The Things You Are” may be his most striking work here, playing wistfully through the verse then going into a relaxed treatment of the chorus with arpeggios and muscle-flexing side comments and also throwing in an impressive double-time passage. Selwyn shows on this CD that he is a real master of Jazz guitar.” – Jerome Wilson, Cadence

“For this extraordinary tour-de-force, Mr. Selwyn performs 22 standards on solo hollow-body electric guitar…Selwyn does a beautiful job of embracing the lyrical melodies of each of these tunes and embellishing them with astonishing flourishes of exquisite taste and an elegant touch. From the sublime to the astonishing, he quite literally does it all.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

“An underrated Welsh-based guitarist and ex Don Rendell sideman, on a supple, gutsy-textured unaccompanied standards album masterfully avoiding the kind of wine bar schmaltz sometimes associated with the format.” – Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise

“Memories of late guitar great Joe Pass’ Virtuoso (Pablo, 1974) are stirred. Lyrically gifted and technically formidable, Selwyn deconstructs the familiar material with delicacy and flair. He has a real talent for personalising popular standards while simultaneously treating their composers’ structures with respect, and his complex phrasings add to the interest. Selwyn might prove to be one of the global jazz community’s best kept secrets.” – Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz

“Selwyn has such astounding technique that you wonder why he’s not better known stateside…the playing is outstanding and inspired, bringing life to a who’s who of standard chestnuts: “Stella by Starlight” is boppy and full of brio, rippling with muscular, daredevil lines that make up for with charisma what they occasionally lack in accuracy; “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” is contemplative, laced with spicy chromatics and spacey meanderings; and “All the Things You Are” is a tour de forcefulness, a fast and furious two-way conversation of juxtaposed registers.” – Tom Greenland, All About Jazz

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