Veteran guitarist
Carl Filipiak was impressed enough with
Randy Runyon, one of his teenaged students, that he arranged to record with him before the young man entered college. With bassist Steve Zerlin and drummer Todd Harrison providing strong rhythmic support, the pupil and his teacher embark on an aggressive journey mapped out by
Runyon, tackling a number of well-known compositions written by jazz masters.
Runyon teases the listener with a Eastern-like vamp to set up a fluid take of
Miles Davis' "Solar," while the guitarists find something new within
Joe Henderson's Latin-flavored "Recorda Me." The one standard of the session, "All the Things You Are," is an easygoing swinger that reveals
Runyon's potential. The true acid test for any jazz musician is a ballad, and
Runyon's funky setting of
Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" is impressive (though the package oddly mislabeled it as
Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born"). The two guitarists engage in a cooking take of
Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" and a roadhouse blues written by
Filipiak to wrap the session. This CD should serve as an excellent introduction to
Randy Runyon. ~ Ken Dryden