Though the jazz guitarist
Kenny Burrell is associated mostly with Blue Note-based hard bop and soul-jazz (he had a hit with the funky "Chile con Carne"), he is also a musician of considerable artistry. Witness his landmark 1965 collaboration with
Gil Evans,
Guitar Forms, which rivals anything the arranger did with
Miles Davis. Indeed, the track "Lotus Land" has a bolero form very reminiscent of
Sketches of Spain. There is no stinting on the blues here, either, as evidenced on "Downstairs" and "Terrace Theme." But the highlights are the bossa nova version of
Alec Wilder's "Moon and Sand," as well as a characteristically slow and luxurious treatment of
Harold Arlen's "Last Night When We Were Young." Throughout,
Burrell takes thoughtful, concise, and utterly musical solos, and even switches to acoustic classical guitar on "Prelude #2" and "Loie." ~ Richard Mortifoglio