REVIEW: 16 December 2004 | ||
Louis D’Agostino with | ||
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| The final performance at the Spin for this year was a very special double act. Louis D’Agostino was billed as the quest, but he is also the resident guitarist when Pete Oxley is otherwise engaged. So with Pete also playing we were treated to an evening of guitar from two musicians who were both on home ground in the venue and with the material. The quartet of the evening, with Pete Townsend bass and Spin resident Mark Doffman drums have worked together giving that tightness that comes from familiarity. A good duo needs musicians with the same approach but their own distinctive styles so one acts as a foil and a contrast to the other. This is true of Louis and Pete who have played and recorded together regularly over the past few years. Louis has an extraordinary sense of rhythm and timing that will lift even the simplest phrase and allows him to move while soloing from fast quarter notes to triplets, to move the accents within the phrases and yet magically maintain the beat. Pete, on the other hand, applies a more analytical approach producing long elegant phrases over the harmonies that build into progressively more complex and exciting lines. Louis showed his ability to make a simple melody sing in the typically subtle Jobim number, Estaté, and built a solo of immaculate speed and timing. On Blues for Poly from their duo CD The Play of Light, the fast, intricate melody was played in perfect unison from which Pete took off into a solo of characteristic space and bluesy edge. In the same number resident star of the drums Mark Doffman played a fine solo moving subtly around the beat rather than blinding us with speed. Coltrane’s seminal tune Giant Steps, played as a bossa, gave the bass player, Pete Townsend and a newcomer to the Spin, the chance to play an entire solo with the bow, a rare treat. Perhaps the only shortcoming was a slight imbalance between the guitars when Louis was using nylon strings and Pete stuck to steel. Overall it was an evening of superb performances and a fine end to an autumn of driving performances at the Spin. The club was packed and the applause loud and straight from the heart. © Paul Medley | |
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