This concert is yet another followup to one I wrote about in the uncommon instrumentation post. These two guitarists are half of the Seasons Guitar Quartet and this performance was part of the Stanford Jazz festival. The concert was divided into two halves: the first half featured just the two guitarists with one carrying the melody while the other playing accompaniment. From my seat I could only see Larry Koonse's hands and it's fun to watch him switching between playing lines with counterpoint and chords in the accompaniment but I gotta admit two-guitar-jazz is not for everyone. I mean, there were moments I wish there were a complete rhythm section (bass + drums) and that's exactly the format of the 2nd half :-) Lage and Koonse took turn playing with the all-star rhythm section of Larry Grenadier and Eric Harland. And one could clearly hear the difference in their styles: Koonse is more in the tradition of bop/hard-bop while Lage's playing showed more modernism. Both are equally enjoying to me. Last but not least, legendary drummer Louis Hayes (who played with heavyweights like John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor) came on stage and jammed with both guitarists on the tune "Blue Monk." What an inspirational performance! It will be the tune I learn next.
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