octopus-4
Hi cats, this is my first jazz review....
I bought this album just the day after having seen Stanley for the first time on a TV show. I was highly impressed by his technique. In a period when tapping on the guitar was typical of heavy metal players, this guy was playing alone on a very clean guitar with absolutely no effects apart, maybe, a high pick-ups volume.
For who doesn't know Stanley Jordan, he plays bass and accompainment by tapping with the left hand and melody and chords with the right.
Now the album: it's an album of covers taken both from the pop and the jazz world. It's when he plays pop tunes that his skill in arranging becomes more evident: making Eleanor Rigby or Angel a jazz thing is not easy unless you change them drastically.
In his case, and with the other standards in this album, Stanley is able to keep the original melodies, making the songs recognizable but adding his "magic touch".
He is probably an artist more enjoyable live, but this debut is one of these albums that can lighten the burden of driving in a traffic jam. Not a masterpiece, but a highly enjoyable easy album good for all the tastes.
