onurblues: Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, Gerry Beaudoin - New Guitar Summit (2004) & New Guitar Summit : Shivers (2008)

March 12, 2023

Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, Gerry Beaudoin - New Guitar Summit (2004) & New Guitar Summit : Shivers (2008)

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Cool and swinging... again

All those who relished the two outstanding albums recorded by Duke Robillard & Herb Ellis (“Conversations In Swing Guitar”, 1999, & “More Conversations In Swing Guitar”, 2003) (1) will certainly also appreciate the two New Guitar Summit  releases. Both projects have a lot in common : top class guitarists and jazz groove and swing.

This time we have a trio : still basking in his recent successful “Conversations...” with Ellis, multi-style musician Duke Robillard is aboard this new adventure next to jazz guitarist Gerry Beaudoin, and the less expected atypical ex-rocker Jay Geils who converted to jazz after leaving his band, the famous J. Geils Band, in 1985 after a 15-year stretch of R'n'B-influenced blues rock and about as many studio and live albums.

L to R : Beaudoin, Robillard & Geils

On a couple of titles of Shivers, the trio is joined by another rocker, the Canadian Randy Bachman, ex-founding member of the hard blues-rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive in the 1970s, who like Geils, turned to jazz with an album titled “Jazz Thing” (2004) and “Jazz Thing II” in 2007, recorded with the same New Guitar Summit trio.

It is always difficult to write about music, especially about a work you particularly appreciate. The more you like an album, the more difficult it is to review it, afraid to be unable to transcribe the “je-ne-sais-quoi” that makes all the difference between the common and the outstanding.

Robillard

Nevertheless, let's try. First, let's make things straight : this couple of albums are real jazz guitar albums, not just jazz-flavored stuff. Let's also evacuate once and for all the only reservation I personally have about the crooning vocal tracks (3 on NGS, 2 on Shivers) : I don't think they enlighten any of the two records in any way except maybe on Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's “Backdoor Blues” sung by Robillard with a soulful gravelly voice… In spite of this minor flaw, both albums are a swinging treat.

Geils (left) & Beaudoin (right)

The first, New Guitar Summit, features 11 titles, from the swinging Benny Goodman's “Bennies Bugle” (or wouldn't it rather be “Benny's…” ?) to the closing “Glide On” through classics like “Ain't Nobody's Business” (sung by Beaudoin), George & Ira Gershwin's “Lady B. Good”, or the nice melodic “Perdido”. Beaudoin himself signed three good titles : “Swing With Dr. Jake”, “Azzure Mineur” and “Just Among Friends”.

You can hear the picks striving on the strings of the fine sunburst jazz guitars shown on the cover while the three guitarists are backed by a minimal rhythm section : John Turner  (upright bass) and Gordon Grottenhaler (drums), two irreproachable musicians. Both are again partly present on NGS second chapter, “Shivers”.

Talking about covers, the similar design of both the NGS and the Robillard-Ellis albums is revealing : sunburst guitars on the first album of each, orange and green colors on the second. The proof that the Stony Plain Records label which published the four albums considers them as parts of a same series. Moreover, the fact that the Guitar Summit series has been qualified as “New” is equally revealing. What's the first one if not the Robillard-Ellis “Conversations…” ?

Shivers sounds even better than its elder brother, in my opinion. It features a more varied repertoire, with more compositions from members of the trio, five to be exact : “Little Bitty Pretty One” and “Wellspring Blues” are co-signed by the three guitarists, Beaudoin wrote two cool pieces, “Blue Sunset” and “Mediterranean Nights”, and Robillard the rhythmic “Jim Jam”. The three instrumentalists also sound more relaxed and their playing is more fluid than on their first meeting.

Randy Bachman

The second track, the excellent Benny Goodman-Lionel Hampton “Flying Home” had already been played by Robillard & Ellis in their “Conversations…”, while the two Mose Allison cool titles, “Your Mind Is On Vacation” and “Everybody's Crying Mercy”, sung by guest Randy Bachman, already appeared on Bachman's “Jazz Thing II”.

Geils, Beaudoin & Robillard

The excellent “Shivers”, a swinging Charlie Christian-Lionel Hampton composition, is the highlight of this second opus, no surprise it was chosen as the album's title. Other swing stand-outs : “Broadway”, “Jim Jam” and “Honey Suckle Rose”, a standard of gypsy jazz guitarists since Django Reinhardt, taken here on a much cooler tempo.

Cool and swinging, both NGS albums should appeal to jazz guitar fans. ■

(1) "Conversations..." & "More conversations...", both reviewed here.

Videos

L to R : Geils, Robillard & Beaudoin

■ New Guitar Summit

► From the 2005 DVD, Live at the Stoneham Theatre :

→ “Broadway” : https://youtu.be/QffhmQrN4aI

→ “Ain't Nobody's Business” : https://youtu.be/d7LmS61RUA8

→ “Lonely Boy Blues” : https://youtu.be/mFHSttg_55c

► At the House of Blues : https://youtu.be/XOalL_ep3Ew

■ Gerry Beaudoin

► The Gerry Beaudoin Trio, 2021 : https://youtu.be/uxeguxmNlvs?t=151

► The Gerry Beaudoin Trio and Harry Allen, Framingham, MA, 2020 : https://youtu.be/LSMe9QIJ27k

► The Gerry Beaudoin Trio, “Blue Once Again”, Waltham, MA. 2018 : https://youtu.be/13zv7WDfU80

► With Lynn Goucher (jazz violin), Gerard Beaudoin (vibes), Ron Ormsby (bass) and Bart Weisman (drums), Hyannis, MA, 2014 : https://youtu.be/gfcu7uvq4bc

Beaudoin with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (right)

► With J Geils, Jeff Pitchell & Texas Flood and Rich Lataille, 2012 :

→ “Let the Good Times Roll” : https://youtu.be/wUFGADH5VeM

→ “Texas Flood” : https://youtu.be/vOe68k-mfks

► Gerry Beaudoin and Harry Allen joined by J. Geils, Ipswich, MA, 2011 : https://youtu.be/12diahYAbLw
► Gerry Beaudoin and Harry Allen, Ipswich, MA, 2011 : https://youtu.be/lrUGMSRkw4U