Blues for Peter
NA1074
Rich Peare, Classical Guitar
Don Messina, Double Bass
1. Strike Up The Band
2. Don't Blame Me
3. It's You or No One
4. Foolin' Myself
5.You Stepped Out of a Dream
6.Blues for Peter
7. All of Me
8.Yesterdays
REVIEWS
I last posted on bassist Don Messina in 2022 (go here). Don was a member of the Larry Bluth Trio. On this newly released album recorded in 2020, Don was paired with Rich Peare on classical guitar. The Peter in the album's title is guitarist Peter Prisco, with whom Rich studied guitar for years. The two terrific players here work though five standards and two originals. What I love about this album is that both Don and Rich are fully exposed and can't run for cover. They must fill the space with grace and improvisation while working together. The bass-guitar duo format is among the most difficult because stringed instruments can cover only so much sonic ground. In the case of these two, however, the results are exceptional and Tristano-like in delivery. As Don notes about Rich's playing style: "Rich plucks like he is playing Bach. No pick."
—Marc Myers, Jazz Wax, October 2024
You don’t very often get to hear an accomplished jazz duo on a nylon-stringed classical guitar—that’s Richard Peare—and a gut-stringed double bass—that’s Don Messina. On their new release, Blues for Peter, these two master improvisers, both of whom stand in the tradition of such folks as Lennie Tristano and Sal Mosca, among others, offer an old-school paean to melody and swing on seven standards and one original. Dedicated to the late Peter Prisco, an esteemed Staten Island guitarist and teacher with whom both Peare and Messina were connected, the album opens with a swinging version of “Strike Up the Band,” which sets the scene for what’s to come—good-time music whose inventive improvisational lines unpack the melodic and harmonic possibilities encapsulated in familiar tunes. Richard gets the lion’s share of the foreground, but Messina, whose swinging, irresistible pulse grounds the entire album, gets an expressive cameo on the original title track.
They both shine brightest on “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” which captures the intoxication of new love. Blues for Peter puts a new shine on the old school.
—Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, September 2024
www.melminter.com