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
When one thinks of duets between a classical guitarist and a bassist, it is of ballads, pretty music, and treatments that stay close to the melodies. While there is some of that on this set by guitarist Rich Peare and bassist Don Messina, their playing is much more unpredictable than one might expect.
A clue is given in that Blues For Peter has been put out on the New Artists label, a company that has often released music by the students and followers of pianist-educator Lennie Tristano. Peare has a mellow tone but his ideas are often quite adventurous while still following the chord changes. Messina is an interactive bassist, keeping the music swinging with his walking but also playing stimulating lines behind Peare that often build on the guitarist’s ideas while injecting some of his own thoughts into the music. One can sometimes feel the influence of Bartok, Ravel and Lennie Tristano in their interplay in addition to the musical personalities of the two musicians.
The duo performs seven veteran standards and a blues dedicated to their friend the late guitarist Peter Prisco. While they play such vintage numbers as “It’s You Or No One,” “Foolin’ Myself,” “All Of Me,” and “Yesterdays,” the improvising makes the songs sound brand new. Sometimes the melodies are de-emphasized in favor of new and spontaneous ones. Peare and Messina make for a perfectly complementary team, constantly playing off of each other.
Blues For Peter is an outing that grows in interest with each listen.
—Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene Waxing Poetic Reviews, March 2025
How Don Messina & Rich Peare Revived Jazz’s Most Timeless Sound on “Blues for Peter”
Classical guitarist Rich Peare and double bassist DonMessina have teamed up for their first duo album together, entitled Blues for Peter. The eight-song collection sees them performing seven jazz standards and one blues.
“Honoring jazz tradition with straight-ahead swing and spontaneous improvisation, this duo strives to express the beauty of a melodic line, deriving collective inspiration from the musical philosophies of jazz greats Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, Sal Mosca, Billie Holiday, Bud Powell, Django Reinhardt, Fat Navarro, Oscar Pettiford, Charlie Christian, and Warne Marsh,” a press release explains. “Their music is created softly in the moment and done with the pure joy that improvising brings!”
Blues for Peter has an intimate feel that comes naturally with the instrumentation of an acoustic duo. Messina adds to the warmth by matching Peare’s nylon-stringed guitar with a set of gut strings for his double bass, adding even more character and vintage vibe to the songs.
Check out his walking prowess on “You Stepped Out of Dream."
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