Our friend from Maribor, Slovenia, the fine guitarist Samo Salamon, graces our blog with a new release. This one is just him alone playing the works of Eric Dolphy accompanied by his guitar and, apparently, his cat adding in a meow or two.
From Samo’s Bandcamp site:
The idea of the project began by practicing at home alone during the many Covid lockdowns, rediscovering Dolphy’s music again. Furthermore, I was inspired to do this album by Miles Okazaki’s great solo guitar Monk project. We had a long talk this year via Skype and it was so great to hear how he approached Monk on solo guitar. In the same manner, I have tried to approach Dolphy, but in my own way. First I transcribed all the compositions by Dolphy and arranged them for solo guitar, trying out different techniques. In the end, I improvised on tunes – sometimes free improvisation and in other cases following the harmonic structure. I have played Dolphy’s tunes throughout my musical career, improvising on them, but rarely in a solo setting; probably because of fear or respect. But now I was like, OK, let’s do it: I told myself I should not be afraid to play single lines or be burdened by the great solo guitar musical heritage, which I immensely respect.
Samo’s playing is warm and joyful, and his work is always welcome on these pages.
