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This is a release from 1986, recorded in the legendary Roger Arnhoff sound studio
in Oslo. Louis Stewart plucked his strings straight into a five-star “Excellent”
review in Downbeat Magazine (May 1988). The booklet included with the CD contains
a facsimile of the reveiew from Downbeat, and a transcription of Louis Stewart’s
solo on Dream Dancing’. The release in 1986 was on vinyl (still available), and
the CD version came in 1989 (executive producer Martin Gulliksen)
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Review Downbeat Magazine mai 1988, "Excellent" (five of five stars) |
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”[…] contemporary jazz guitar just doesn’t get any better. If it were to do so one
of the performers to do so is the self-taught Louis Stewart, who continues to move
from strength to strength with each new recording. Performing with the sympathetic
backing of the fine norwegian quartet, 4 Sure (Knut Mikalsen, guitar; Sjur Braein,
piano; Sture Janson, bass; Jens-Ivar Dagestad, drums), Stewart’s recent Good News
– one of his finest recorded efforts – clearly illustrates why he must be considered
one of the instrument’s world-class players. As he does time and again here, perhaps
most notably in Bobby Shew’s moody ballad Blue, the Irish plectrist constructs,
with apparent effortlessness, interesting, well-conceived, long-lined solos that
are true thematic-based improvisations and not just loosely-knit successions of
smaller phrase uits. A determinedly noncomplacent musician who always seeks to challenge
himself-and his listeners-Stewart develops extraordinarily high levels of focused,
deeply creative playing on all nine of the selections-Parker’s sempiternal Billie’s
Bounce, Wayne Shorter’s Lester Left Town, Luiz Bonfa’s fetching Menina Flor, Shew’s
Blue, Cedar Walton’s spruce Firm Roots, and the four standards Dream Dancing, Just
Friends, Some Other Time, and Willow Weep For Me (this last stunning guitar-bass
duet with a wonderful Stewart reharmonization that casts this familiar piece in
wholly new guise). The whole program, in fact, glows with uncloying uncliched beauty,
consummate artistry and utter integrity, qualities that always have informed Stewart’s
playing, but never more so than in this warm, serenely expansive recital which the
four Norwegians have selflessly given over almost wholly to him. And happily for
us, he rose splendidly to the occasion. These are performances that will deepen
one’s pleasure, and reveal ever more of their creator’s rich resources of heart,
mind and imagination. They create their own world, and that’s more than enough.
Make no mistake, Stewart is a major talent, and this album reveals much of its compass.
Good News indeed […]” |
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Review Orkesterjournalen august 1990 |
(Translated from swedish by Villa Records)
“Louis Stewart is one of the few, may be the only internationally celebrated jazz
musician that Ireland has given the world. Here he plays together with the norwegain
quartet 4Sure, a band of experienced musicians with very different backgrounds.
This is of no importance , however, to this record, and was never the intention
either. This is standard repertoire, sounding like standard repertoire. It is also
music for a wide audience that will be of harm to no one, but will rub you gently
[…]. He has a remarkable ability to play long lines and use only what is needed
from the vast ocean of scales that the music invites to […] Rock solid loyalty to
style it is. […] -OW” |
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