Guitar

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Guitar album cover
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EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 9   Total Length: 37:25

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In a Mellow Tone!

Paul.H.uk.42

My first encounter with Sharrock was 'Monkey-Pockie-Boo' which was in its day rather off-the-wall. Then there was Last Exit, metal free jazz with Bill Laswell, Peter Brotzmann and Ronald Shannon Jackson. Coming to these tracks (I've just downloaded the first seven) with that background and the previous reviews, I am initially somewhat disappointed. The playing and effects are high quality, but the music is rather mainstream and unexceptional. Perhaps if you were expecting Joe Satriani or something it would sound free, but to me it sounds a bit banal. In fact (from my rather limited experience) I think Satriani has got a better melodic ear and imagination than Sharrock. This is OK, but then lots of people can do that sort of thing OK. A bit of 'freaking out' on a rather banal tune is not what made Sonny noteworthy.

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Essential!

saturdaysmiles

Essential listening for anyone interested in the boundless variety of expression that the electric guitar is capable of in the hands of masters. A blazingly true original, Sonny carved out something profoundly moving with little more than his hands, a Les Paul and a Marshall and sadly, he was gone all too soon. Listen to this and hear what was and what might have been.

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Bliss

carfare

Bracing and sharp, this beautiful set of multi-tracked guitar explorations is like a tonic for the soul. Sharrock’s playing is at once supremely focused and wonderfully relaxed-- he’s like a zen archer lets go the arrow and allows the target to do the work. It’s wild stuff, to be sure--a kind of mind-bending, abstract expressionist avant-blues that’s alternately aggressively transcendent and unbearably gentle. There’s really nothing else like it.

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Just guitar...

TreatedAndReleased

Really amazing stuff here. Love the psychadelic blues feel on Blind Willie. Broken Toys is the best...very spiritual...like being in a Blues catherdral.

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sgc2c

lazap

This is the man who has an episode named after him on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and also wrote and performed the intro music.

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They Say All Music Guide

This is pure, undiluted Sonny Sharrock. Taking advantage of the overdubbing process, Sharrock accompanies himself in a series of duets that demonstrate the range of his playing, from menacing to tender. The songs are fairly simple; a brief introduction and chord statement lays the foundation, then Sharrock flies about on top of it. The purity of his tone is both powerful and beautiful. “Broken Toys” is almost like a lullaby after the flying shrapnel of “Devils Doll Baby,” where Sharrock shows off his dizzying, visceral slide guitar technique. “Black Bottom” is his take on the blues. “Princess Sonata” is a beautiful suite that encompasses all these aspects of his playing. Guitar makes a nice counterpoint to both Seize the Rainbow, a more rock-oriented release, and Ask the Ages, his reunion with Pharoah Sanders. Bill Laswell deserves some credit for revitalizing Sharrock’s career in the ’80s, and for sympathetic production on all three of these recordings. Guitar is a beautiful statement by one of jazz music’s most unique voices. – Sean Westergaard

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