Steve Cardenas: Blue Has A Range
Sunnyside Records

The impact personnel has on a recording is clearly illustrated by the musicians NYC-based guitarist Steve Cardenas assembled for Blue Has A Range. His history with Jon Cowherd extends back eight years when the guitarist joined the pianist's Mercy Project quartet, and the two also did a number of duo gigs in Switzerland years later. Cardenas has performed with bassist Ben Allison since 2005 in various group contexts and with drummer Brian Blade in Cowherd's Mercy Project and John Patitucci's Electric Guitar Quartet. The rapport that's developed between the four is evident throughout Blue Has A Range in the ease with which they interact and complement one another. Adding to that feeling of connectedness, Cardenas wrote the material for the album knowing these partners would be joining him (and in Allison's case co-producing). Such circumstances facilitated a nuanced result that's by its very nature intimate.

As per the album title, Blue Has A Range does occasionally veer into blues territory, never more overtly than in “Blue Language,” but the hue more pertains to an overall mood or feeling. Many of Cardenas's nine compositions lend themselves to reflection and are thus especially suited to our current time; it's easy to picture a homebound listener looking out the window with the album playing wondering longingly when life might again be as it once was.

If Cardenas isn't as well-known a guitarist as he deserves to be, it might have something to do with his style, which eschews flash for a clean, distortion-free attack that's melodically attuned and lyrically inclined. Stated otherwise, he's a tasteful player, not in any stuffy sense but in the choices he makes with respect to tone and formulation. Certainly his gifts have been recognized by those with whom he's played, among them Charlie Haden, Norah Jones, Steve Swallow, Madeleine Peyroux, Paul Motian, and Joey Baron.

Though “Lost and Found” references Wayne Shorter's “Lost,” the tune quickly brands itself as a Cardenas composition in its melodicism and sensitivity to texture. Breezy solos by Cowherd and the guitarist reinforce the relaxed feel of the date, and Blade and Allison enhance the piece with attentive, responsive support. Apparently inspired by another iconic saxophonist, John Coltrane, “Highline” takes flight with a buoyant solo by the leader, the effervescent performance elevated by his partners' swing. Cardenas isn't the only soloist of note, with Cowherd, for example, marking the sprawling meditation “Siquijor” with an expansive and quietly majestic turn.

After Cardenas initiates “Blue Language” with an unaccompanied intro, the material, especially when delivered at a slow tempo, turns gritty when the others sashay into view, and if he isn't B. B. King, Cardenas clearly shows himself fluent in the blues idiom in the licks he doles out during the seven-minute performance. Originally recorded for Allison's 2008 release Little Things Run The World, the sultry ballad “Language of Love” is rather more characteristic of the album in its blues-inflected lyricism, the tune spotlighting a lustrous side of the leader's guitar playing. Elsewhere, interlaced ostinato patterns bolster the entrancing effect of “Reflector,” the tune's rapturous uplift and melodic richness giving it a somewhat Metheney-esque quality.

August 2020