LARRY CORYEL & PHILIP CATHERINE: TWIN-HOUSE

I will review the Cd version of this album, because it holds not only the original vinyl (Twin-House sessions), but has five bonus tracks that come from a later session recorded two years later, the Splendid sessions. In many ways this album prefigures the guitar trio albums centred around John McLaughlin by some two years, as this is a pure acoustic guitar duo (no other instruments, except a bass on ) and Twin- House could be a Belgian album rather than a US one, mainly because Catherine signs four tracks to Coryell's two, while two of the five covers are from Django Reinhardt. But if I say it prefigures, I am not saying these infernal trios actually resemble the quiet duos. If anything, TH proves that the guitarist driving those trios overboard is Al DiMeola and his sense of hyper competition and obsession at being the fastest slinger on both sides of the Pecos River. Here, you'll get none of that non-sense and no adrenaline rush either. The two guitarists have decided to avoid any kind of competition and work in complete collaboration spirit, and the album is filled with finesse, camaraderie and fine-entente. However, all of this finesse doesn't leave much room for energy, and the succession of these tracks might seem a bit soporific to some, and downright yawners inducing profound boredom for others.

So the Cd version now lasts almost 65 minutes, which might be a bit much if the two sessions sounded much alike, but fortunately for us the Splendid Session tracks have the odd bass or piano on some tracks, which allow a welcome change, both tracks judiciously placed at the start of the Splendid Session, because the last three tracks revert to the acoustic guitar duo, although the compadres' styles is a bit more tense, but not aggressive. Not really an essential album for the progheads, but many jazz fans will beg to differ. Your call on this one.