TACTICS

What an album! Jazz guitar lovers will be in heaven; all others will be mystified. What you get here is 76 minutes of guitar, only accompanied by drums and hammond organ (which also provides the bass). Every now and then the main soloists trade places, and the guitar accompanies the organ. John Abercrombie's playing is poetic, intricate and subtle; at some points he uses rock guitar textures, as on the exciting third track, 'Bo Diddy', which probably owes its title to the fact that it's based on the famous "Bo Diddley rhythm".

Most of this music is great for driving, drinking, or brushing your teeth to, but I can't help thinking the average prog addict will find it too monochrome. I can assure you, however, that the musicians involved had fun playing it, for I happened to be at jazz club Visiones in Greenwich Village on one of the nights when it was being recorded, back in July 1996. (A happy kind of comment which I probably won't be able to make about any other artist included in Prog Archives!) The club was tiny, and during the interval everyone was free to chat with the musicians in the most relaxing way you can imagine.

By the way, if you dig Abercrombie's guitar playing, do take the opportunity to hear Kenny Wheeler's sublime THE WIDOW IN THE WINDOW: gorgeously dreamy music for fluegelhorn, piano, electric guitar, bass and drums - definitely more accessible than the TACTICS trio.