Dream Box (2023), by Pat Metheny

Even without a full band of collaborative musicians and their instruments to embellish and expand upon his sound, Pat Metheny manages to captivate and enthrall, as demonstrated by this album of pensive and poignant electric guitar instrumentals.

Standout tracks include the classic jazz tune, “Never Was Love,” which has an infectious rhythmic groove thanks to Metheny’s buoyant solo over his energetic backing chords, and the Brazilian-flavored “Morning of the Carnival,” from the Black Orpheus soundtrack.

 

I am especially familiar with the latter because Police guitarist Andy Summers played it as part of his suite of selections from the film during his early 2020s one-man multimedia tour.

 

The song has its own recognizable compositional structure, but both guitarists definitely put their signature stamps on the tune. Metheny’s version is uniquely and unmistakably his.

 

Speaking of Summers, I’ve seen a photo online, perhaps on Metheny’s website, of Summers and Metheny playing acoustic guitars together in a house or hotel sometime in the early 1980s.

 

That photo and both Summers’ and Metheny’s individual takes on “Morning of the Carnival” compel me to suggest that the two should record at least one album of guitar duets, either electric or acoustic or both.

 

That would be a guitar lover’s dream.

 

Summers isn’t getting any younger. Make it happen, Pat!

 

--Raj Manoharan

Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) (2021), by Pat Metheny

Venerable jazz guitarist Pat Metheny tests out his Side-Eye concept – in which he spotlights younger up-and-coming musicians – in a live setting, covering some familiar classics as well as newer repertoire and creating something both structured and in the moment.

The newer kids on the block here are James Francies on keyboards and synthesizers and Marcus Gilmore on drums and percussion. They keep their leader on his toes while he pushes them to rise to the occasion, resulting in a range of sounds that run the gamut from vintage jazz to progressive, state-of-the-art fusion.

 

Regardless of whether he’s playing with seasoned peers or fresh faces, Metheny always manages to hone in on his artistry and vision with precise focus, defined by his signature sound and his nimble and sublime leads.

 

A rare excursion into blues rock guitar and the much-welcome return of his blazing guitar synthesizer make this session an eclectic and worthy addition to Pat Metheny’s decades-long discography.

 

--Raj Manoharan

BEATrio (2025), by Bela Fleck, Edmar Castaneda, Antonio Sanchez

2026 GRAMMY AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM

I’m not a fan of the banjo, and I’m even less of a fan of the harp, but these completely disparate instruments are two of the three unlikely ingredients – including drums and percussion – that make up this thoroughly engrossing and immersive album that sounds nothing like typical, traditional banjo or harp music.

The trio consists of banjo player extraordinaire Bela Fleck, harpist Edmar Castaneda, and drummer/percussionist Antonio Sanchez.

 

Fleck, of course, is an internationally renowned multiple Grammy Award nominee and winner and the leader of the jazz/world/new age fusion super group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck is to the banjo what Andy Summers and Pat Metheny are to the guitar.

 

The harp sounds like a harp, but Castaneda plays it like I’ve never heard it played before, unleashing a dynamic range of tones and a lot of bouncy and snappy rhythms.

 

And longtime Pat Metheny collaborator Sanchez brings it all together with kinetic drums and percussion that keep everything moving.

 

I’m not sure if BEATrio is just the name of the album, the name of the group, or both, but one thing I know for certain is that this is one of the tightest, most energetic, and most exhilarating fusion bands on record.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Standards from film (2022), by Mike Moreno

While I’m not enough of a connoisseur of classic film to get the audio clip references as well as be familiar with the songs themselves, what I do know is that acclaimed and accomplished jazz guitarist Mike Moreno has definitely tapped into a vibe that is classic and vintage and classy and elegant. The result is one of his strongest sets yet.

 

Moreno’s earlier releases in the late 2000s and 2010s already demonstrated his technical proficiency on the fret board, and this album continues to evidence a steady hand and assured confidence in his playing and phrasing, presenting him as the venerable jazz guitar master that he most certainly is now. He is definitely on the level of guitar greats such as Andy Summers and Pat Metheny.

 

Moreno is supported by an equally talented group of amazing and wondrous musicians. Sullivan Fortner conjures rapturous swirls on piano, Matt Brewer anchors deep grooves and rhythms on bass, and Obed Calvaire keeps the beat palpable with floating drums and percussion. They absolutely contribute both individually and collectively to the overall atmosphere of this session. This is one of Moreno’s best bands on record.

 

The art of jazz guitar is alive and well in the highly capable hands of Mike Moreno.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Lotus Dream (2025), by Shambhu

Shambhu’s tenth album finds the guitarist doing what he does best – soothing listeners’ souls with gentle and peaceful acoustic guitar compositions that center them in their inner selves and take them to another level of sensory enlightenment.

However, Shambhu goes a bit further than usual, bringing a lot of piano as well as electric guitar into the mix, along with bass and synthesizers.

 

The result is an album that goes into Andy Summers, Pat Metheny, and Eric Johnson territory, all the while retaining Shambhu’s unique sensibilities.

 

Shambhu plays all the instruments on the album, with the exception of “Resilience,” which features electric and Nashville guitars by jazz guitarist Leo Steinriede.

 

The combination of acoustic and electric guitars and keyboards and synthesizers truly results in a sonic utopia of dreamy luminescence and transcendent bliss.

 

This is one of the best albums of its kind.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Happy Birthday, Andy Summers!

On New Year's Eve, Wednesday, December 31, 2025, Andy Summers – my favorite guitarist and musician of all time – will turn 83 years old.

I first became acquainted with the music of Summers in 1983 at the age of 10 in a Catholic elementary school classroom when I heard a hypnotic and futuristic-sounding pop/rock song emanating from the radio of Candy, my substitute teacher. When I asked what the song was and who recorded it, I was promptly informed that it was “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police. I was instantly hooked, so much so that that Christmas, my parents got me a vinyl copy of Synchronicity, The Police’s fifth and final studio album and one of the biggest hits of the year. The Police have since remained my favorite rock band of all time.

Summers was the guitarist for the mega-popular group, who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s and reunited for a 30th anniversary tour in 2007 and 2008. Being a good decade older than his bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers began his professional recording career in the early 1960s, playing for Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band (which later became the psychedelic but short-lived Dantalian’s Chariot), Eric Burdon’s New Animals, and Soft Machine. After formally studying guitar at California State University, Northridge, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Summers returned to England and plied his trade as a session guitarist for Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord before achieving monumental success and international stardom with The Police.

After the dissolution of The Police in the early 1980s, Summers scored some Hollywood films (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Weekend at Bernie’s) and recorded one rock vocal album before establishing himself as an acclaimed and accomplished contemporary instrumental guitarist across a variety of styles, including jazz, fusion, new age, and world music.

I was privileged to interview Summers by telephone in Fall 2000 for the January 2001 issue of DirecTV: The Guide. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Summers posted a notice of the interview in the news section of his Web site. Later, I met Summers in person during his book tour in Fall 2006, just a few months before The Police reunited for a 30th anniversary reunion tour, which I was fortunate to attend twice, first at Giants Stadium in August 2007 and then at PNC Bank Arts Center in August 2008.

I highly recommend the following Andy Summers solo albums: XYZ, Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone Strange, Synaesthesia, Earth + Sky, Harmonics of the Night, and Vertiginous Canyons.

--Raj Manoharan

More Amor: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery (2025), by Chicago Jazz Orchestra Featuring Bobby Broom; Jeff Lindberg – Artistic Director

This is one of those CDs that as soon as I heard it on the radio, I knew I had to have it.

I heard the title track, “More, More, Amor,” on WBGO Radio 88.3 FM. Later that night, I listened to the entire album on YouTube before ultimately purchasing the download from Amazon and the physical CD from the Chicago Jazz Orchestra directly.

 

This is a recording not only of classic tunes composed by iconic jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, but also standards that he had recorded, such as “What the World Needs Now Is Love” by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, “Somewhere” by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and “Dreamsville” by Henry Mancini, Jay Livingston, and Raymond Evans.

 

Of course, the album also includes the requisite Montgomery tracks “Four on Six” and “West Coast Blues,” among others.

 

As you would expect, the Chicago Jazz Orchestra gives the record the vintage feel of the classic swinging sound of big-time jazz bands from the 1940s to the 1970s, all the while sounding modern and contemporary.

 

And Chicago-based guitarist Bobby Broom is the perfect complement to the Chicago Jazz Orchestra’s bedrock of sound, bringing popping electric bop to the proceedings with his nimble and tactile playing.

 

I’m surprised I haven’t come across Bobby Broom before. He’s been around for over 45 years, and going by his albums streaming on his website, he’s one of the best jazz guitarists out there and particularly adept at crafting catchy covers of pop and rock classics.

 

This is one of the best orchestral, jazz, and guitar albums available, and aficionados and casual fans of any of those three categories will find something of auditory delight here.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Orchestralli (2004), by Stewart Copeland

This live CD captures Police founder and drummer Stewart Copeland touring Italy in 2003 with an orchestra and a percussion ensemble performing symphonic versions of his music from Rumble Fish and The Equalizer, as well as his other original works.

The music is jazzier than usual for Copeland, which is not at all a bad thing, but it is ironic, especially considering that Copeland called out his former Police band mate, guitarist Andy Summers, a couple of decades earlier for making jazzy records. In addition to the prominent saxophone, parts of the album have a Kenny G vibe to them, which is not a knock against Stewart Copeland – or Kenny G!

 

Jazz or no jazz, this is a very engaging and exuberant concert. The sound fidelity and quality are excellent, with the intricate and expert playing of the orchestra and the percussion ensemble coming through loud and clear.

 

Of course, Copeland’s unbridled energy on the drums, percussion, and especially the hi-hat make this a rousing and dynamic performance.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Spyro (2022), by Stewart Copeland

WOW! Stewart Copeland has had a long and varied career – being the founder and drummer of The Police, composing film and television soundtracks, recording globally sourced solo albums, and writing operas and orchestral symphonies – but his work for the Spyro videogame series is perhaps one of his best and most beloved accomplishments. Just by virtue of the game’s massive worldwide popularity, this is obviously Copeland’s widest exposure since The Police, and his brilliant work here is worthy of that opportune spotlight.

The soundtrack was released officially for the first time in 2022 a year prior to the game’s 25^th anniversary, enabling people like me who are not videogame fans or enthusiasts to fully immerse themselves in the immense, thrilling, and engrossing sonic environments of the score.

 

The tracks contain elements of all of Copeland’s work up to that point and then some. Copeland’s compositional quirkiness shines through alongside mainstream themes that are grand and epic in scope.

 

All of the tunes are composed and generated entirely with keyboards and synthesizer samples. Naturally, the drum and percussion sounds are intense and give the album a kinetically propulsive edge.

 

Copeland’s Spyro music is to videogames what Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice music is to television and as such is a kindred spirit to that latter work.

 

For those not familiar with Stewart Copeland’s talents beyond The Police, Spyro is probably the best introduction to all of his wondrous musical idiosyncrasies.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Wild Concerto (2025), by Stewart Copeland

Forty years after unleashing his groundbreaking Africa-based album The Rhythmatist, Police founder and drummer Stewart Copeland releases its proper successor, the multi-continent-flavored Wild Concerto.

While the concept is the same, there are major differences. The Rhythmatist features the sounds of African tribes and wildlife recorded by Copeland, who then composed music around them and played all the studio instruments himself. Wild Concerto spotlights the sounds of wildlife and nature across many continents, this time recorded by audio preservationist Martyn Stewart. Copeland also composed music around these recordings, but this time he orchestrated the score for the Kingdom Orchestra conducted by Troy Miller.

 

Copeland keeps the whole album moving with his trademark drums and percussion, as well as a notable lineup of session players on bass, guitar, piano, and saxophone.

 

Like The Rhythmatist, Wild Concerto is exhilarating and remarkable in how Copeland constructs the music so that it is literally accompanying the sounds of nature and wildlife. It is basically a duet between the musicians in the studio and the animals out in the wild.

 

Wild Concerto is also sonically similar to Copeland’s African-themed soundtrack for the 1996 Discovery Channel documentary, The Leopard Son.

 

The result is a unique symphonic fusion of classical music and the sounds of nature, showcasing Copeland’s quirky compositional instincts along with hints of jazz and pop.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Transcendence (2025), by Shambhu

I reviewed a couple of guitarist Shambhu’s albums in the 2010s when I was actively reviewing contemporary instrumental jazz/new age/fusion releases, but I had since lost track of his work. Now I’ve found myself back on the path again, thanks to Shambhu’s radiant and illuminating retrospective collection, Transcendence.

Comprised of ten choice cuts culled from the last fifteen years of Shambhu’s solo career and remixed in the spatially expansive sonic resolution of Dolby Atmos, the album truly lives up to its title in elevating listeners above the chaos and confusion of the crazy times we are living in. But regardless of when and where we find ourselves listening, the music is spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically therapeutic, as well as inspirational and uplifting. In this way, the album is timeless.

 

The primary instrument here is Shambhu’s acoustic guitar, sometimes by itself and other times accompanied by notable guest artists on guitar, bass, keyboards, flute, violin, cello, horns, percussion, and voice.

 

The album is consistent and flawless from beginning to end, never underwhelming or overbearing, just right. As varied as each track is, from beautifully simple to intricately lush, all of the tunes are thoughtful, sensitive, and, yes, transcendent.

 

Whether you are familiar with or are new to Shambhu’s work, or you just need something to take you away and reset you, this album delivers the goods.

 

Shambhu’s Transcendence exudes peace, love, and kindness.

 

--Raj Manoharan

For the Love of George (2025), by Robin Nolan

George Harrison reaches out from The Great Beyond to bless us all with a gift that infuses his memory and his legacy with new vigor and energy. That gift is literally and figuratively For the Love of George, an album of acoustic instrumental covers of classic Harrisongs by acclaimed and accomplished gypsy jazz guitarist Robin Nolan.

Nolan brings his ambidextrous six-string skills to bear on clever reinterpretations of nine Harrison tracks, the Paul McCartney and John Lennon Beatles song “And I Love Her’ – whose inventive guitar riff McCartney credits to Harrison – and a completely new composition based on chords that Harrison wrote on an envelope that was found shortly after his passing in 2001.

The spirit of Harrison permeates the album, not only because most of the songs are his, but also because the album was recorded at his Friar Park estate in England, with Nolan exclusively playing several of Harrison’s guitars. Harrison was also a friend of Nolan’s and became sort of a musical father figure to Nolan in the years before Harrison’s passing.

 

I am remiss that I had been previously unaware of Nolan’s career all these years. He has been performing and recording professionally since the early 1990s, most predominantly in the gypsy jazz guitar style made famous by the late, great icon, Django Reinhardt.

 

But Nolan is far more than just a gypsy jazz guitarist. He is a fantastic and all-around versatile musician, easily and effortlessly adaptable to any style and genre. Just based on this album alone, I now consider him one of my favorite guitarists, up there with greats such as Andy Summers, Allan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny, Eric Johnson, Hiram Bullock, Paul Speer, and Shambhu.

 

Nolan’s adaptations of Harrison’s music are generally faithful and recognizable while brimming with Nolan’s unique and flavorful flourishes. The only jarring tune is Nolan’s take on “My Sweet Lord,” but only because the new version is so different in tempo and style compared to the original. While Harrison’s song is a reverent, heartfelt, and loving pop hymn to The Supreme Being, Nolan’s take is jaunty and upbeat and jazzy and snazzy. In and of itself, Nolan’s version is perfectly fine. It’s just that this apple falls the farthest from its tree.

 

The title track, while mostly original, completely exudes the feel and sound of Harrison. This is obviously partly due to the fact that it’s based on Harrison’s chords, but Nolan completes it totally in the style of Harrison while imbuing it with his own sonic footprint. In the end, both the song and the album become both of theirs, labors of love in which Nolan and Harrison become synonymous. For the Love of George is literally Nolan’s love of George.

 

George Harrison would be proud.

 

--Raj Manoharan

The Complete Recordings 1981-1984, by Andy Summers and Robert Fripp, Due April 11, 2025

In the early to mid 1980s, guitarists Andy Summers of The Police and Robert Fripp of King Crimson collaborated on two albums of progressive and experimental electric guitar music, I Advance Masked (1982) and Bewitched (1984).

Both albums have long been held in high regard by the guitar community, with the first one even cracking the Billboard 200 charts.

Now both albums are being rereleased over 40 years later with bonus tracks as part of The Complete Recordings 1981-1984, which includes a third album of previously unreleased material, entitled Mother Hold the Candle Steady.

The 3CD/1Blu-Ray set is scheduled for release on April 11, 2025, with the first two singles, “Skyline” and "Entropy Pulse," from the “new” album currently available for download and streaming.

https://www.dgmlive.com/news/andy-summers-and-robert-fripp

--Raj Manoharan

 

Smallcreep’s Day (1980), by Mike Rutherford

Smallcreep’s Day, the debut solo album by Mike Rutherford, is perhaps the greatest and most significant work the Genesis and Mike and the Mechanics bassist/guitarist has ever committed to record. It is Rutherford’s premier showcase as a composer, bandleader, and musician.

Unlike his notoriously entertaining second solo album, the appropriately titled Acting Very Strange (1982), Rutherford wisely leaves the vocal duties to another singer, a strategy Rutherford utilized to maximum effect in Mike and the Mechanics. This results in fantastic and compelling vocals, allowing Rutherford to concentrate on orchestrating a musical masterwork.

 

The record is a concept album based on a 1965 novel titled Mr. Smallcreep’s Day, about the trials and travails of a hapless factory worker. I can follow the concept somewhat, but I still haven’t deciphered the full impact of what is being stated here. However, I do get the sense from the grandiosity of the music that something deep and profound is unfolding.

 

The real marvel here is the outstanding musicianship on display. Rutherford has assembled a fantastic band here, with Noel McCalla on vocals, Anthony Phillips on keyboards, Morris Pert on percussion, and Simon Phillips on drums. Of course, the highlight is Rutherford’s work on bass and guitar, the latter of which is the most intense and voluminous Rutherford has ever recorded, especially in comparison to his work with Genesis and Mike and the Mechanics.

 

Along with Andy Summers of The Police, Rutherford was one of the most underrated guitarists of the 1980s, especially because his guitar work was directed at serving the song rather than spotlighting his musical prowess.

 

But any doubt about Rutherford’s abilities is completely erased as this album is literally brimming with his stomping bass, lyrical acoustic and electric guitars, and blazing guitar synthesizer. If he hadn’t already done so, Rutherford reveals himself to be a wide-ranging, diverse, superb, and accomplished guitarist.

 

--Raj Manoharan

Happy Birthday, Andy Summers!

On New Year's Eve, Tuesday, December 31, 2024, Andy Summers – my favorite guitarist and musician of all time – turned 82 years old.

I first became acquainted with the music of Summers in 1983 at the age of 10 in a Catholic elementary school classroom when I heard a hypnotic and futuristic-sounding pop/rock song emanating from the radio of Candy, my substitute teacher. When I asked what the song was and who recorded it, I was promptly informed that it was “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police. I was instantly hooked, so much so that that Christmas, my parents got me a vinyl copy of Synchronicity, The Police’s fifth and final studio album and one of the biggest hits of the year. The Police have since remained my favorite rock band of all time.

Summers was the guitarist for the mega-popular group, who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s and reunited for a 30th anniversary tour in 2007 and 2008. Being a good decade older than his bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers began his professional recording career in the early 1960s, playing for Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band (which later became the psychedelic but short-lived Dantalian’s Chariot), Eric Burdon’s New Animals, and Soft Machine. After formally studying guitar at California State University, Northridge, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Summers returned to England and plied his trade as a session guitarist for Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord before achieving monumental success and international stardom with The Police.

After the dissolution of The Police in the early 1980s, Summers scored some Hollywood films (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Weekend at Bernie’s) and recorded one rock vocal album before establishing himself as an acclaimed and accomplished contemporary instrumental guitarist across a variety of styles, including jazz, fusion, new age, and world music.

I was privileged to interview Summers by telephone in Fall 2000 for the January 2001 issue of DirecTV: The Guide. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Summers posted a notice of the interview in the news section of his Web site. Later, I met Summers in person during his book tour in Fall 2006, just a few months before The Police reunited for a 30th anniversary reunion tour, which I was fortunate to attend twice, first at Giants Stadium in August 2007 and then at PNC Bank Arts Center in August 2008.

I highly recommend the following Andy Summers solo albums: XYZ, Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone Strange, Synaesthesia, Earth + Sky, Harmonics of the Night, and Vertiginous Canyons.

--Raj Manoharan

Adventures in Space (2024), by Paul Speer

After being refined by the fires of Ax Inferno and returning from his Sonoran Odyssey of the American Southwest, guitarist Paul Speer launches into the stratosphere with Adventures in Space, one of his finest solo albums and one of the very best electric guitar recordings out there. And I really mean “out there” in every sense of the expression.

While the album and all the songs have space-based and space-inspired names, the music is actually down to Earth and very accessible. This is not typical “space music” at all – it is pure, unadulterated electric guitar, with the high-tech gloss of the space age.

 

The seven organic compositions contained within are driven by Speer’s blazing guitar, thunderous bass, and scintillating synthesizers and Gregg Bissonette’s pulse-pounding drums. Speer’s former musical collaborator David Lanz contributes graceful piano work on “Spacewalk Europa,” and Ron Krasinski provides kinetic drumming on “Black Hole Dance Party.”

 

The most affecting and impactful tune on the album is the beautifully poignant and solemn “Memories of Earth,” which is also one of Speer’s best compositions. It functions as both a futuristic nostalgic reminiscence of our home planet long after the human race has relocated to a more viable world and a present-day exhortation for us to make sure that our precious Earth doesn’t become a memory anytime soon.

 

The whole album is hypnotic and mesmerizing from beginning to end and a fantastic showcase for Speer’s versatile mastery of the electric guitar and his brilliance as a composer.

 

Adventures in Space is further proof that Paul Speer – one of the few remaining true guitar heroes of the Boomer generation along with Andy Summers, Pat Metheny, and Eric Johnson – is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

 

--Raj Manoharan

 

 

Andy Summers' Top Solo Albums Ranked

In the midst of Andy Summers' successful multimedia tour and the summer streaming release and the fall CD release of his latest album, Vertiginous Canyons, I decided to reassess the Police guitarist's body of solo work and share what I consider are his best and most noteworthy recordings.

My main criteria for these rankings are a primary focus on Summers' guitar playing, the tightness of the compositions, and the consistency of style within each album.

The result is a nice range of artistic output that showcases the depth, breadth, and timelessness of Summers' unique talents and signature sounds over the course of nearly 40 years, from his 40s to his 80s. 

Top Andy Summers Solo Album

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

Top Three Andy Summers Solo Albums

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

Synaesthesia (1995)

Harmonics of the Night (2021)

Top Five Andy Summers Solo Albums

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

The Golden Wire (1989)

Synaesthesia (1995)

Harmonics of the Night (2021)

Vertiginous Canyons (2024)

--Raj Manoharan

CD Version of Andy Summers' Latest Album, Vertiginous Canyons, Due November 1, 2024

Following the June 21, 2024, digital download and streaming release of Andy Summers' latest album, Vertiginous Canyons, the CD version of the recording is scheduled to be available beginning November 1, 2024.

So far it appears that the compact disc will contain the same number of tracks as the digital release, eight tunes at a running time of 23 minutes.

It is expected that the CD will contain the actual photographs from Summers' 2023 book, A Series of Glances, that were the inspiration for the music on Vertiginous Canyons.

--Raj Manoharan

Vertiginous Canyons (2024), by Andy Summers

Released in the midst of his popular multimedia theater tour, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word, Andy Summers’ first album as an octogenarian proves that the 81-year-old Police and guitar icon is still very much in his prime and isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Vertiginous Canyons comprises eight luminous tunes inspired by Summers’ 2023 photography book, A Series of Glances. Although Summers was tapped by the publisher to create soundtracks to accompany select photographs in the volume, each of the tracks creates images of its own in the mind of the listener, an effect that Summers usually manages to conjure with his music.

 

This is Summers’ most pared down and elemental album since his 1988 guitar-and-keyboard masterpiece, Mysterious Barricades. But while that album is tightly structured and composed, this album is free-flowing and improvisational.

 

Although Vertiginous Canyons is Summers’ fourteenth original solo studio album, it is actually his third truly solo album in which he is the sole performer on the record. And it is also his first truly solo guitar album, as the electric guitar is the only instrument on hand here. It's also his first release in which the title of the album is not the exact title of one of the tracks.

 

While an album consisting solely of electric guitar music without any other instruments may sound completely boring, Vertiginous Canyons is anything but. All of the exotic sounds on the album are generated entirely by Summers’ ethereal guitar tones channeled through various devices and signal processors. There may be no bass, drums, and keyboards here, but there are numerous rhythms, layers, and leads, as well as quite a bit of sonic heft.

 

The album is a flawless, seamless, and compact 23-minute listen. That may sound like a short running time, but it makes it all the more possible to enjoy the tight collection much more often. All of the tracks are compelling, intriguing, and unique, although I particularly like “Out of the Shadows,” “Translucent,” and “Into the Blue.” The real surprise for me, though, is “Village.” The way it starts out, you don’t expect it to take you where it does, ultimately making for a wondrous musical journey.

 

Incidentally, in my review of Summers’ previous release, Harmonics of the Night, I mentioned that Summers uses “his guitars to create quiet serenity out of the shadows.” One of the tracks on Vertiginous Canyons is called “Out of the Shadows.” Make of that what you will.

 

Vertiginous Canyons is another exciting and worthy addition to Andy Summers’ eclectic body of work. Like Mysterious Barricades, it is soothing, refreshing, and therapeutic. It is acupuncture for the mind.

 

--Raj Manoharan