Skilful British guitarist Nigel Price has given his fans more of the straightahead guitar-Hammond-drums mix that made 2014’s Hit the Road a pleasure, but broadens the soundscape here by adding an excellent pair of bebop saxophonists (Alex Garnett and Vasilis Xenopoulos), playing separately and together on this double-CD’s first disc, with the guitarist playing unaccompanied or in overdubbed duets on the second. (93) The shapeliness of Price’s improvising is apparent from the first bars of Blue Genes, the tersely swinging, Pat Martino-like opener. On the mid-tempo swinger Wet And Dry he shows how well he transforms expected resolutions with unusual voicings, and his dialogue with Garnett’s tenor sax on the ballad War shows how effectively his musicality rises above the method’s well-travelled paths. The solo tracks, including jazz-vehicle classics like Cherokee and Have You Met Miss Jones? are a treat for swing-guitar buffs, but it’s the group music – with Hammond organist Ross Stanley a treat as always – that packs the set’s real punch.
