Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 68:41
Size: 157.2 MB
Styles: Gypsy jazz guitar
Year: 2013
Art: Front
[3:25] 1. Them There Eyes
[3:30] 2. Coquette
[7:11] 3. I'm In The Mood For Love
[3:06] 4. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
[6:10] 5. Nature Boy
[2:11] 6. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
[3:03] 7. Blues For Ike
[5:24] 8. Embraceable You
[4:38] 9. Donna Lee
[2:05] 10. Valse De Wass
[5:42] 11. Troublant Bolero
[1:59] 12. Limehouse Blues
[1:11] 13. Mystery Pacific
[3:39] 14. Love's Melody
[3:36] 15. Groovin' High
[1:43] 16. Micro
[4:29] 17. September Song
[5:31] 18. The Sheik Of Araby
Eleven years ago three of the greatest acoustic guitar players in the world at that time met in Paris, and recorded one of the most bizarre monster guitar albums ever: Jimmy Rosenberg's "The One And Only", on guitars: Jimmy Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene and Angelo Debarre! On acoustic guitars!
All three players are European gypsies, and all three started off as professional guitar players at a very young age (10-13), and all three of them were initially inspired by the incredible Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) - the grandfather of all contemporary guitar players. However, they had all developed in different directions: Bireli had toured with a. o. Jaco Pastorious, Angelo Dabarre had done research in traditional gypsy music (extremely virtuoso), but the 17 year old Jimmy Rosenberg took most of his music from his own, seemingly limitless imagination. All three of them were monster players, and highly competitive...
When we met in the studio (I had been there ten years earlier, together with Chet Baker), it was magic from the very first moment: we only had two short days booked, and both Bireli and Angelo were gigging in different jazz clubs in Paris at night, so we had to be extremely efficient! That's not unusual in a jazz recording session, but what these three guys came up with during our recording sessions is no less than fantastic!
They had no time for going into new compositions, so they started jamming on jazz standards - trading choruses with each other, trying to top whatever had been done on acoustic guitars before, and competed in speed, hot licks, imagination and beauty. I have never before, or after, heard anything like what they did those days, and I have spent 25 years together with these guys - they are always good, but that was great!
Most of the tracks on the CD are first takes! Some are second takes, but never more than that. Their plectrum and right hand techniques are a chapter of it's own - they use heavy plectrums, 0'11 strings, and the right hand do not touch the guitar at all while playing - it's perfection par excellence. Both Bireli Lagrene, Angelo Debarre and Jimmy Rosenberg have a very beautiful "tone" in the accoustic guitar, and it's all in the technique, not in the instrument. I have heard Jimmy Rosenberg play on a toy guitar, it sounded much better than most other guitar players on fabulous instruments.
So - in short - you do not know what acoustic guitar can be, if you have not heard these three guys together: Bireli Lagrene and Angelo Debarre together with the possibly greatest acoustic guitar player since Django: Jimmy Rosenberg on his CD "The One And Only" (HCRCD 117).
In the years that has followed, many players have tried to copy the playing on this album, and it has become a reference CD in the genre, but it was during those two days in Paris it was done first.
There is a tragedy hidden in this story: the incredible Jimmy Rosenberg toured the world, and recorded nine amazing CDs, before his drug addiction took over. In 2004, at the age of 24, he finally collapsed on stage during a concert with Hot Club de Norvège (yours truly on guitar), and he has never recovered. Today he is in a closed mental institution, and we should all keep our fingers crossed that Jimmy Rosenberg - one of the greatest guitar players ever - one day will be back.
Yours truly,
Jon Larsen
The One and Only
