John Scofield and John Abercrombie - Solar (1983)

Tracklist

01 - Solar
02 - Even Steven
03 - Four On Six
04 - Sing Song
05 - Small Wonder
06 - I Should Care
07 - If You Could See Me Now

personnel :

John Scofield - guitar
John Abercrombie - guitar, mandolin, electric mandolin
Peter Donald - drums
George Mraz - bass

SOLAR, a 1982 collaboration with fellow guitarist John Scofield, is an unusual album for John Abercrombie. For one thing, he plays mandolin rather than guitar on several tracks. Secondly, SOLAR is one of Abercrombie's rare albums with a rhythm section (drummer Peter Donald and bassist George Mraz). Most unusually, there are no original compositions. Instead, SOLAR, as its subtitle indicates, is an album of bebop standards performed by Abercrombie and Scofield. If the idea of a bebop album with no piano or horns--the instruments most identified with the form--seems unusual, that's probably exactly what Abercrombie and Scofield were shooting for. Hearing familiar bebop standards like "Even Steven" and "Four On Six" in new, often radically different arrangements, leads listeners familiar with the songs to appreciate them in entirely new ways.