Let\u2019s get right to it, shall we? Chris Duarte is a hell of a guitar player.<\/p>\n
Emerging in the \u201990s as an avowed fan of fellow Texas \u201chard blues\u201d aficionado Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duarte picked up where SRV left off, attacking the blues with similarly fervent commitment and Hendrix-influenced passion. It\u2019s all there\u2014the muscular, aggressive rhythm\/lead guitar playing, the gritty barroom vocals, the rock-solid rhythm section creating the foundation for his flights of electric fancy.<\/p>\n
With ten generally well-received studio albums and hundreds of thousands of touring miles under his belt, Duarte finally released his first live disc in 2013, capturing a set from his 2012 tour of Japan with a trio of Duarte, bass player Yoshi Ogasahara and drummer Jack Jones. The set list is a a heady mix of Duarte\u2019s own tunes and covers of the likes of Leon Russell, Bob Dylan, the Neville Brothers and John Coltrane (though, interestingly, no Vaughan or Hendrix).<\/p>\n
Opening with a cover of the classic Freddie King blues instrumental \u201cHideaway,\u201d Duarte and crew move quickly into a blistering cover of Russell\u2019s \u201cBig Legged Woman\u201d that sets a heavy pace. Other disc one highlights include: the pleasantly thumping original \u201cMake Me Feel So Right,\u201d the especially intense solos on \u201cBottle Blues\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Have A Party,\u201d the spacey intro to \u201cOne More Cup Of Coffee,\u201d and the heavy, super-dynamic instrumental first-set-closer \u201c101.\u201d <\/p>\n
Disc two is lit up by the playful, aggressive riffing of \u201cThe Best That I Can Do,\u201d the elegant solo opening to \u201cPeople Say,\u201d the deep blues funk of \u201cCleopatra,\u201d and the blazing solo at the heart of \u201cLike Eric.\u201d The jams are more extended in this set and some overstay their welcome; for example, \u201cPeople Say\u201d starts well but devolves. Closing out the night, Duarte\u2019s take on Coltrane\u2019s \u201cAlabama\u201d runs right off the rails into echo-drenched pure noise. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Duarte offers most everything you want from a hard-blue guitar-slinger type: the unhurried sledgehammer backbeat, the wild Hendrix-gets-the-blues soloing, the intense interplay within the band and the furious intention up front. If there\u2019s a soft spot here, it\u2019s the vocals; Duarte\u2019s lack the self-assured swagger of Vaughan\u2019s and are a little rawer. That said, Duarte is a righteous guitar player whose solos overflow with soul and passion, and whose work is helping to keep the hard blues tradition alive and vibrant in the new century. Stevie Ray would be proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9346],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43558","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chris-duarte-group","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43558"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}