Stanley Jordan-Friends (Mack Avenue 2011)

There is no guitarist quite like Stanley Jordan, a star from the moment Blue Note Records launched its second life in 1985 with his own commercial debut, The Magic Touch. In response, a respected reviewer stated that the lanky 26-year-old fresh from several years spent refining his craft as a Manhattan street busker had extended the limits of the guitar, adding that few players in the history of music of music have brought an instrument to a more radical crossroad.
He reached the public for reasons pertaining both to his astonishing chops (his sui generis touch technique, a pianistic approach that enabled him to play melody, chords and basslines simultaneously), exemplary musicianship, and consistent devotion to melodic and creative imperatives. But at a certain point in the early 90s, Jordan retreated from his career, and although he soon returned to public performance he operated without a label until 2008, when he released State of Nature on the rising-star Detroit-based indie Mack Avenue.
Whether playing in public or in the studio, it has been Jordan s intention to make his own inventions the primary focus of the occasion. But on his forthcoming release,Friends [Mack Avenue] (said friends include guitar heros Mike Stern, Bucky Pizzarelli, Charlie Hunter, and Rusell Malone; saxophonists Kenny Garrett and Ronnie Laws; and violinist Regina Carter), Jordan is a consummate team player, prodding and igniting the flow on an 11-piece program that runs a 360-degree gamut of stylistic food groups.
At 52, Jordan has something consequential to SAY in each genre, as though he s thought deeply about each mode of expression over many years. Highlights include a four-to-the-floor, George Benson on steroids cover of Katy Perry s I Kissed A Girl (without overdubbing, Jordan plays the melody on piano while chording for himself on the guitar), an idiomatic investigation of Bela Bartok, a lively samba for Laws, and various ebullient, spectacularly executed interactions with each member of his guitar cohort.

By Ted Panken, Columnist
September 8, 2011 2:00 PM --themortonreport.com ted panken

A release that its creator Stanley Jordan cites as his most realized project to date finds him in challenging company: fellow strummers Charlie Hunter, Russell Malone, Bucky Pizzarelli and Mike Stern; saxmen (and label mate) Kenny Garrett and Ronnie Laws; N'awlins trumpeter Nicholas Payton and the renowned violinist Regina Carter. Another label mate, Christian McBride, guests on bass when not handled by Stanley's long-time trio bassist Charnett Moffett. Kenwood Dennard of his trio holds down the drum chair. Truly, a collection of Friends whose benefit push Stanley into a heightened musical reality.
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