The Steve Howe Trio — The Haunted Melody
Five of the eleven tracks featured here are new compositions by Howe which marry nicely laid- back, groovy & cool air with musically prowess and immaculate playing. With of course Howe been on top form showing himself as the great versatile and emotional guitar player he is, but with equally great purfomancers from Ross Stanley on Hammond and Dylan Howe on drums. We have two great groovy covers of two old Yes tracks first there’s Siberian Katru then there’s Close To The Edge which amazingly works rather well in it’s new grooved mode, though we only get a 5 minute rendition of the original epic- but that’s just about right. There’s also a few covers; two tracks by of legendary bebop and blues guitarist Kenny Burrell’s, one track of by respected jazz Hammond player Jimmy Smith and one from muilt- instrumentalist jazz musician Roland Kirk. With each and every track here been harmonically rich, laid back, at times complex but never flashy and mostly very groovy and foot tapping stuff mixing together jazz, easy listening and The blues.
A real pleasure of an album that literarily flies by managing through-out to balance perfectly groove, virtoso playing and a keen melodic and emotional sense. That will appeal to not just to those who enjoy jazz, but also those wanting to find mellow, melodic and beautiful played music- what every the genre- It's pure audio gold really