Search - Marc Ducret :: Detail

You frequently find Marc Ducret's guitar in a tangle of rhythmic and melodic development as one of Tim Berne's collaborators. But you rarely get Ducret so nakedly and in so explorative a mellow mood. As a title, Detail accurately addresses what you get in this session, which is a whole lot of guitarist's details, fine points of improvisation that might sound like noodling at first pass but then coalesces obviously into a well-considered, sharply delivered set of tunes. They sound a bit like etudes, little studies for guitar that might go longer than most etudes but still retain enough of the close-listening and fundamental properties of the pedagogic tradition. If these were etudes, they would be quite clearly from a tradition wholly separate from modern jazz or classical guitar. They're squirrelly and strange and pleasant. If it's flash or abrasion or anything discernibly straightforward you're expecting, you'll be disappointed. This one heads in directions that avant-gardists and more mainstream listeners will both find strange but enticing. --Andrew Bartlett