[.ca] Equilibre: Groovemasters, Vol. 6

one guitar one bass one GREAT recording!!:
This CD is pure magic....Manring is a world famous bass player and this fellow David Cullen on nylon string guitar sounds like Ralph Towner on steroids! The songs are catchy and still very inventive and intelligent. The interplay between these two is remarkable and yet according to the liner notes this was recorded as an afterthought to a jazz festival they both played at.....amazing. This is one of those rare recordings that actually improves with age and more playing...highly recommended.

These guys are monsters!:
Not since Hedges and Manring teamed up has there been as symbiotic a combination of acoustic and bass. Manring does for Cullen's tunes what any 5 armed/ 20 fingered player can do. From the first tune, these guys enter a pocket from which they never emerge (thankfully). Perfectly matched, this is one of the rare occasions upon which, following the third tune, I wasn't wishing for percussion or keys to break the monotony. Kudos to Manring. The highlight of this record is Cullen's mastery of Manring's "Gizmo," a tune you can only hear here since "Drastic Measures" is now out of print. Complex beyond belief, the tune was incredible on bass and is stupefying with guitar/bass-matched lines. These two masters truly show the level of their artistry on that piece. Participants in the amazingly successful "Groovemasters" series, these players deserve the company in which they have been placed. This is an album of tasteful, melodic playing by virtuosos in their respective fields.

Exceeded my expectations - by a long way!:
Having seen Michael Manring with another Michael, I was amazed at the symbiosis between them and I didn't think I'd witness this again. Well, David Cullen is no Michael Hedges, but who is? David Cullen's bare-bones, straight-ahead, crystalline style meshes perfectly with Manring's sensational sense of music. To keep it short and because I'm running out of idioms and cliches: this is really fine stuff, great compositions, performed with taste and perfection, and I really like the collaboration and I really enjoyed this music. Goosebump sort of stuff, know what I mean?

• Shuffle In
• Snappin on Ten
• Equilibré
• Turbograss
• Wistful Thinking
• Gizmo
• Buenos Dias
• Forgotten Wish
• Homestyle
• Canto
• Tie-Dyed and Wide-Eyed
• Better Place