CD: Berlin Baritone

Legendary guitarist and composer Kurt Rosenwinkel returns with Berlin Baritone, a series of eight completely improvised pieces on baritone guitar, an instrument Rosenwinkel has never recorded an album with. It also includes an improvisation on "Under it All," a song that has appeared in several versions throughout Rosenwinkel's career.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and Heartcore Records founder Kurt Rosenwinkel is considered one of the most influential guitarists and composers of the last 30 years. On his latest release Berlin Baritone, he explores the new sonic possibilities of the baritone guitar through solo improvisations.

"When I was at NAMM in 2019, I was at the Collings booth playing their prototype baritone," Rosenwinkel says. "I got caught up in the sound and lost myself. When I looked up minutes later, there was a crowd around me-there was something magical about that guitar, and I felt happy playing it. I kept thinking about it and wanted to capture that feeling in an album."

Berlin Baritone is a uniquely intimate release, even in Rosenwinkel's prolific discography, as listeners hear Rosenwinkel explore the sound world of his new instrument with awe and curiosity. In this pared-down and intimate recording, one can hear how deep and intuitive Rosenwinkel's playing is. His tight harmonic inventiveness is still intact, as is the delicacy of his touch, and his improvisational instincts are so pronounced that it's hard to distinguish them from composed pieces. For many of us, hearing Rosenwinkel play in his home, unguarded and reveling in the joy of guitar playing, is as close as we can get.

The album opens with "Peace Please," a short and plaintive improvisation that shows Rosenwinkel at his most delicate and minimalist. Then there's "Mellow D," a stunning meditation on counterpoint that has as much of Bach as it does George Van Eps. But of course, as much as Rosenwinkel has studied the music of others, he's most like himself at this point in his career, and his own sensibility shines through in the dense, otherworldly harmonies of "Zarathustra" and the pianistic chord clusters of "Life of a Flower."

"When the instrument offers such a deep world of sound and beauty, it's easy for me to get lost in the music. I find the deeper range of the baritone more satisfying on its own than a regular guitar. It is a little more difficult to play compared to a regular guitar. But that just leads to other musical things.... I think the one that really inspires me on this instrument is definitely George Van Eps. He played a seven-string guitar with that deep bass sound."