Luca Benedetti: We’ll Get There
If you’ve heard the experimental jamband ulu, the more countryoriented Honeyfingers (especially their album Last Night, This Morning with guitarist Jim Campilongo) or Ta Da… , his debut back in 2010, then you’ve already heard the versatile, thrill-seeking guitar work of Luca Benedetti. He’s back now with a new release—this one, for argument’s sake, falls more squarely into the jazz-blues category but, in reality, it dodges easy categorization. We’ll Get There features bassist Tony Scherr, known for his collaborations with guitar great Bill Frisell and Norah Jones, and Tony Mason, a creative, powerhouse drummer who has worked with John Scofield, Charlie Hunter and others. Each of its 10 tracks, save one—the Benny Goodman standard “Stompin’ at the Savoy”—was composed by Benedetti, who delights in burrowing deep inside of a melody until he’s explored every nook and cranny and then seeing just how willing his guitar is to churn out oftensurprising, soul-pleasing sounds within that framework. The title track lopes along at a leisurely pace, but there’s plenty going on there, with Benedetti wringing a surfy tone out of his machine while the bass and drums make the spaces count as much as the rhythm. “Mr. Wonton” gives Mason an opportunity to get as funky as he wants, and the opening track, “Gowanus,” is a rhythmically tricky cooker that scurries at a way quicker pace than the traffic on the same-named Brooklyn expressway ever will. The title We’ll Get There might imply that one’s arrival time isn’t even close, but the music created by this super-tight trio never takes very long to get to a place that feels just right.