Tony Savarino has several new tricks up his sleeve these days. His new Savvy Tonarino album is loaded with many fine moments of his exceptional guitar work, things he didn’t do the last time around in the studio. While his technique has always been top notch, he pushes himself here to do more with tones, song structures, and intriguing reinventions of other, timeless masterpieces.
With hints of surf and spy theme elements, opening track “Man Of Mystery” sets a breezy oldies vibe to this CD. Savarino’s fine touches, brittle guitar lines, snappy chords, and runs up and down his fretboard cleverly conjure the mood of this piece. Sonny Barbado’s accordion line is another wise choice, layering more of the song’s feeling on top of the guitar.
The slinky “Mustang Savvy” is a hipster’s theme. One can picture a cool dude walking into a scene, a certain kind of walk, charisma, and attitude as this amalgamation of late 1960s organ jive, bouncy groove, and Savarino’s ripple of urban flavored guitar notes travel around like a big boss in charge of a big operation. Savarino’s tones and the way he slips them into the sonic landscape with easeful motions gives this piece a charge.
“Brawl” throws its weight around. Savarino means business, playing grind tones that give this stomping piece its attitude. The guitar here swaggers along before erupting into an explosion of chords, Savarino slapping them out with heavy handed aplomb. Andrew Hickman’s jazz flute, in its light, shiny appearance, is a perfect foil to the bossy, loud musicianship of everything else going on.
Down tempo, “I Only Have Eyes For You,” is a slow dance dandy. Savarino leads his band like a dance partner with a slight tug from his slow ripple of notes, chords easefully picked, creating more with tone and mood. There is an occasional guitar chord from a different six string that makes a startling appearance with a more dynamic, brighter tone, and it works magic here.
Savarino and his support players go into Henry Mancini’s “Baby Elephant Walk,” a guitar driven arrangement that ripples and spikes with 1960s rock and roll flourishes. Savarino’s peppy lead guitar line abounds with 1950’s tone. A distinctly 1960s organ line played by the ubiquitous Tom West bubbles with swaying, swinging fun, making one picture a shindig filled with dancing paisley attired youth with striped pants and even a go go dancer in a cage suspended from the ceiling.
A beautiful country twang runs through the touching, mournful “I’m A Lonesome Fugitive.” Here, guest Michael Bean applies his skills to making that sweet melodic pedal steel backbone. Savarino, magnanimous in letting Bean steal his show, applies himself to playing a gritty melodic lead guitar, guiding the band through this pleasant daydream of a bittersweet lifestyle.
Savarino’s solo acoustic version of The Beatles’ “If I Fell In Love With You” recreates a pretty song in its own pretty way. Savarino’s sensitive rendering of the melody with this pared down version shows the melodic strength and beauty of the original by pulling the line out and putting it front and center.
One of Savarino’s strongest efforts here is “Rebels Don’t Surf,” an arrangement of a Stars Wars theme rendered with surf style guitar. Savarino captures the marching feel of the film score with the pushy lead guitar style of surf. His assertive chord work then replicates the more dynamic portion of the original score. Andrew Hickman’s soprano saxophone captures the funky vibe of the first movie’s cantina scene with a line that whistles through an edgy landscape. This piece will surely go over well with any kind of music or Star Wars fan for its fun interpretation of John Williams’ score.
A light, jazzy mellow mood makes “You More Than Me” a piece influenced more by Chuck Mangione than any of the great guitarists. Tom West’s sprawling organ line carries a lofty vibe as Savarino injects his signature light touches of shiny guitar notes, keeping things understated so the sax and organ can fill this one out from its nice creamy center.
“The Pink Room” features Andrew Hickman’s squealing tenor, Tom West’s shimmering organ groove, Sean McLaughlin’s low key low end smoothness, and Mike Levesque’s sturdy drum fills wrapped tight in a cocoon of Savarino’s large, wide guitar chords and the hefty tones they give off. This is a mood piece, and the contrast between Savarino’s guitar work and the filling inside this tune create a large impression.
Savarino offers, “On Then They Were Gone,” a thick, low end guitar line, one that bounces tones around athletically before cascading into a slight lightening of the initial heaviness. Savarino’s carefully laid out line of ringing tones run beautifully alongside Michael Bean’s drawling, perfectly understated pedal steel.
Close out track “Om Mani Padme Hum” is a beautiful, meaningful sound sketch Savarino composed about his departed mother. Its drifting sounds represent a long life, and an amazing sprawl of music expresses all that that one life meant to this guitarist and composer. A running guitar phase expresses power. Other, more subtle instrumentation, reflect on sentimental tones, emotions. Most of us can only wish to be able to express this much feeling in a composition.
Savarino has done it again. With this Savvy Tonarino disc, the Boston guitarist, composer has amassed a wealth of fine melodic lines and the grist to support them. He expresses tons of emotions throughout this work. His tones color each song with something special, and he has some of the best support players in Boston to help him. Co-produced by Sean McLaughlin and Barry Marshall, mostly at 37 Foot Productions, Savarino gives his work a clean recording that lets his color and tones breathe freely through out.
