Sympatico is an honest and at times aggressive example of duet guitar playing, with Coe and Leitch striving to make each other sound their best. It has been called an "artistic success" and "personal triumph" for Coe. Impeccably recorded.

11 MP3 Songs in this album (63:18) !
Related styles: Jazz: Hard Bop, Blues: Jazzy Blues, Featuring Guitar

People who are interested in Joe Pass should consider this download.


Details:
Chad Coe with Peter Leitch : Sympatico

The jazz guitar duo provides a nexus of endless fascination for six-string aficionados like myself. From its earliest incarnations â Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang dueting on âHandful of Riffsâ and âBlue Guitarsâ in 1928-1929 â to Dick McDonough/Carl Kress in the â30s, George Barnes/Carl Kress in the early â60s (1964âs Guitars Anyone?), Joe Pass/Herb Ellis in the â70s (their great Two for the Road encounter in 1974 for Pablo), right up to Jim Hall/Bill Frisell in more recent times (2008âs Hemispheres), the sound of two guitarists interacting, negotiating roles, sharing textures and exchanging improvisations while in the pursuit of swinging (sans rhythm section) is always a highly rewarding and sometimes confounding experience for me. How do they establish that perfect chemistry that allows them to walk the highwire without a net on every tune and safely find their way back to earth when itâs all over? It takes a total of twelve strings, four hands, two brains and just a bit of telepathy between them, along with a lot of guile and a daring spirit of risk-taking. Chad Coe and Peter Leitch have all of the above in abundance on this stellar duet project.
From the opening strains of Jackie McLeanâs âMelonae,â full of dissonant harmonies in the slow, deliberate, mysterious head and fueled by swinging momentum in the solo sections, it is clear that newcomer Coe and veteran hard bop and straight ahead guitarist Leitch have a very special chemistry together indeed. It was forged over time in countless Saturday night meetings between the two guitarists at Leitchâs home. Coe, the Mississippi-born guitarist and ardent Joe Passophile (he claims to have spent his 20s transcribing all of Passâ work), had initially sought out Leitch for lessons in 2001. The student-mentor relationship gradually developed into a solid friendship based on their mutual love of guitar and photography. âWeâve gone off shooting together, both here and in Mississippi, and heâs been in my dark room,â says Leitch, who has had a few exhibits around the country. âPhotography is definitely something that Chad and I have a common interest in. In fact, we have the same kind of camera.â
In 2005, Coe suffered a serious wrist injury that went undiagnosed until 2008. In those intervening years, he experienced chronic pain that curtailed his playing and threatened to end his career just as it was beginning. âI was in the worst pain I ever felt for three years,â he say, âand Peter saw me go through the whole thing. I was 34 years old and I just finished paying off my student loan from the Manhattan School of Music. And right when I felt like I was playing my best I tore something in my wrist lifting weights. The wrist atrophied and I really thought I would never play again. And I got seriously dark on it, but Peter was the one who helped me come back, in terms of encouraging me. Heâd call me up and say, âBring your guitar over.â And I was down for it. But I could only play for a little while and it would suck, then Iâd go home and Iâd feel bad. But Peter kept calling me to come over, and finally we got some stuff going.â
Coe had gone through two surgeries to try and regain some strength in his wrist. And gradually, his chops started coming back to the point where he wanted to document the progress he was making in his weekly jams with Leitch. âHeâd get pretty discouraged because of this wrist problem,â Leitch recalls. âBut Iâd just encourage him to keep on playing.â Which finally led to this project. Recorded at Avatar Studios with Jim Anderson presiding over the pristine production (he has an especially keen sensibility when it comes to capturing the natural woody quality and resonant tones of guitar), Sympatico is an apt title for this six-string summit.
With Coe on the right (playing a vintage 1956 DâAngelico jazz box) and Leitch on the left (playing his trusty Hofner Atilla Zoller model axe that heâs had since the â90s), the two breeze through the intricate twists and turns of Bud Powellâs âParisian Thoroughfareâ with relative ease, reharmonizing parts and improvising with impunity over Leitchâs fresh new arrangement. âWhen we first talked about doing this project, we decided we didnât want it to sound like a jam session,â says Leitch, âbecause thereâs so much of that out there. Often, guys just sit down and play âAll The things You Are.â And thatâs cool, but we wanted to make it a little more interesting by programming something a little different.â Leitch also contributes an inventive arrangement for Thelonious Monkâs âLight Blue,â which has the two guitarists engaging in tight unison on the tricky head but in slightly off intonation for a jangling âbig soundingâ effect. As Leitch explains, âThose instruments â any guitars â are never really dead in tune as compared to, say, a well-tuned piano. So you get some overtones clashing, which gives you the bigger sound when theyâre playing together. And I love that effect.â
Their faithful renditions of Bronislau Kaperâs âInvitationâ and the buoyant âThe Night Has 1,000 Eyesâ both possess requisite elements of swing and syncopation. Leitch also contributes two originals in his authentic sounding âTango Noirâ (originally written for an experimental film by Pamela Timmins) and his meditative and moody âShadows.â Coe adds three stirring unaccompanied pieces to the collection â a gorgeous interpretation of Monkâs melancholy ââRound Midnightâ along with a rendition of Jimmy Raneyâs âSignalâ and his own ode to mentor Leitch, âPeter the Great.â And they close with a rousing, earthy âWest 53rd Street Bluesâ that is played strictly off-the-cuff and has the duo channeling their inner Herb Ellis and Joe Pass.
Not only is Sympatico an artistic success, it also represents Coeâs personal triumph over the injury that threatened to put an end to his promising career. But as Leitch says of his partnerâs playing, âItâs getting better all the time.â Hereâs hoping for more in the future from this fresh new voice on the jazz guitar scene. â Bill Milkowski

Bill Milkowski is a contributor to Jazz Times, Jazziz and Guitar Player magazines. He is also the author of âJACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastoriusâ (Backbeat Books)