Too Much Guitar shows two prolific guitarists at their best. Recorded live at The Cellar,
Bill Coon and Oliver Gannon, both veterans of the Canadian jazz scene, are an imaginative duo who make their instruments sing in amazing new ways. Theirs is a conversation across the ages steeped in both the modernistic sounds of
John Scofield and
Bill Frisell as well as the traditional jazz sounds of
Jim Hall and
Wes Montgomery. Accompanied by "Darren Radtke" on bass and
Dave Robbins on drums, the ensemble plays such rarely heard standards as "Chi Chi" by
Charlie Parker, "Have You Met Miss Jones," and "Darn That Dream." Sharply tuned and harmonically pleasing,
Too Much Guitar taps deep into the improvisational potential of the music without losing sight of its original structure. The richness of Gannon's writing on "So Nice" and
Coon's on "Zattitude" is especially notable, though elsewhere on this superb recording, their string virtuosity is more diverse.