Jazzy

“Jazzy” is a little more rhythmically challenging than other works in the same set, and for this reason I think it will work better as a quartet than a large ensemble, so each line merely has to keep in step bar by bar with the other lines, instead of note by note with other players playing the same line. It’s in four sharps in 4/4 time, and after two guitars welcome you in, the piece proper is up and running. Chapalain dusts off his tried-and-true formula for each guitar, as stated above about “Rumba”. This, as you might guess, is not Dixieland jazz, and neither is it that progressive free-for-all cacophony. If you think late-night easy-listening jazz-slow, dreamy, and with little bits of phrase popping up here and there-you’ll be close enough. Technically, this is somewhere between Grade 2 for the bass and Grade 4 for the top part, but knowing where the notes are isn’t the same as knowing when to play them, and you’re going to need good rhythm reading skills, or at least the ability to hear a rhythm and fix it in your head. But if that’s achieved, this is rather classy, and just far enough off the beaten track to make a great concert item. - Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)