Bebopology

“A superb, jazz-inflected piece that’s fast-paced fun”
You can always rely on this composer’s music to be accessible, fun, and heavily based around jazz, Latin, or modern styles, and I am always surprised that so much of his work is still unknown, as he really is a class act. This latest duet is in one movement and has the oft-found direction for straight eighth notes to be played as if a triplet of eighth notes, where the first two are a quarter note. The clue is of course in the title, for what we have here is a bouncy, syncopated, jazz-inflected piece of some difficulty, which gets the toes tapping and the fingers flying around the guitar like they’re possessed. At a speed of 136 to 150 quarter notes a minute, and with most of the music in eighth notes or eighth-note triplets, you can tell that this is quite a handful. The two guitars take turns to play the themes, so no one gets the easy part! At 88 bars, it is only a few minutes in length, but it is a lot of fun and will take two decent guitarists who can swing to give it the finish it deserves. Less experienced players will get a lot of good practice trying to get their fingers working on this superb piece of writing.
- Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)