Live at the Jazz StandardMaterial Records *****

As a teacher, Mick Goodrick has influenced other guitar notables such as Bill Frisell, John Scofieldand his duo partner here, Wolfgang Muthspiel. But this often sublime album is no master- and-pupil affair. Goodrick's highest profile as a player was probably with Gary Burton in the 1970s. Since then he has taught at Boston's New England Conservatory and Berklee. Muthspiel, meanwhile, is among the foremost and most adventurous players in Europe. And though they're distinct musical personalities, their uncanny rapport recalls the intimacy, grace and harmonic sophistication of the guitar and piano duets of Jim Hall and Bill Evans. In seamless duetting of a very high order at times, they work wonders of subtlety and lyricism with such as Frisell's Throughout, Weill's Liebeslied, Steve Swallow's Falling Graceand a wonderfully oblique Stella By Starlight.The recording quality is superb.

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