Album Notes

About the CD, "String Spirits".......

In 1964, I was 11 years old and wearing out the LP, "Meet the Beatles". I was also wearing out my parents begging insistently for a guitar. They finally gave in and agreed to buy me a guitar on the condition that I continue my trumpet studies. My Dad took me down to the local music store and a cheap Japanese solid body was purchased for around $79!

This initiated a lifetime journey of ongoing discovery with exciting guitar heros accompanying each new awakening on the instrument. As my journey continued, the lines between artists as diverse as Son House and Joe Pass eventually became very blurred and I was moved equally by the spirit behind all their music. Blind Blake's swinging blues rags continue to move me as much as Wes Montgomery's beautiful improvisations. Robert Johnson's piercing slide guitar runs are as deep to me as Tal Farlow's blistering bebop lines......to me, there is no difference....it is all the truth.

This work, "String Spirits", is my offering to those wonderful and varied artists who came before us and whose spirits contine to live on through their music. It is dedicated to the loving memory of master guitar teacher, Dick Longale, a true "string spirit".

"String Spirits" is a guitar albumn that fuses elements of jazz guitar, delta blues and ragtime in a series of solo and duo performances on a variety of instruments including the six and seven string archtop guitars (made by luthier Dale Unger), metal and wooden body vintage national resonator guitars, Martin and Santa Cruz dreadnaught and OM model flat top guitars. Through out the work, the main pieces are augmented by "spirit track" segments that tie the various styles artistically together. It is a plethora of guitar sounds!

Ed Acquesta is a jazz guitarist who lives in the Altanta area. He teaches guitar and workshops at Dreamcatcher Guitars in Roswell, Georgia.