Album Notes

"...a talented musician who plays with the drive and flair of a Pat Martino or John Abercrombie."
- Cadence

Jazz and blues guitarist Mike DiBari's latest effort, Music of the Spheres, is a collection of originals that make a connection between music and modern day mythology. The myth expert here is the late Joseph Campbell, whose themes of life and love, DiBari uses as an inspirational vehicle for his compositions. "I was moved by the very first time I saw him on PBS," DiBari says of Campbell. George Lucas personally consulted Campbell for the Star Wars saga, which relied heavily on myths and legends in it's epic storyline.

From the disc opener the clear melodic lines coaxed from DiBari’s Gibson L-5 archtop guitar gracefully convey the themes represented in each tune. Mike's hard swinging style draws heavily from bluesy bebop guitar pioneers Kenny Burrell and Grant Green, as well as tenor sax gurus like Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. "I find that I'm influenced by both sax players and guitarists, especially the ones who strive for a beautifully conceived line in their playing."

In Follow Your Bliss, DiBari and his rhythm section of Greg Loughman on bass and Mike Connors on drums, are following their roots in the bop tradition. The blissful bebop swing turns into an odd time signature vamp as the story of the tragic hero unfolds - "When I read [Campbell's] Hero with a Thousand Faces, this melody popped into my head. It wasn’t until after I wrote it down that I realized it was in 7/4." The ballad, Moon and Turtle, features a stand out bass solo from Greg, momentarily stepping away from his strong supportive role. Notion of Love, a tune about the sacrifice of marriage, displays Mike's formidable chops and intricate melodic styling while the drum solo shifts the spotlight on Connors’ creative brushwork.

The title track, another favorite theme of Campbell's, was named after the theory of the ancients that the universe was itself playing its own song. "Music was considered inseparable from science and nature back then, so when I wrote Music of the Spheres I tried to reflect that idea." The disc closes with the Lester Young classic I Never Knew followed by DiBari's own "down home" blues Into the Blue showing that the blues is never too far away from this guitarist's hand.