cohesive interplay
author: Cadence Magazine - 10/06
Tenor saxophone and guitar: the blend comes with built-in spaces and a wide tonal range that
centers on melody. The duo of Tom Tallitsch and Dave Manley ensures that each interpretation contains
warmth, reflective asides, and a gentle attack. The guitarist’s fingerstyle articulation and the saxophonist’s
legato utterings create a session that caresses the music. Tallitsch’s four originals find
the two artists moving slowly but deliberately through themes of mellow respite and relaxed conversation.
“Coming Around,” while driving much faster than the others, takes the duo through a
smooth encounter that bubbles with leisurely satisfaction. Both tenor and guitar rollick in the sunshine
of the song’s warmth, but their interpretation turns deceptively cool. Their session remains
serene and unruffled throughout. The slow Blues of “Lulu’s Back in Town”
proves lightweight and mellow, as both artists improvise in turn over its memorable theme.
Tallitsch carries a broad, warm tone, while Manley articulates this one with the sliding action of an
expressive Blues guitar. Steve Swallow’s “Falling Grace” lets the pair drive with an animated character
that gives the album its best look at their cohesive interplay and how well they work together.
Step for step, the tenor saxophonist and guitarist weave a web that allies itself with lovely Brazilian
undercurrents that thrill. Wayne Shorter’s “InfantEyes” returns to the album’s slow, somber theme,
while Stevie Wonder’s “Visions” dances lightly with graceful charm. Tallitsch and Manley have
created a gentle Jazz program that offers warm greetings for lovers of overlapping tonal colors and reflective moods.
Jim Santella October 2006 (©Cadence Magazine 2006)
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great cd - the guitar/sax duo sounds awesome!
author: Rick Gibbs
I was looking specifically for a high quality guitar/sax jazz duo and I'm not disappointed. Great tenor sax sound complemented beautifully by tasteful acoustic guitar - quite unique! Any jazz lover will enjoy it.
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More Please.
author: Fly Magazine - Global Music Culture
An album of sax and guitar with nothing else to disturb it immediately sets alarm bells ringing. Sustaining interest with 2 instruments for a whole album is a fairly heavy ask of anyone, but Tom Tallisch and Dave Manley pull it off in fantastic style.
From the out Dave Manley’s uncomplicated and warm acoustic guitar style sets the flow of the tracks, superbly varied and engaging in ‘Big Sky’ and becomes the perfect accompaniment for Tallitsch’s restrained sax style. This sets the tone for the whole of Duality, which never drops below entirely engaging.
The duality referred to in the title is a simple one — the duet of Philadelphia based musicians Tallitsch and Manley, a duality of sax and guitar, and really that’s all it needs — Duality keeps it simple, there are no tricks, this is sold as seen jazz straight from the Philly clubs Tallisch has made his mark on over the last ten years.
The album is mostly original pieces, with a Wayne Shorter jazz standard ‘Infant Eyes’ thrown in, along with, more unexpectedly but no less appropriately, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Visions’.
The whole album is a smooth blend of tasteful guitar and tenor sax, with the showboating kept to a minimum giving it all the more presence when they let fly. For example the guitar solo in ‘Mablestates’ has Manley flying about the fretboard with the same airy ease with which he carries the rest of the album and Tallisch’s flights of fancy are rare enough to keep the listener wanting to hear more at the end of the album. More please.
Wyl Menmuir
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Duality has become one of my most listened-to discs...
author: Chip Woothrow
Here’s how I know this jazz CD has crossover appeal: my wife, my four-year-old daughter and a couple of my 16-year-old students all like it.
And I dig this disc immensely myself. It’s been a while, I admit, since I’ve listened to jazz. But the idea of an unlikely (to my ears at least) collaboration between tenor saxophone and acoustic guitar intrigued me, so I decided to give this album a listen.
Tom Tallitsch is a gifted horn player who can do buoyant (“Big Sky”) and melancholy (“Propellerhead”), smooth soul (Stevie Wonder’s “Visions”) and bop (“Coming Around”). He also wrote four of the eight songs on Duality. Dave Manley’s guitar often provides a rhythmic canvas, yet he steps out, too. Check out the dizzying work on “Falling Grace” and the wondrous extended solo on “Infant Eyes.” His playing reminds me of McCoy Tyner’s piano work with John Coltrane. I like a hook that sticks in my mind so I find myself scat-singing or whistling it throughout the day, and “Big Sky” delivers just that. Tallitsch’s main horn riff is deceptive; only after repeated listens did I hear how many notes go into it.
“Coming Around” is infectious, too. A full band could really cook on this number, but the duo does just fine on its on. Tallitsch and Manley do some great trading off on this tune, and it is also notable for how the horn backs the guitar in a few spots.
I love how on several songs, Tallitsch’s deft playing starts simply, spirals with every-increasing complexity, and then lands on the melody at song’s end. The absolutely cool-as-can-be “Lulu’s Back in Town” is an example of this. And then there’s the closer, “Mablestates,” written by the duo, in which Tallitsch tosses out inspired sonic bouquets from the get-go, leading Manley to do the same. I imagine this would be a fitting finale for a live show as well.
I listen to this cd in a variety of contexts: folding laundry, taking in a breezy afternoon on the porch, as inspiration to tackle some jazz on my guitar, and as my high school students and I are writing poetry. Duality has become one of my most listened-to discs, a pure, unadorned gem that has gotten me back on the jazz train again.
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