Swing violin and guitar in a positive vein here on the Stevie Wonder classic 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life' a number 1 hit single for Tamla in 1973 - zone in within the Stevie sound on the congas of Richie Havens player Daniel Ben Zebulon who was on Havens' Something Else Again. On this sparkling new instrumental cover violinist Sandro Roy and the swing guitar great Biréli Lagrène whose initial solo is a haven of intricate delicacy and interest distil the spirit of the instantly recognisable melody and find inventive things to do with it. Later in a more extensive even more engrossing solo he seems around the three minute mark to quote a little of 'Pop! Goes the Weasel.'
Using an improvisational style when lots of chord changes do not matter half as much as in bebop nonetheless the spirit of adventure is the same. And there is great looseness found in the flair of the duo. Lagrène shows his modulating chops a great deal during his solo which again is part of the appeal. Roy has a very pristine sound and can shift up the tempo gears effortlessly.
Roy is the son of a family of musicians from Augsburg in Bavaria who has long been influenced by European gypsy swing and American jazz. '…Sunshine…' is from Discovery out on Friday. Discovery also includes versions of 'The Nearness of You' and romantic classic 'Can't Take My Eyes of You' plus five Roy originals and also unveils the violinist's Unity band on a recording for the first time (Boris Netsvetaev on piano, Sven Jungbeck on guitar, and Stefan Berger on double bass). British jazz swing guitar legend Martin Taylor guests on 'True.'
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