CD Review
‘Go’ by Daryl Stuermer
Inside Out Music – EAN – 93723 791 62
7 out of 10
Go, the latest album from session guitarist Daryl Stuermer is full of the type of guitar playing that allows such musicians as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Jeff Beck to sell truck-loads of albums.
Stuermer himself has featured on a lot of albums, being the lead guitarist for Phil Collins, live and in the studio, and also the touring guitar and bass player with Genesis, which is an impressive pedigree. Go is full of the difficult time signatures and sequences that made Genesis famous, but it also has much of the melodic richness that makes Collin’s solo work so successful.
Stuermer has written the 10 tracks on this album, with only two being less than four minutes long. The tracks range from the fusion of Striker, the eastern influenced Masala Mantra, to the heartfelt ballad Dream in Blue, or to the hip hop soundscape of Urbanista.
The impressive and fluid guitar playing is to the fore-front of the tracks, but the playing of the band, which features such players as bassist Leland Sklar, keyboard player Kostia, and drummer John Calarco help to give the pieces a life, which would work well in the live arena.
Although the pieces are loosely fusion music, the rock is much more important than the jazz, with the pieces always remaining accessible, whilst also showing of the influences of leading jazz/rock fusion violinist, Jean Luc Ponty, a previous employer of Stuermers.
The album may come as a surprise to many who have only heard Daryl on Collin’s albums, but for any fans of intelligent, polished electric guitar playing, this album is well worth investigation.
