Whenever someone is described as “a major new voice”, wary listeners reach for the earplugs and brace themselves for a blaring onslaught of iconoclastic grunge. Yet fear not. New York’s latest hot-guitar gunslinger is not that radical at all. He’s quite mainstream, in fact.
To begin with, Jonathan Kreisberg plays a good old-fashioned deep-bodied Gibson 175 semi-acoustic, mainly using a clean amplified tone, spiced sparingly with a modicum of synth-overdrive or reverb. All of his most distinctive effects were produced by natural fingering skills, and he played solos which actually had a start, a middle and an end.
Whereas lesser guitarists make a handful of repetitive speed-licks last all evening, Kreisberg takes pains to avoid clichés. His creative lines had an airy, free-flowing quality more associated with good saxophone players. Backed by an excellent US group in which expat Londoner Will Vinson doubled expertly on piano and alto sax, Kreisberg performed several strong originals.
One, the outstanding waltz theme, Being Human, was inspired by his audiences. “As touring musicians we see people at their best,” he explained. “Except for sections of the airline industry, of course.” Recommended.
March 13 (08456 027 017, pizzaexpresslive.com)
