Able to execute improvised bass runs beneath his fluid melody lines, King adapts such seemingly impossible tunes as Weather Report s jazz classic Birdland in arrangements that defy the limitations of six strings and ten fingers. Even at its most complex, King s playing remains rich-toned and musical and always puts the melody first. King displays a range of guitar skills and musical influences that defy easy categorization. In The Mood and the Peter Gunn Theme. His exquisite ability to synchronize complex walking bass lines with fluid melodic passages and ethereal passing chords creates a truly complete musical statement on each tune.
Nothing here sounds forced or injected artificially into the song.
King reaches down deep to extract the essence of the music in his playing. His rendition of Joe Zawniul's jazz standard Birdland practically rewrites the rule book of what's possible with six strings and ten fingers. Listening to King is an exercise in joyous discovery. The contrapuntal interplay between his gently propulsive bass lines and piquant melodies, his satin smooth octaves, slyly synchronized metric shifts, intuitive sense of dynamics - you come away feeling like someone who finds a new Faberg on an Easter egg hunt. Start monitoring the music mags for reviews of Steven King's brand-new CD, 'Original Fling'.