Relentless
Maryland's Danny Gatton was best known as a rockabilly cat, the man who put blistering guitar licks behind the likes of Robert Gordon, Billy Hancock and Delbert McClinton. Like his heroes Les Paul, Lenny Breau and Hank Garland, however, Gatton is both a country picker and a solid jazz man; he stole the show on a Blue Note jam session with Joshua Redman and Roy Hargrove onNew York Storiesin '92. Gatton kept both careers going at once;Cruisin' Deuces(1993) was a rockabilly outing, while his duet album with Philadelphia organist Joey DeFrancesco, "Relentless," is a straightahead jazz project. One pursuit reinforces the other; Gatton's jazz playing brings a harmonic sophistication to his rockabilly work, and his country experience gives his jazz solos a dramatic flair.--Geoffrey Himes