Customer Reviews

Live at Small's

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He is quite impressive in his dexterity and fluidity. There are many good things to say about his playing and I'm sure others will corroborate that, however, he tends to noodle a lot and at times he also sounds very choppy. Additionally, I can't tell many of his songs a part from one another as he tends to sound very repetitive. By far though the most annoying and distracting thing he does is "sign" the notes as he plays his solos. I noticed that in some of the songs in his Live at Small's CD, I don't know if he does that all the time. In all fairness, while I have listened to many of his songs and do enjoy his music, I have never bought any of his CDs because I refuse to pay $17 for CDs and it's unlikely that I ever will buy one at that price.

Mark Elf's playing is in the tradition of bop guitar. His touch makes him sound a bit like Grant Green. Elf plays high speed runs with ease, somewhat a la Pat Martino, and can slip into chordal mode on medium and slower tempo tunes. He is not attempting to take jazz guitar anywhere new, he just does an outstanding job of continuing the tradition. The first two songs should tell you whether you'll enjoy his style on the uptempo tunes.