Showing posts with label Pat Mastelotto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Mastelotto. Show all posts

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Progressive-Surf-Instrumental Review: California Guitar Trio- With Special Guests Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto-Live At The Key Club

Tony Levin Website

California Guitar Trio came into being in 1991 after Bert Lams (Belgium), Hideyo Moriya (Japan), and Paul Richards (USA) met at a Robert Fripp guitar seminar in England. Fripp was impressed enough to take the trio on tour with him on the now-famous Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists Tour, a tour known for showcasing exceptional guitar talent. The result of that successful internship helped the three men decide to break off from the Fripp troupe and start their group. CGT was born, and the rest is history.

Live At The Key Club features very special guests Tony Levin, bass player extraordinaire, and the in-demand percussionist Pat Mastelotto (Mr. Mister, King Crimson), delivering an indispensable performance with the group.

The combination of awe-inspiring jazz-inflected surf-progressive-rock sound is a rocking example of genre amalgamation. A notable inclusion to this set is the classic Surf tracks "Miserlou" (Dick Dale), "Apache" (The Shadows), and King Crimson’s phenomenal ‘Discipline’ to wet your diverse musical palette. If that isn’t enough for you, then John McLaughlin’s “Dance Of The Maya” will set your soul afire.

This group sounds like a literal guitar army. Keep in mind this is all acoustic guitar, although it doesn’t keep the sound down at all. With the addition of the incredible Tony Levin and the rhythmic percussion of Mastelotto, CGT is given more depth and breadth in their sound, and quite simply put, it’s out of this world.

Wizard engineer Ronan Chris Murphy mixed the recording, so they got the very best in that department; it’s more than obvious right from the start of the first track that Murphy’s stamp is on the mix. They do an ultra-fast version of “Heart Of The Sunrise” (Yes), and according to the group in the liner notes, it’s true to form when you listen to it.

Three dueling guitars at warp speed is something to witness. This recording will be just like being there. It will be as captivating as anything you have ever heard. Intricate notes are woven in multiplicity to create their three-man guitar sound. I have to give full credit to the rhythm section; it must have been complicated to keep pace with and make the proper exchange between the drums and bass without allowing the guitars to drop out of sync. They couldn’t have chosen a better duo than Levin and Mastelotto.

As a reviewer of progressive bands, my introduction to the California Guitar Trio was a revelation. Their name kept cropping up in my research, and I was not disappointed. Their sound is a masterclass for musicians, a sonic journey that I urge you to experience.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

January 23, 2002

Tracks:

01. Train to Lamy (4'56") - Lams, Richards, Moriya

02. Zundoko Bushi (3:43") - unknown, arr. Moriya (w/ excerpts from 21st Century Schizoid Man - Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield)

03. Blockhead (3'36") - Richards

04. Apache (3'26") - Lordan, The Shadows (Atlantic)

05. Sketches on Sunset (6'48") - Mastelotto, Levin, Lams, Richards, Moriya Improvisation

06. Discipline (4'51") - King Crimson (BMG Music)

07. Miserlou (1'58") - Tauber, Wise, Rubanis, Leeds (Campbell Connelly, & Co. Ltd)        

08. “Many people ask us..." (3'05") - Richards

09. Melrose Ave. (2'15") - Moriya

10. Dance of Maya (5'54") - Mclaughlin (Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.)

11. Heaven’s Bells (6'56") - Mastelotto, Levin, Lams, Richards, Moriya Improvisation

12. Heart of the Sunrise (7'22") - Anderson, Squire, Bruford (Atlantic)

13. Caravan (5'28") - D. Ellington, I. Mills, J. Tizal (EMI Mills Music Inc.)

14. Eve (4'02") - Richards, Lams, Moriya, Levin