Speaking of Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby…
Yesterday’s edition of The New York Times carried a review of their concert this Tuesday night in the Big Apple.
Mr. Hornsby, who is fluent in piano idioms from gospel to modern jazz, aligned his solos with bluegrass timing ‚Äî fast, twinkling, unsyncopated lines, sometimes playing parallel to Andy Leftwich’s fiddle parts ‚Äî but also, at some points, refracted the harmonies through dissonance-laced jazz chords. Mr. Skaggs, who plays all sorts of stringed instruments, usually stuck to mandolin, playing solos that darted and twanged at sometimes dizzying speed or trading breaks with Mr. Leftwich, Cody Kilby on guitar and Jim Mills on banjo. They gently stretched the mountain-music idiom in songs like "Stubb," which distantly hints at Eastern music, and "Gulf of Mexico Fishing Boat Blues," with a chorus in odd meter, 5/4 time.
You can read the entire review online at the Times’ web site (free subscription required).
