‘Roadway’ an ambitious, entertaining blend

Gary Wittner’s new CD “Roadway” is a stylistically ambitious recording, covering solo guitar arrangements of country blues and original tunes to quartets playing Thelonious Monk. Backed by Howard Johnson on tuba and contrabass clarinet, Bruce Ditmas on drums and Dominic Richards on acoustic bass, Wittner has produced a work both entertaining and thought-provoking as he re-examines Monk and country blues while developing his own compositional style.

Wittner’s playing style is well-formed and consistent, allowing him to move deftly between his own tunes and those of Monk and Hank Williams without jarring the listener a bit.

The title track, an original composition, borders on being a tone poem with a wide range of moods and colors from its eerie, stark and dissonant opening evolving into an unusual form that Wittner is excited about exploring: the bassless trio, which uses guitar, drums and tuba or contrabass clarinet.

His performance of Monk’s “Crepuscule with Nellie” maintains the relaxed, conversational tone of the original while bringing out the lyricism that was sometimes lost in Monk’s percussive performance. On Wittner’s guitar, the dissonances sound more like a natural coloring and less an experiment in modern tonality.

Echoes of Hank Williams’ proud, plaintive twang abound on Wittner’s excellent intrepretation of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Wittner’s gentle style and expressive bends retain Williams’ flavor while Wittner’s thoughtful improvisations add color, nuance and a more sophisticated emotional palette. This track is also the best example on the CD of another facet of Wittner’s musical heritage: country blues. Wittner excels at rethinking the classics, taking formerly simple arrangements and adding modern tonality while deconstructing both the melody and the form.

In the liner notes, Wittner describes the roadway as “a perfect metaphor for our human experience — relationships, personal development, careers, etc. passing the through the decades. It’s all coming from someplace and going somewhere else. In the long run, maybe where we wind up isn’t as important as how we get there.”

Wittner’s “Roadway” is a journey well worth taking.