Reviews/Press
Amplified jazz guitar is at once a common and a unique sound. It's at once universal and particular, with each guitar and each guitarist. The best jazz guitarists are easily named in the hearing. Add Rob Lanter to that if not one in a million, at least one in ten unique and special guitarists with a sound all their own.
It's a courageous act to present an offering like Lanter's "3/4 A Lot of the Time, A Tribute to Bill Evans". With Lanter's solo guitar tracks, such as "My Foolish Heart", "Waltz For Debbie", "Very Early", and "Triste", it's all clear as a bell and wonderfully melodic, whether in lines or chord melodies.
Lanter delivers too as an accompanist to Judy Butterfield whose vocals on "My Romance" and "Where Do You Start" are a perfect match for Lanter's chording and solos.
Yes, a lot of the time jazz guitarists yield to the mundane and mediocre. Not so with Lanter who not just a lot of the time, but all the time on this recording not only hits his mark but transcends it.
Reviewed by Bob Gish for Jazz Inside magazine
Just Jazz Guitar Magazine (CD Review of "Thank You Joe, A Tribute to Joe Pass", November 2006)
Regardless of when it came together for Rob Lanter, he's got it. Rob covers 9 standards and provides 2 originals on "Thank You Joe". He has a nice sense of time often starting rubato and moving into time seamlessly. Rob reharmonizes the tunes with each pass, adding more harmony or making the harmony more sparse, also adding bass lines and improv. His sense of space and time are solid and he presents the compositions fully. Improv ideas are tasteful and add flash to each song.
Anyone who plays solo jazz guitar knows what a juggling act it can be to keep a tune fresh, adding different parts and improvising as you play. Rob does this beautifully. Standards include Stella, God Bless the Child (which Rob also sings nicely on), Another You, Body and Soul, Miss Jones, Dolphin Dance and Stolen Moments. Amazing Grace and two originals also round out the disc. Amazing Grace has some nice volume swells, which serve the tune beautifully. Rob's originals are great compositions in their own rights. Nostalgia in Paradise has a wonderful melody and very rhythmic sense. Deep Down Inside has a nice gospel feel to it and works great as a solo piece.
Rob Lanter has pulled together his solo guitar chops (a skill that many guitarists only dream about) and preserved his tribute to Joe Pass for us on CD. While we all thank Joe Pass for his influence, thanks go to Rob Lanter as well for a great CD.
Reviewed by Eric Elias for Just Jazz Guitar magazine
Carlos Fugueroa - Music reviewer (CD Review of "3/4 Most of the Time, A Tribute to Bill Evans", October 2010)
Thinking back on when I heard Rob Lanter in person a couple of years ago, I recall being pleased. Then he launched into Oliver Nelson’s Stolen Moments, and turned a corner. Around it got deeper and heavier, like the music being played was now pointing the way rather than tickling our fancy.
The shift was so abrupt and pronounced it at first seemed a figment of imagination. This doubt was erased though, when he followed with an original, Nostalgia In Paradise, and clarified that the mood had indeed shifted somewhere beyond amusement and nearer to the place seekers journey to in search of close communion with the Self. This is the locus Jazz takes us to when it departs from the entertainment sphere and rockets toward purity of expression, the point, in essence, that the music of Bill Evans aspires to and in this current recording we hear with delight and gratification the link between Lanter and Evans.
So to these ears, ¾ A Lot Of The Time, goes further than pay tribute to Bill Evans. It likewise celebrates the quest common to those who strive to unite creative expression with heightened knowledge of self. The music heard here is imbued with this spirit and this is what makes it a compelling, satisfying, and stimulating listening experience. There is much joy and ebullience to be heard as well. Lanter and his cohorts, Judy Butterfield and Paul Avrutin, perform here with a mindfulness that embraces the sine qua non idea of Jazz: that it’s music created by “people who have decided to feel good in spite of conditions,” (famously reported by Johnny Griffin). It’s this determination, embodied in Bill Evan’s oeuvre, that distinguishes him in the Jazz firmament so prominently, isn’t it?
Oh, and let’s not leave out a crystalline introspection, another Evans hallmark that is very much in evidence here, especially on My Foolish Heart and Very Early. Listening to My Romance, you’ll appreciate how effortlessly Rob and Judy bounce and float the melody, mimicking Evans’ lithe keyboard dances. On Bluesette, Rob and Paul display an affinity for the tart playful side of Evans that’s quite admirable. And dig into Alice In Wonderland to find all you need to know about Rob’s gifts as a soloist, not to mention as an interpreter of Bill Evans.
A couple of years on from my initial encounter with Rob Lanter and I’m struck by how much growth and maturity is evident in his sound. The gusto and verve I witnessed that first night carry on. Whenever I think of Rob’s guitar playing I want to put an “n” at the end of his last name because, in my mind’s ear, he’s a beacon lighting the way to that someplace nice I’m ever in search of.
Joe Giglio - Jazz guitarist, Recording artist (October 2010, www.joegiglio.com)
Geoff Kole - The Underground Lounge (06/2008)
I manage The Underground Lounge located on the upper west side of Manhattan, New York City. Rob has twice performed at my club. He is a truly gifted guitar player performer, playing solo jazz guitar embodying sophistication. He is a consummate professional who gives his all.
I highly recommend Rob for any show that requires a class act.
AND...
CDs make GREAT gifts!!!
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