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There is a dark urgency , a sort of foreboding resonance that pervades guitarist Paul Hahn's debut CD, Presidio Epilogue Hahn's electric guitar, with Tom Coster's B-3 organ that underscores the proceedings with sweety blurred left hand bass lines contrasting with Hahn's near-cello-like guitar approach for a distinctive, vibrant sound.
Unlike some of the better known guitar top guns out therewhere delicacy and nuance and pinpoint precision rule the dayHahn's style is looser, yet still forthright, even bold. The guitarist employes an unusual technique to achieve his sounda third of the notes are rendered using a steel pick; another third by using the middle and ring fingers of the right hand; and the rest are created by hammering on the strings with the fingers of the left hand. What you hear is a fluid, somewhat metallic sounda cello bow pulled across the strands of wire on an electric fence with the breeze of the B-3 blowing a cool wind chorus in the background.
Six songsfive originals and John Coltrane's "Your Lady": Hahn's "Sur" has that weary, wee hours feel; Trane's song sounds like religion, a dark, ethereal mass; while "Presidio" and "Presidio Epilogue" are melancholic, and slightly menacing; while "Oh Linda" rocks.
A new and distinctive voice on the jazz guitar scene; a career to watch, to listen to.