Blues for Peter
NA1074
Rich Peare, Classical Guitar
Don Messina, Double Bass
1. Strike Up The Band
2. Don't Blame Me
3. It's You or No One
4. Foolin' Myself
5.You Stepped Out of a Dream
6.Blues for Peter
7. All of Me
8.Yesterdays
REVIEWS
There is a special kind of pleasure in sitting in a jazz club, listening to talented musicians use their skills to explore some of the finest melodies of the last sixty years. In their debut album, Blues For Peter, Rich Peare(classical guitar) and Don Messina(double bass) offer just that experience. The album features eight improvised tracks—seven standards and one blues—plucked on a nylon-stringed classical guitar and a gut-stringed double bass.
Messina's connection to jazz is deep-rooted. He was initially inspired by Lennie Tristano and later ... with Sal Mosca, performing with him from 1999 until Mosca's death in 2007. Messina became the executor of the Mosca archive at Rutgers University and, in collaboration with the Mosca family, he produced nine albums. His own bass playing is influenced by jazz greats like Jimmy Blanton and Oscar Pettiford.
Peare, who began his musical journey with classical guitar, also studied with a Tristano devotee, Peter Prisco. Peare's use of a classical guitar in a jazz context is unusual; the most well-known predecessor is Charlie Byrd. However, Peare's technique brings out the instrument's unique qualities, as showcased on his first album with bassist Bill Crow. Blues for Peter is dedicated to Prisco, who was a master and a great inspiration to many. The album's liner notes were provided by his son, Andy Prisco.
The sound of the guitar on this album is immediately striking. It is bright, resonant, and powerful, capturing not just the notes but also the incidental sounds, like sounds of fingers sliding along the strings, which are skillfully woven into the music.
Peare and Messina's choice of standards is particularly bold. When a listener knows a melody, they can better judge the quality of the improvisation and appreciate how the musicians embellish the original. This setting discourages a mere display of virtuosity in favor of genuine invention. Avoiding clichés is a challenge, as it is often easier for musicians to fall back on well-worn patterns than to forge new paths.
On "Strike Up the Band," Peare's melodic lines are carefully considered. His rhythm has the grace of Freddie Green as he accompanies Messina's bass, and his early solo has a distinct, sinewy quality.
"All of Me" avoids the obvious, with an unexpected improvisation that ventures into unusual areas. The guitar's sound is completely fresh, following its own internal logic rather than mimicking any specific model. The creativity remains high, even after the bass solo.
"Don't Blame Me" is treated with a thoughtful, steady pace, allowing the melody to breathe. The improvisation is intriguing and heartfelt, highlighting the piece's inherent melancholy and bringing to mind the slow, creative exploration of a musician like Thelonious Monk.
This album is not just a simple guitar and bass collaboration; it is a deeply satisfying and imaginative journey through classic compositions. There is sincerity in every note, with a faint, but discernible, influence of Tristano evident throughout.
As one great jazz writer said about a recent concert with two jazz greats, "I knew after twenty minutes that I was seeing motions being gone through." Messina and Peare, however, do not go through the motions. They create something fresh, inspiring and meaningful.
—Jack Kenny, All About Jazz, September, 2025
Another version of a duet, my favorite combination. But here we have guitar and bass, and they are playing standards. Really looking forward to this. And it sounds to me that the guitar is unamplified, which is a delight to my ears.
The opening tune clearly defines the whole record. It truly strikes up the band. I love Peare’s interplay of single notes and chords and Messina really pushes things along. I took out my brushes and played along. And Don’t Blame Me should be titled Praise Me. The interplay between the two players is excellent.
The duo varies things nicely with different tempos and textures. A real highlight for me is Foolin' Myself. The interplay between the two is wonderful and Messina’s solo here fits in beautifully.
And one must mention the excellent playing by both men on the title track, which I assume is improvised as both get composer credit.
This is the kind of record that you might put on for background music but you will constantly be pulled in to listen carefully. These two players demand to be carefully listened to. Highly recommended!
—Bernie Koenig, Cadence, April 2025
When one thinks of duets between a classical guitarist and a bassist, it is of ballads, pretty music, and treatments that stay close to the melodies. While there is some of that on this set by guitarist Rich Peare and bassist Don Messina, their playing is much more unpredictable than one might expect.
A clue is given in that Blues For Peter has been put out on the New Artists label, a company that has often released music by the students and followers of pianist-educator Lennie Tristano. Peare has a mellow tone but his ideas are often quite adventurous while still following the chord changes. Messina is an interactive bassist, keeping the music swinging with his walking but also playing stimulating lines behind Peare that often build on the guitarist’s ideas while injecting some of his own thoughts into the music. One can sometimes feel the influence of Bartok, Ravel and Lennie Tristano in their interplay in addition to the musical personalities of the two musicians.
The duo performs seven veteran standards and a blues dedicated to their friend the late guitarist Peter Prisco. While they play such vintage numbers as “It’s You Or No One,” “Foolin’ Myself,” “All Of Me,” and “Yesterdays,” the improvising makes the songs sound brand new. Sometimes the melodies are de-emphasized in favor of new and spontaneous ones. Peare and Messina make for a perfectly complementary team, constantly playing off of each other.
Blues For Peter is an outing that grows in interest with each listen.
—Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene Waxing Poetic Reviews, March 2025
How Don Messina & Rich Peare Revived Jazz’s Most Timeless Sound on “Blues for Peter”
Classical guitarist Rich Peare and double bassist DonMessina have teamed up for their first duo album together, entitled Blues for Peter. The eight-song collection sees them performing seven jazz standards and one blues.
“Honoring jazz tradition with straight-ahead swing and spontaneous improvisation, this duo strives to express the beauty of a melodic line, deriving collective inspiration from the musical philosophies of jazz greats Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, Sal Mosca, Billie Holiday, Bud Powell, Django Reinhardt, Fat Navarro, Oscar Pettiford, Charlie Christian, and Warne Marsh,” a press release explains. “Their music is created softly in the moment and done with the pure joy that improvising brings!”
Blues for Peter has an intimate feel that comes naturally with the instrumentation of an acoustic duo. Messina adds to the warmth by matching Peare’s nylon-stringed guitar with a set of gut strings for his double bass, adding even more character and vintage vibe to the songs.
Check out his walking prowess on “You Stepped Out of Dream."
I last posted on bassist Don Messina in 2022 (go here). Don was a member of the Larry Bluth Trio. On this newly released album recorded in 2020, Don was paired with Rich Peare on classical guitar. The Peter in the album's title is guitarist Peter Prisco, with whom Rich studied guitar for years. The two terrific players here work though five standards and two originals. What I love about this album is that both Don and Rich are fully exposed and can't run for cover. They must fill the space with grace and improvisation while working together. The bass-guitar duo format is among the most difficult because stringed instruments can cover only so much sonic ground. In the case of these two, however, the results are exceptional and Tristano-like in delivery. As Don notes about Rich's playing style: "Rich plucks like he is playing Bach. No pick."
—Marc Myers, Jazz Wax, October 2024
You don’t very often get to hear an accomplished jazz duo on a nylon-stringed classical guitar—that’s Richard Peare—and a gut-stringed double bass—that’s Don Messina. On their new release, Blues for Peter, these two master improvisers, both of whom stand in the tradition of such folks as Lennie Tristano and Sal Mosca, among others, offer an old-school paean to melody and swing on seven standards and one original. Dedicated to the late Peter Prisco, an esteemed Staten Island guitarist and teacher with whom both Peare and Messina were connected, the album opens with a swinging version of “Strike Up the Band,” which sets the scene for what’s to come—good-time music whose inventive improvisational lines unpack the melodic and harmonic possibilities encapsulated in familiar tunes. Richard gets the lion’s share of the foreground, but Messina, whose swinging, irresistible pulse grounds the entire album, gets an expressive cameo on the original title track.
They both shine brightest on “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” which captures the intoxication of new love. Blues for Peter puts a new shine on the old school.
—Mel Minter, Musically Speaking, September 2024
www.melminter.com