“Ace of Hearts” is the second single by Ben Eunson from his upcoming album “ACE”, available on August 23 on Ocean Road Sounds.
The track features Ben Eunson (Electric Guitar), Alexander Claffy (Bass) and Kush Abadey (Drums). The track is produced by Ben Eunson & Michael Perez-Cisneros.
Composed by Ben Eunson, this piece is an interesting contrast to his first single Growing Pains (previously reviewed here). Thematically coherent visually as well, I love the artwork by Aaron Lowell Denton, using shades of blue and red instead of green and yellow/orange (used in Growing Pains).
The opening theme reminds of a cross of 80s to mid 90s instrumental rock guitar (and quickly goes into an improvisational solo section after 24 seconds. There’s an abundant of tasteful legato, over the barline dramatic polyrhyhtmic type phrases, double time goodness and melody-driven lines to bring it all back to earth. For guitar geeks, there’s plenty of lines worth transcribing throughout the piece.
There’s no wandering long solos on this track with Ben saying everything he wants in about 47 seconds before the theme comes back prior to the drum solo by Kush Abadey. Kush comes in with a tasteful entry into full on rocking drum solo goodness over the driving chords. The track then ends with Ben playing a repeated phrase. This is really interesting to me since we don’t hear the entire theme played again.
In a short 2 mins and 29 seconds, this is an interesting preview for the full album dropping on August 23. There’s a lot of cross genre references from the percussive stop time fusion styled hits closing the theme to tasteful (Instagram friendly) sliding double stop and the thick liquid rock/fusion lead tone singing through the entire piece.
TLDR: If you like Eric Johnson, instrumental rock guitar, rock based jazz (shall we still call it fusion?) – listen to this new single from Ben Eunson.
Rating: 4.5/5
You can purchase the single here:
https://beneunson.bandcamp.com/track/ace-of-hearts
[About Ben]
Ben Eunson is a guitarist who is redefining the sound of the guitar for both the present moment and the future. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, he began playing guitar at age 10 and has since established his presence as a prominent guitar voice based in New York City.
Known both for his individuality as well as versatility, Eunson has performed and/or recorded with a wide array of artists, including John Legend, Questlove, Lalah Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Valerie Simpson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Chappelle, Sandra Bernhard, Myron Walden, Marcus Strickland, and Dave Liebman.
He has performed extensively throughout the United States and around the world, including performances at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Detroit Jazz Festival, The Hollywood Bowl, and worldwide in London, Iceland, Switzerland, Morocco, Turkey and Australia.
Ben Eunson’s debut EP “Autumn” was released in 2015. His upcoming album “ACE” is set to be released in 2019.
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