"(John Stowell) can make an electric guitar sound like a singing voice" - Nat Hentoff. The compositions of master guitarist John Stowell have taken on a life of their own over the last several years. As fellow artists have become increasingly aware of their intriguing melodic & harmonic movements through recordings with the group Scenes, or from his solo guitar renditions, novel methods for interpreting his works have become an inspired exercise. The 2020 duo release, "Rain Painting" with bassist/vocalist Dan Dean, set the stage with Textura describing it as "...innovative, original, and musically rewarding."
For Violin Memory, trombonist Dave Glenn recalled his many duo performances with Stowell as being like chamber music, inspiring him to arrange nine Stowell originals for string quartet-the themes stated by the quartet as springboards for the duo's renditions. Besides those, Glenn offers 3 of his compositions and a mid-program medley of Stowell tunes arranged for the quartet. "The skillful ingenuity of Dave Glenn's jazz writing makes an easy transition into his elegant string quartet writing." composer John David Earnest.