Solo guitarist Stowell, heard on Solitary Tales, has a sound harking back to Classical guitar playing with none of the rhythmic stiffness sometimes associated with it. The opening track, "Everything I Love," moves from chiming rubato passages to an improvisation that alternated between thoughtful, climbing episodes and swinging single-note lines. I was reminded of Joe Pass' solo recording for Pablo--but where Pass occasionally overwhelmed me with dazzling displays of technique, Stowell is more restrained, his phrases beautifully-shaped, balanced and spaced. Whether he's purling through Evans' "Funny Man" or Coleman's "Blues Connotation," or his own tribute to Jimmy Wyble, "Wybleing," Stowell is both pensive and intense. I would offer this CD as a corrective to the excess some Jazz guitarists indulge in, as a lesson to younger players.