*** Giovanni Moltoni Quartet

DIRECTIONS

(Pentaflowers)

This is not your average guitar-plays-bebop band. Moltoni plays composer's guitar -- he's less a driving solo voice than a quietly intuitive force. He employs a soft attack, plays spare lines, and deconstructs his pieces meticulously. This quartet -- all with deep backgrounds in local music academies -- offer original pieces that unfold with origami-like logic, plus improvisations that are integral rather than interchangeable. The lank-limbed "Passing By" employs rhythmic figures that recur in the solos. "Afternoon Ride" is a floater, over bar lines and dreamy countrysides, with Paul Del Nero's bass coming to the fore.

Moltoni achieves rich front-line sonorities by pairing his guitar with the trombone of revered local musical deep-thinker Hal Crook, who offers a train whistle on "Fe Fe Blues" and achieves Kentonian density on "Opening Ties." He produces choral effects and smears on "Wolf Dance" and lashes out a burning solo on "After All."

-- Fred Bouchard

(The Giovanni Moltoni Quartet play the Willow in Somerville this Sunday, March 23. Call 623-9874.)