Luke Sellick & Andrew Renfroe: Small Vacation
Luke Sellick & Andrew Renfroe

On their first studio release as a duo, guitarist Andrew Renfroe and bassist Luke Sellick perform engaging instrumental versions of traditionals, pop classics, and blues songs by Tom Petty, Neil Young, Skip James, Dolly Parton, and others. While the NYC-based musical partners bring well-honed jazz sensibilities to the project, the results are as much folk and blues as jazz. Virtuosity is always used in service to the material (even when the playing is at its most dexterous, during the guitarist's solo in “Jolene,” for example), making for a recording that's both personal and self-effacing. These are honest and affectionate renderings that put song first and ego second.

Though Renfroe and Sellick debuted the duo project in 2018 at the Caramoor Jazz Festival in Katonah, New York, the Juilliard graduates have played together before in other contexts. Naturally each also boasts an impressive list of credits with other figures, the bassist having performed with Benny Golson, Johnny O'Neal, George Coleman, and Monty Alexander and the guitarist Javon Jackson, Carmen Lundy, Jonathan Barber, and more. However much Renfroe and Sellick have been influenced by others, Small Vacation presents their playing in its purest form.

The traditional “Hills of Mexico” sets the scene with Sellick laying down a solid ground for Renfroe to rapturously emote over. The relaxed confidence of their playing suggests the freshness of the open plains and the rejuvenation that comes from being outdoors. As impressive, the guitarist's solo elevates this refined performance without severing its connection to the essence of the song. Indicative of the album's generally sunny character is a soulful treatment of Petty's “Wildflowers,” the infectiously swinging performance distinguished as well by the deftness with which expressive solos by both are integrated into the arrangement.

Young's “Tell Me Why” benefits lustily from a heartwarming shuffle that calls to mind the joy experienced by folk pickers gathered for an afternoon jam. On the slow'n'tender tip, there's the traditional “Wondrous Love,” whose melodies the two caress as gently as they would a day-old child. Two blues excursions appear, one a funky rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowell's “Someday Baby” and the other a down-home, gutbucket take on James's “Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues.”

The album's second half includes treatments of three beloved classics, “God Only Knows” receiving a sincere rendering faithful to the original's spirit (note how closely the duo hews to the song's melodies) and Parton's “Jolene” given a spirited, uptempo makeover in contrast to the lugubrious approach adopted by some. As winning as they are, the album-closing version of Jimmy Webb's Glen Campbell-associated “Wichita Lineman” impresses even more when Renfroe and Sellick dig into its singing melodies with abandon and buoy the listener along with them.

Two instruments only are featured on Small Vacation, but the moment-by-moment interaction between the players is so compelling you'll never feel anything's missing. To Sellick's statement, “I hope our love for the original versions is apparent,” one can only reply unreservedly in the affirmative.

November 2020