D'Aquisto's Last Guitar - Tal Yahalom
Tal Yahalom performs Thelonious Monk's "We See"
Traveling the borders of genre and style, guitarist and composer Tal Yahalom seeks to weave a wide spectrum of aesthetic elements into a distinct musical language – committed to engaging storytelling and attentive interplay. Born in Israel and based in New York City since 2014, Yahalom has been exploring and fusing the worlds of hard bop, alternative rock, free improvisation and impressionistic classical music. Looking to expand the sonic and textural vocabulary of the guitar, he pursues unconventional, creative ways of instrumental playing – both acoustically and through a flexible array of effects. He is drawn to the elusive balance between composition and improvisation, clarity and mystery, the subtle and the intense.
This guitar, a 1994 D'Aquisto "Centura", was the last guitar that Jimmy D'Aquisto ever built. Commissioned by a client who wanted a 7 string guitar, it became a 6 string instead. The instrument is now under the care of The Blue Guitars/Archtop Foundation, an organization that maintains a very special collection of archtop guitars.
This video series invites a handful of New York based musicians to come and explore the instrument, connecting the rich history of Jimmy D'Aquisto’s luthiery to the future of jazz guitar.
Special thanks to David Blake for filming, engineering, mixing, and editing this video.