Old Souls by Neal Alger

“One of the most sensitive and creative guitarists in a city filled with them” -- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

Guitarist and composer Neal Alger is well-known for his stylistic breadth and musical intuition through his frequent collaborations with Patricia Barber (he appears on a half dozen of her Blue Note recordings) and countless other artists. With Old Souls, Alger refocuses attention on his own music for the first time on record since his 2002 debut, Here and Now, There and Before. Aided and abetted by Chicago all-stars Dana Hall (drums), Clark Sommers (bass), Chris Madsen (tenor) and Chad McCullough (trumpet), Alger offers up a rich and varied selection of his own compositions both new and old.

Alger’s return to a more straight-ahead instrumental setting was organic but also intentional. “I play a lot of other people’s music,” says the guitarist. “I wanted to carve out a space to play my own music. I enjoy the process of writing- painstaking and frustrating at times, but ultimately fulfilling.” A professor at Elmhurst College, Alger found himself frequently writing for horns in his students’ groups. This led to expanding his own band to a quintet to explore more contrapuntal textures and harmonic colors. Madsen, an old associate from Alger’s Blue Note Quartet, brings his impeccable musicianship and expansive voice to compliment the full range of Alger’s palette. Of McCullough, a more recent associate, Alger says “I really admire what Chad is doing, bringing these different colors from his travels into the music.” Sommers and Hall, both of whom Alger has known since the late 90s, are among the first-call bass and drum teams in Chicago, contributing their potent rhythmic drive to recent Calligram releases from Geof Bradfield and Scott Hesse as well.

Alger’s influences are nothing if not diverse. “One of my strengths is my eclectic musical personality,” comments Alger. The guitarist is no dilettante, however. “I do my homework, and I hope there’s some authenticity there. I’m not just putting a hat on, and I hope that shows.”

And so it does right out of the gate with the title track, which seamlessly blends an Israeli-flavored refrain with harmonies drawn from the Prelude to Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde.” For Alger, the harmony here and elsewhere on the record is driven by the melody, the horn parts a translation of the natural voice-leading on the guitar. “If Only for a Moment,” a wry comment on the all-too-brief window of COVID-19 relief in 2021, explores similarly sophisticated harmonic territory with moving guitar chords under a sustained upper melody in the horns.

Written almost 20 years ago, “This is Not a Test” is the oldest tune on the record,. Guitarist and company swing hard from the first notes of the blues, each member of the front line ably acquitting themselves before turning things over to Sommers and Hall for a heated exchange. “Go With the Sco-Flo” offers a different view of the blues, funky in the vein of its guitar hero namesake. For the astute listener, there’s a subtle nod to Erykah Badu’s “Other Side of the Game” hidden in the chorus as the horns enter.

Alger gradually layers guitar and horns on “Choro Delinquente,” so named because it quickly deviates from the traditional Brazilian form and style. The guitarist and horns trade conversationally over the relaxed but propelling groove, and Alger’s effortless transitions between his role in the rhythm section and that of a soloist point to one of the many reasons he is so widely valued as a sideman.

The power-chord ostinato that opens “Dance of the Miscreants” evokes Alger’s classic rock origins but sacrifices none of the subtlety he evinces throughout Old Souls. His solo is rhythmically surefooted, interactive and inextricably meshed with Sommers and Hall. In sharp contrast, the album closes with an ethereal arrangement of “Softly She Sings,” written by Neal’s fraternal twin producer Brian Alger.

Speaking to the varied musical influences represented on the album, Neal says, “I love so much music, from jazz to rock, R&B, and Brazilian music, and it all figures into my writing and playing; I’m not just one thing.” Old Souls is a triumphant testament to Alger’s breadth and depth as a composer, guitarist and bandleader, revealing layer after layer of his musical heart and mind.

A fixture on the Chicago music scene since the mid-1990's, Neal enjoys moving between jazz, R&B/Soul, Brazilian music and rock. Over the years Neal has performed in Europe, Brazil, Africa, Russia, South Korea, and Canada. Alger's "skillful fretwork and sympathetic comping" (Mark Werlin, All About Jazz) have made him a versatile and in-demand guitarist locally and nationally.

nealalger.com