Bermuda Guitar Festival, second night May 28

St. Andrew's Church was full for the second concert in the seventh Bermuda Guitar Festival, which featured Adam Rafferty, Nick Russo and Betina Hershey.

This evening's music was in contrast to that of the previous night's, and featured rock, fusion, jazz, dance and soul music.

First up was Adam Rafferty, who plays finger-style on a steel strung guitar.

That sentence does not do him or his music justice. Adam becomes the music; his body and face join in spontaneously with each phrase; his expressions reinforce the groove; he plays all percussion parts (snare, side, cymbals, hi hats, bass) on the strings, sound box and with his mouth; with a single pick he plays the bass part on the lower three strings, and at the same time plays the melody lines with the other fingers of his right hand.

When a really deep bass drum jolt is required, his left hand snakes over to deliver it by striking all the strings at the bridge. At the same time all is under masterful control.

The sound could be described as: Chet Atkins meets Michael Jackson; Muddy Waters meets Stevie Wonder; Donna Summer meets Jobím.

Rafferty's playing is organic, protean in that he announced up front that there were going to be "total changes" to the music printed in the programme notes.

Actually this freed up your reviewer to just let the music wash over and experience it for its own sake. Individual pieces blended into each other or came from opposite sides of the spectrum; "Copa Cabana" for example segued into "Tequila", a neat and logical touch; where else would one have the best margarita?

Herbie Hancock's disco fusion number "Chameleon" contrasted with Chick Corea's emotive and Aranjuez-like Spain.

In the final analysis however Rafferty's soul is most at home in the great performances of rock; his penultimate number was Jackson's "Billie Jean", delivered complete with moonwalk.

His final number was a high energy guitar boogie which has to be his own composition. Adam Rafferty's performance is really an experience which is compelling because it comes direct from the heart. We gave Adam Rafferty a standing ovation. The second half of the evening was delivered by Nick Russo, jazz guitar, and his vocalist partner Betina Hershey.

Russo's overall sound is predominantly in the jazz mainstream but his playing isn't, being a versatile mix of fingerstyle bass, fusion, soul and Charlie Bird like samba/boss nova.

Hershey's voice is perhaps a little on the sweeter, folk singing side than on the huskier we have (victims of tradition perhaps) come to expect from a female jazz singer; however while Russo's and Hershey's programme included some jazz standards ("How deep is the Ocean" by Irving Berlin, "From This Moment" on by Cole Porter) it contained a large proportion of experimental and original music.

"Summertime" performed as an Afro Cuban number was an interesting idea, though I'm not sure how successful.

Certainly the original "Become a Lake", which has the message that in emotionally hard times we should change perspective and widen our perceptions, (i.e. from being a glass to being a lake), worked well.

This performance was sensitively and appropriately dedicated to Milt Robinson.

Next we heard Wayne Shorter's 1968 "Nefertiti" with original lyrics by Hershey; it's an interesting choice because the piece marks an historical development in jazz when Miles Davis moved from traditional instrumentation to electronic; and who was Nefertiti? The queen of one of Egypt's great Pharaohs, about whom virtually all we know is a beautiful and enigmatic statue.

It's kind of an emblem for the destruction of civilisations and Betina's image of her standing by the ocean side, redolent of both black and also Jewish history, is apposite and moving.

One other totally original piece was a classical Indian Raga composed by Russo, entitled "Little Hands", with the traditional 'bol' singing, i.e. wordless sounds to mark the rhythmic structures, ably performed by Hershey. The concert ended with Aretha Franklin's 1968 number "Think", with both performers giving it their punchy best.

Russo and Hershey got a standing ovation also.