The Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine is a European jazz legend. The 1942 born Catherine started playing professionally when he was only 17 and toured with artists such as Lou Bennett, Dexter Gordon, Jean-Luc Ponty, Chet Baker (with whom he recorded 6 albums), Tom Harrell and many others. Charles Mingus gave him the nickname “Young Django”, and the South German Newspaper in Munich just recently wrote about him that he “plays things that cannot be heard by any other guitarist in the world today.” This is also a result of his impeccable time feel, which allows him to sound relaxed and loose even while playing the most breathtaking up-tempo passages. But it is not mainly his technique and dexterity that sets him apart; furthermore what made him so unique is his acoustic guitar sound, as well as an improvisational style, which is based not on other guitarists, but on some of the great horn players in jazz history.
