By: Robert Silverstein
aving knocked around the music scene for the past twenty five years, N.Y.-based guitarist Mark Doyle has just released his long-awaited solo album. Having previously worked with artists like Hall & Oates, Meatloaf and Bryan Adams, Doyle's guitar chops are given a real workout on Guitar Noir. Assisted by several outstanding players, Doyle covers music from Henry Mancini, Dave Grusin and Marvin Hamlisch and also shows his affinity for jazz icons such as Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman. Each of the twelve guitar-based instrumentals here has something to offer with the obvious standouts being Doyle's stirring cover of the "Perry Mason Theme" by composer Fred Steiner, a lush rearrangement of the Brian Wilson classic "Warmth Of The Sun", a hypnotic set-closing rendition of Dimitri Tiompkin's "Wild Is The Wind" and a haunting solo guitar treatment of "The Way We Were". Doyle also proves his own composing skills on the sinister sounding title track. Bridging the gap between soundtracks, jazz and rock is no easy task, yet in the hands of Mark Doyle & Co., the results are engaging and often spectacular
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