Billboard : 02/10/1958
Three stars

Raney and Burrell, two of the more productive modern guitarists, are showcased very well here. Both display ample technical equipment and the ability to put it to work in a meaningful, jazz-like fashion. Strong, flowing rhythmic support with compatible, front-line blowing from D. Byrd, trumpet and J. McLean, alto – and generally challenging material add appeal. Try Mal Waldron‘s composition Pivot as demo band.

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Norfolk Virginian Pilot
Robert C. Smith : 03/23/1958

Two more guitarists can be contrasted effectively. Jimmy Raney and Kenny Burrell,, the latter only 27, play together on Two Guitars. Raney’s attack is cooler, smoother, more linear in conception, but brilliant with the excitement of controlled emotion. Burrell bristles more, socks out his attack, utilizing power that reminds of Tal Farlow, who may be the real modern technical master. The album is good as a showcase of two guitarists developing Chistrian‘s ideology in divergent directions.

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Down Beat : 04/17/1958
Don Gold : 3 stars

With two excellent guitarists on hand, you’d expect this to be an exciting session. But, unfortunately, Burrell and Raney were merely placed alongside the Prestige house band for another in that label’s series of blowing sessions.

Burrell and Raney do their best, and Waldron, as composer, soloist, and able supporter, helps them, but the results are less than inspiring.

Each guitarist has a ballad-with-rhythm section, and these two tracks, along with Waldron’s fine Pivot, are the most meaningful portions of the LP. Burrell’s Close Your Eyes (it sounds like I’ll Close My Eyes to me) and Raney’s Out of Nowhere are warm, relaxed interpretations. Pivot is Waldron’s attractive arrangement, first recorded as a part of Prestige’s Tuba Sounds (Ray Draper) LP.

Both guitarists maintain a knowledge of, and admiration for, the jazz tradition of their instrument. Both are adept soloists. But Byrd and McLean, probably weary of the demands of recording in this atmosphere, are not up to par. Oddly enough, their presence wasn’t required here, since the two guitarists and rhythm section would have been sufficient to produce an attractive album.

Ordinarily, I grant the musicians their premise, as far as recording format is concerned. But when that format becomes inhibiting, as it does here, I cannot allow it to go unchallenged. It seems to me that much more could have been accomplished, utilizing Burrell and Raney as the focal points, than was accomplished here. Prestige should glance at the products of other record companies, merely to acquire some insight into the possibilities of escaping from a rut.

I can’t believe that Teddy Charles did (or was allowed to do) considerable supervising on this date. Too much talent was wasted. The fact that there is some value in the results of the session is more of a tribute to the two guitarists and Waldron than it is to any ingenuity on the part of the career-molders at Prestige.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Two Guitars may sound like the name of a restaurant specializing in paella valenciana and arroz con pollo but there is no connection between Spanish food or music and this album. The two guitars here are electric guitars as played by two of the finest in jazz today, Jimmy Raney and Kenny Burrell.

In this set, Burrell and Raney each have a ballad to themselves with rhythm section backing. The majority of the album, however, consists of five originals as played by the two guitars in an ensemble enhanced by trumpet and alto sax. In addition to soloing in each original, Raney and Burrell exchange thoughts in eight, four and two bar conversations on two of them.

Both guitarists (if you expect me to use the word plectrists, you’ve come to the wrong liner), like most modern guitarists, have inherited riches from Charlie Christian. These two have also shared in the legacy of Charlie Parker. Burrell’s debt to the Bop idiom is more generalized than Parkerized while Raney’s personal style was shaped by other interpretations of modern material too (Al Haig‘s, for instance).

Stylewise, Jimmy plays a long melodic line while Kenny is choppier. Soundwise, Kenny is higher, twangier and bluesy; I hear a hint of two of his favorites, Django Reinhardt and Oscar Moore. Jimmy is softer, more elliptical but at home in the blues idiom as his solo on Blue Duke reiterates. Kenny is “hotter” but both are strong communicators of emotion.

The supporting cast is made up of neither bit players or character rolists but of up and coming stars. Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron are well known by modern jazz listeners as are Doug Watkins and Arthur Taylor.

Blue Duke, a Mal Waldron composition, opens with a solo by Doug Watkins backed by guitar rhythm. After the theme follow solos by Raney, Byrd, Burrell, Waldron and McLean.

Mal’s Dead Heat is carried by the guitars with the horns filling in a background. Solos are by Burrell, McLean, Raney, Byrd and Waldron.

Pivot, Waldron’s third original, was first heard in Tuba Sounds/Ray Draper (Prestige 7096). Its attractive theme is improvised on here by Burrell, Byrd, Raney and Mal himself.

Close Your Eyes closes the side and is Burrell’s featured number. Waldron solos between Kenny’s two stints.

McLean’s Little Melonae (Jackie’s daughter) has an arresting melody of the kind that keeps running through your head. Solos are by McLean, Waldron, Raney and Burrell. Then there are two choruses of “fours” between Jimmy and Kenny and a chorus of “twos” in the same order until the bridge when they shift around. The last eight bars of “twos” has Kenny first. Watkins has the bridge in the out chorus.

This Way is the group’s. Up tempo improvisations are by Burrell, Byrd, McLean, Raney and Waldron. Kenny and Jimmy, in that order, play one chorus of “eights” and one of “fours” before the number is taken out in a collective manner with Arthur Taylor handling the bridge.

The side (and set) closer, as on side A, is a guitar with rhythm section selection. This time it is Raney’s and the tune is the evergreen Out Of Nowhere. An introductory chorus by Waldron prefaces Jimmy’s solo and Mal returns for a Monk-flavored flight of his own before the two of them return to the limbo.