In an interview for his previous album with the ZZ Quartet, 2021’s Midnight in Europe, Croatian-born guitarist Ratko Zjaca explained how he and the group’s co-leader, Italian accordionist Simone Zanchini, came to be so utterly eclectic in their musical tastes. “We like Hendrix, we like Fellini, we like Wayne Shorter, we like Michael Brecker, we like John Coltrane…and everything.” One other aspect of Ratko’s musical makeup is his deep-seated love of jazz standards from the Great American Songbook. The longtime resident of Rotterdam, Netherlands explores those familiar vehicles with a mix of reverence and adventure in this intimate and demanding solo guitar outing, his 17th album as a leader/co-leader. The prospect of playing standards in an unaccompanied setting — juggling chords, melody and bass lines — can be a daunting task for most guitarists. The legendary Jim Hall found the prospect “terrifying,” while the great Joe Pass may have set the standard for solo guitar with his series of Virtuoso recordings from the 1970s. Pass’ influence weighs heavily throughout Archtop Avenue. You can hear it in the masterful, contrapuntal playing by Zjaca on Duke Ellington’s gorgeous ballad “Prelude To A Kiss”, on Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Darn That Dream”, and his introspective take on George & Ira Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me”. As Ratko explained, “My first jazz guitar album that I heard as a teenager was the Virtuoso solo album by Joe Pass. I couldn’t believe that one man could play jazz guitar alone on the whole album and at such an incredible level. Obsessed with Joe in the beginning, I spent days and days studying his playing from records. And then when I heard that he was teaching at the Rotterdam Conservatory, I decided to go to there.” Zjaca took the entrance exam for the conservatory from his hometown in Zagreb, Croatia. He was accepted and over the course of five years there ended up studying with Pass when the great guitarist would come to Rotterdam Conservatory every few months to give lessons. “I learned a lot about chord melody style, counterpoint, repertoire and many other things,” Ratko recalled. “But I soon realized that I had to work on my own way of playing.” Those personalized touches can be heard in his extrapolations of the familiar melodies on “Body And Soul”, his intervallic leaps on “Alone Together” and his playing weaving of dissonance, counterpoint and swing on Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Dream”. While respecting the harmonic contours and deeply ingrained melodies of those oft-covered tunes, and others presented here on Archtop Avenue, Zjaca puts his own personal stamp on them through reharmonization, subtle rhythmic shifts and improvisational flights. Recording each track with a different archtop guitar, he interprets these beloved standards, and a few originals, with taste and invention. Always mindful of addressing the bass line while delivering rich chord voicings and spinning fluid melody lines, he strikes a delicate balancing act on these 12 tunes from Archtop Avenue. “Doing a solo guitar album has been in my head for a long time,” he said. “Playing solo guitar is the most demanding form of expression on the instrument because you are completely musically naked and there is no one to cover or help you. And on the other hand, there is enormous freedom and the possibility of expression, but it requires great discipline and concentration. That is why there are not many solo jazz guitar albums.” Ratko added that he tuned his various guitars down for this session. “On the whole album I play the guitar lowered by half a step because I like that sound of the instrument the most for solo playing.” He opens Archtop Avenue with an interpretation of Johnny Green’s 1930 tune “Body and Soul”, famously covered by Coleman Hawkins on a 1939 recording. Performed on a 1990 Bob Benedetto Manhattan archtop guitar, Ratko kicks off this jazz classic with some intervallic extrapolation on the intro before settling into some Passian chord melody playing on the familiar theme. And while he may take some liberties along the way, including his improvised solo at the 3:00 mark, he never strays too far from the melody. It’s always done with reverence for the romance of the original. “This is a standard that I really like to play because it has an extremely interesting melody and harmonic modulations,” he said. “And I was most inspired by pianists who have played this tune,” which would include everyone from Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson to Bill Evans, Barry Harris, Mulgrew Miller and countless others. On “Prelude To A Kiss” (performed on a 2007 Bryant Trenier Excel) he spontaneously switches back and forth from pick to fingerstyle playing on different passages of that romantic bit of Ellingtonia. As he explained, “I open the tune with the pick and at the 1:30 mark I play with my fingers, then at the end I go back to the pick. And in my arrangement, I play three modulations so that there are a lot of colors and details.” Ratko’s serene version of John Coltrane’s melancholic ballad “Lonnie’s Lament” (performed on a 1966 Jimmy D’Aquisto New Yorker Special) is rendered like a prayer. “It’s one of my favorite Coltrane compositions and I was lucky enough to record and play it with the legendary Coltrane bassist and my mentor, Reggie Workman (on 2000’s A Day In Manhattan).” His version here is in 3/4 time and he introduces some subtle modulation at the end of the last theme. His use of open-string droning throughout the piece was inspired by pianist McCoy Tyner’s signature playing on the original. Ratko’s take on Van Heusen’s “Darn That Dream” is a pure example of fingerstyle playing (on a 2012 Linda Manzer guitar). “The biggest inspiration for that song is, of course, the Bill Evans and Jim Hall version (from 1962’s Undercurrents). “It’s one of my all time favorite standards.” The guitarist takes a suitably dissonant approach on the intro to “Monk’s Dream” (performed on a 1934 John D’Angelico Exel) before injecting a sense swing, along with a touch of playful irreverence, on the familiar melody. Note his “chunking” rhythm guitar work here, along with his percussive hitting of the strings with his right hand to provide that swinging momentum. “Monk is one of my favorite composers and he is extremely interesting for playing solo guitar,” said Zjaca. “What I love most about his compositions is a hidden sophisticated humor that runs through his music.” The gorgeous ballad “For Heaven’s Sake”, a standard introduced in 1948 by the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and subsequently recorded by everyone from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Tony Bennett, Chet Baker and Bill Evans, is an example of some of Ratko’s most tender playing on the record and again features the guitarist spontaneously alternating between pick and fingers (on a 2014 Jim Triggs New Yorker). Ratko’s three originals are performed on three different guitars. “Way To Go” (1954 Gibson L-5CN) is a modal form with a passing reference to John Coltrane’s “Resolution” from A Love Supreme. “Dream Of Tomorrow” (2009 Cris Mirabella Jazz Modern) is a challenging piece full of time signature changes, while “The Heart Of Time” (2008 Jimmy Foster 7-string) is an evocative number that has the guitarist exploring the full depth of the added low A string for covering rich bass lines. Zjaca’s classical studies come to the fore on his brilliant, contrapuntal rendering of “Alone Together”, which is full of intricate string skipping and marked by a kind of beautiful dance between single note lines and rich chord melody playing (performed on a 1994 Paul Gudelsky guitar). As he explained, “I have been playing classical guitar for a long time and I work a lot on my solo repertoire and studying harmony and counterpoint. Scarlatti is one of my favorites composer and I spent a lot of time analyzing his music, which is the bible of counterpoint.” By the 2:08 mark, he introduces a swing factor before returning to the classically influenced form. His take on “Polka Dots And Moonbeams” is another masterful example of fingerstyle jazz (on a 1937 John D’Angelico Excel). “That’s a song that I like to play and is extremely popular to play on the guitar,” said Ratko. “I always try to play naturally and improvise on the melody of the song and build new motifs and interplay between the harmony.” Ratko concludes Archtop Avenue with a deft take on the 1926 Gershwin tune “Someone To Watch Over Me”, which finds him striking a nice balance between chord melody playing, bass lines and single note melodies (on a 1964 John D’Angelico New Yorker). “It’s a beautiful ballad is also a challenge to play,” he explained. “And I wanted to end this story of my long-term research on archtop guitars with this tune.” Dedicated to the world’s most famous guitar builders and inspired by a list of musical teachers who opened up his musical horizons, from Joe Pass and Jim Hall to Joe Diorio, Mick Goodrick and Vic Juris, Archtop Avenue is a compelling addition to the canon of solo guitar and a crowning achievement in Zjaca’s career to date. — Bill Milkowski