Wayne Krantz - Good Piranha/Bad Piranha (2014)

'Good Piranha/Bad Piranha' is guitar maverick Wayne Krantz full-throttle double-take on four contemporary pop and hip hop songs, from which he plunders the textural, rhythmic and harmonic intrigue that has come to define each of his unique projects.
Presenting two distinct versions each of Pendulum's "Comprachicos," M.C. Hammer's "U Can't Touch This," Ice Cube's "My Skin is My Sin" and Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke's "Black Swan," Krantz extracts and serves up a surprising range of nuance by switching up musicians and applying his inimitable instrumental inventiveness. Each song's multiple takes allow the group(s) to reimagine the material from unexpected angles, making use of subtle rhythmic and melodic shifts to frame a dazzling display of the guitarist's revered melodic and chordal innovations; he intertwines his stark, elastic tones with the familiar tunes' snaky rhythmic skeletons and insistent basslines to create wholly new works.

Joining Krantz are his longtime trio mates Keith Carlock (Steely Dan, Sting) on drums and Tim Lefebvre (Tedeschi Trucks Band) on bass. Recent cohort Nate Wood (Kneebody) reprises his chameleonic role in Krantz' touring band, appearing here on bass for the first versions of the four tunes and then on drums for the second. The material is delicately enhanced by occasional vocal interjections courtesy Gabriela Anders.

Since the late 80s Wayne Krantz has been revered as one of the world's great guitarists, working alongside such rock legends as Steely Dan, jazz saxophonists Michael Brecker, Chris Potter and David Binney, composer Carla Bley and drum icon Billy Cobham, as well as leading his own groups.