Steel Guitar Caviar! (Ecco-Fonic, 2005)

Jeremy Wakefield recently released his second solo album, and after listening to it, it's hard to dispute producer Deke Dickerson's liner note claim that he's on "the short list of the greatest players the instrument has ever known." The album is as much unalloyed, bouncing jazz, with occasional Hawaiian forays on "Hawaii Creeper" and "Mudslide," as anything tending western.

Wakefield joins his own instrumentals to a handful of jazz standards (and one Bob Dunn tune, "Taking Off," from the Milton Brown repertoire). The music is executed with flair (and a good deal of play - check out the strip-tease intro "The Red Garter" or the guitar tradeoffs on "Tiny's Tempo") by him and his supporting cast, which includes a revolving cast of guitarists (among them T.K. Smith and Lucky Star bandmade Russell Blake), Carl Sonny Leyland on Hammond organ, and D.J. Bonebrake of X on ringing vibes. (Ecco-Fonic, Box 304, Hollywood, Cal. 90078)