Guy Klucevsek: accordion
Phillip Johnston: soprano saxophone
“Two players who share a sly, delightfully skewed way with musical idioms, the accordionist Guy Klucevsek and the saxophonist Phillip Johnston, are world-class instrumentalists and, seemingly, natural partners.” – The New Yorker
Their CD Tales From The Cryptic was released on Winter & Winter in 2003.
They have performed at the Musiques de Nuit Festival (Bordeaux, FRANCE), the Berlin Jazz Festival (GERMANY), the Bimhuis (NETHERLANDS). Their most recent performance was in March 2015 at The Stone (NYC).
Guy Klucevsek and Phillip Johnston play Guy’s tune ‘Bar Talk’ live at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 2003.
In a review of the festival, Jazz Times described the duo as “notably ambitious”. In 2004, reviewing Tales From The Cryptic, they wrote,
“Johnston gives some lift to the music with his bright, confidant playing, a touch of the blues and his klezmerlike lilt, but it’s Klucevsek’s dolorous accordion and old-world art songs that set the tone here. The two players stroll through winsome ballads, spirited dances and dark, carnivalesque themes while claiming liberties and creative detours that hardly jeopardize the balance of these modestly scaled pieces. They jump in and out of structured passages with grace, inject the music with tartness and just as convincingly (and with only the slightest hints of tongue-in-cheek) navigate the sweetest of melodies.”