If the great players who stamped out Chicago’s West side as their cutting fields in the 1960s—Magic Sam, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Albert King—had pushed their command of blues melodies into new harmonic territory, one result may have been Barry Levenson’s HEART TO HAND. Like Danny Gatton, the subject of his tribute “Blue Tears,” Levenson‘s reputation, up until now at least, has resided mostly inside the industry. He records blues incidentals for ESPN while Delta Music has grouped two tunes here—the alternatively galloping and searing mini-suite—“Cobra Days/Blue Tears” and “The Late Show”—with legends like B.B. and T-Bone on two guitar compilations, BLUES GUITAR HEAVEN and DEPRESSION BLUES.

Levenson is in jeopardy of losing his low profile. Last July he and his band stole the show before 18,000 fans at the Belgium Rhythm & Blues Festival in Peer, where De Morgen, Holland’s national newspaper, called them “the most satisfying act” on the blues-star- studded lineup.

Interestingly, eight of the 11 tracks here are instrumentals and one would have to go back to Freddie King’s HIDEAWAY and Albert Collins’ THE COOLS SOUNDS OF…to find equivalently successful six-string showcases.  Except, as befitting an end-of-the-century roots stylist, Levenson has a broader, all-encompassing approach. In this way, Heart To Hhand is a concept album that mines all facets of blues and blues-based guitar. From the Meters-like groove of “Blue Stew” to the Bill Frisell-shaped twang of “Blue Steel” to the Bobby Womack and Curtis Mayfield  church-derived “Whole Lotta Blues” and the Les Paul sweep of “Earl’s Ride,” Levenson lays down line after line of single notes whose harmonic backdrop is Grant Green and Kenny Burrell’s boplicity.  In an era where guitarists throw in every lick that has ever crossed their minds, its refreshing to hear an album of over thirty-plus minutes of soloing in which the player is obviously holding back as Levenson offers highly-refined improvisations where all the extraneous notes have been edited out.  In an age of postmodern simulations, then, HEART TO HAND, is a high modernist masterpiece and the only question that remains: does blues guitar have anything else to say after this?