WITHOUT LIMITS
A journey through jazz, song and improvisatory expression shaped by openness, reinvention and a distinctly American musical voice.
Without Limits — An American Century of Music for Guitar
A recording shaped by openness, reinvention and the fluid movement between musical traditions. Across these works, the guitar moves freely between concert music, jazz, song and improvisatory expression, revealing an instrument continually reshaped by America’s diverse musical landscape.
Moments of lyric intimacy unfold alongside rhythmic vitality, harmonic colour and inventive reimaginings of familiar musical worlds. Rather than remaining within fixed stylistic boundaries, these works allow contrasting traditions to coexist with spontaneity, warmth and expressive freedom.
Reception
"Without Limits demonstrates Adam Brown's keen awareness of repertoire and its function for modern audiences, conveyed with all the musical sensitivity and rigour we have come to expect from this outstanding performer."
Classical Guitar Magazine
“This release offers a rewarding glimpse at contemporary American guitar music.”
Minor 7th Journal
“You play beautifully, musically, accurately and persuasively. I’m a happy composer today!”
Paul Lansky
George Shearing: Lullaby of Birdland
A work alive with rhythmic motion, harmonic colour and the restless energy of the city at night. Beneath the elegance of the melody, shifting jazz harmonies and syncopated gestures create an atmosphere that feels simultaneously intimate and electric.
This arrangement draws upon the improvisatory brilliance of Erroll Garner, allowing the guitar to move fluidly between lyric warmth, percussive vitality and moments of spontaneous exuberance.
Jimmy Van Heusen: Darn That Dream
A work shaped by suspended lyricism and richly coloured harmony, where the melody unfolds with a sense of quiet longing and reflective intimacy. Chromatic shifts and subtle harmonic movement allow the music to drift continually between warmth, tenderness and uncertainty.
Beneath its apparent simplicity, the song reveals an expressive fluidity that moves freely between the worlds of popular song, jazz and concert music.
Richard Rodgers: My Romance
A work of quiet intimacy and understated elegance, where the melody unfolds with an effortless lyric flow above gently shifting harmonies. The music moves with warmth and openness, allowing moments of tenderness to emerge without sentimentality.
Beneath its simplicity lies a refined harmonic subtlety that has allowed the song to move naturally between Broadway, jazz and countless reimaginings beyond its original setting.
Jimmy Van Heusen: Like Someone in Love
A work shaped by lyric warmth and quiet vulnerability, where the melody unfolds with a sense of suspended longing and gentle emotional openness. Subtle harmonic movement and flowing phrases allow the music to drift naturally between intimacy and wistful reflection.
Across its many interpretations, the song has retained a remarkable expressive flexibility, moving easily between the worlds of jazz, film and popular song while preserving its understated emotional clarity.
Thelonious Monk: Evidence
A work driven by rhythmic unpredictability and angular melodic movement, where fragments of melody appear and dissolve through abrupt accents, displaced gestures and shifting textures. Monk allows rhythm to shape the character of the music with restless energy and wit, creating a sound world that feels simultaneously playful and elusive.
Throughout the work, familiar jazz language is continually reconfigured through unexpected pauses, revoiced harmonies and subtle transformations of previously stated material.
Thelonious Monk: Monk’s Mood
A work shaped by spaciousness, hesitation and quiet introspection, where the melody unfolds through suspended phrases, unexpected silences and richly coloured harmonic shadows. Monk allows stillness to become an essential expressive element, creating a sound world that feels simultaneously fragile, intimate and searching.
This arrangement by Jonathan Keren draws upon the breadth of Monk’s instrumental language, allowing shifting textures, resonant sonorities and extended techniques to evoke the atmosphere of his ensemble writing with remarkable subtlety.
John Duarte: Appalachian Dreams
A work shaped by memory, migration and the fluid movement of folk melodies across generations and landscapes. Duarte allows these traditional songs to unfold through shifting textures and changing atmospheres, preserving both their direct simplicity and emotional ambiguity.
Moments of introspection and modal stillness give way to rhythmic vitality, dance-like gestures and moments of quiet melodic intimacy. Across the suite, familiar melodies are continually reimagined through the guitar’s intimate sonorities, creating a sound world that feels simultaneously timeless and deeply personal.
Andrew York: Andecy
A work shaped by flowing rhythmic motion and luminous simplicity, where repeating patterns and gently unfolding melodies create an atmosphere of quiet openness and suspended calm. York allows folk-like gestures and delicate textures to emerge with natural ease, giving the music an understated sense of movement and continuity.
Beneath its apparent simplicity, the work reveals a subtle rhythmic vitality and an almost hypnotic fluidity, allowing the guitar’s resonant sonorities to unfold with warmth and clarity.
Frederic Hand: Missing Her
A work shaped by spacious harmonic colour and reflective lyricism, where flowing melodic lines unfold through textures that feel simultaneously intimate and improvisatory. Hand allows elements of jazz and classical language to merge naturally, creating a sound world marked by openness, flexibility and quiet emotional depth.
Moments of stillness give way to freer gestures and expansive harmonic movement, allowing the music to drift between contemplation, spontaneity and subtle rhythmic energy.
Paul Lansky: Putative Prelude, Shameless Sarabande & Crooked Courante
A work shaped by rhythmic vitality, shifting textures and an imaginative interplay between popular and classical traditions. Lansky draws upon the energy of folk and bluegrass idioms while allowing the music to unfold with the structural freedom and unpredictability of contemporary concert music.
Rather than privileging a single melodic line, the suite continually redirects the listener’s attention through changing timbres, layered gestures and evolving points of focus. The result is a sound world that feels playful, fluid and constantly in motion.
Bryan Johanson: Magic Serenade
A work shaped by resonance, colour and continual transformation, where shifting textures and delicate sonorities create an atmosphere that feels simultaneously intimate and expansive. Johanson uses the guitar’s natural resonance inventively, allowing harmonics, pizzicato gestures and layered timbres to unfold with remarkable fluidity.
The music moves with a sense of quiet exploration, evoking changing landscapes and open spaces through subtle rhythmic motion and evolving tonal colour.
Jimmy Van Heusen: Here’s That Rainy Day
A work shaped by quiet melancholy and harmonic subtlety, where the melody unfolds with a sense of reflective stillness and emotional restraint. This arrangement draws upon impressionistic textures and delicate shifts of resonance, allowing the guitar’s open sonorities to blur gently between warmth and dissonance.
As the music gradually dissolves through suspended phrases and fading harmonic colours, the work arrives at an ending that feels unresolved, intimate and quietly distant.