DOYLE’S GUITAR FLUENT IN MANY LANGUAGES

He shows off his versatility with instrumentals of blues, jazz and rock. By Mark Bialczak, Staff Writer

Don’t think for a second that Mark Doyle couldn’t be back out on the road, playing lead guitar for Meat Loaf’s national tour, or living in Boston, arranging music for producer Maurice Starr. But that was then. Now Doyle prefers to live in Syracuse and work hard on his "Guitar Noir" project.

The native of Auburn unleashed a band of keyboardist Andy Rudy, drummer Jimmy Johns and percussionist Dave DeSiro on his material Friday night at Happy Endings Cake and Coffeehouse. It was Hollywood quality stuff.

When Doyle wrote the original material and arranged standards for last year’s "Guitar Noir" disc, he envisioned the part jazzy, part rock-ish, all dreamy sounds as the type of music that would fit neatly into a movie or TV soundtrack.

Live, it’s so much more.

Friday night’s opening of two sets was 90 minutes long, but the time went by in a flash. The dozen or so songs were all instrumentals. Doyle’s dazzling guitar work did all of the talking. And he’s fluent in many musical languages.

When he fits the metal over his finger, his slide-guitar work conjured up images of the coolest blues. Speaking of that genre, his original song "Blue Wave," written as a tribute to and named for the Baldwinsville record label, owned by Greg Spencer, was husky and tough.

When he puts his fingers to the strings, he out-Satriani’ed Joe Satriani. His ripping summer-feel-inducing jazz rock on another original, "BJ’s Groove," was as smooth, fastidious and skillful as anything that guitar star has turned out lately.

Then, on original "Leslie Wonder," he sounded like a revved-up, still quirky Steely Dan. Doyle also flashed his versatility on a wide range of grand cover songs. "The Perry Mason Theme" was stately and judicious. "The Way We Were" was sultry and lovey-dovey.

A couple of Doors songs, "Moonlight Drive" and "Crystal Ship," alternated Jim Morrisson’s wild side and melodic craftsmanship. Brian Wilson’s "The Warmth of the Sun" made you feel the California heat, hear the subtle crash of a quiet surf and wiggle your toes to savor the Beach Boys’ sands of time.

All of the above allowed the band to show off its considerable strengths. Rudy’s keyboards carried a solid bass line and whirled like a pretty Hammond B-3. Johns’ drums saluted to all of Doyle’s marching orders, from subtle beauty to cascading thunder. And new-guy DeSiro impressed with mallets, sticks and hands.

A wondrous hybrid of the Rolling Stones’ "Paint It Black" and the Beatles’ "Eleanor Rigby" closed the set, the two legendary songs meshed in seamless glory. Sometimes modern genius spots a new moral in age-old fables.