Tunes is a simple recording of legendary guitarist Louis Stewart and ‘Ireland’s premier piano-man’ Jim Doherty playing some classic jazz together. Recorded without fuss by Daire Winston in his Beechpark Studios in Rathcoole, County Dublin, this was all done in a few sessions, with mostly one take per track. 

The brief sleeve notes point out that in the fifty or so years since Stewart and Doherty first played music together as teenagers they have often talked about recording a duet album. Winston explains that it only finally happened when he approached Doherty with the idea after hearing them play at a funeral service for composer Noel Kelehan. The project then became the impetus for Winston’s new record label, BeechPark Records.

Stewart, honorary Trinity College doctorate holder and a member of Aosdána, has worked with the likes of Benny Goodman, Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, George Shearing and Robert Farnon. Doherty, who has played with, among many others, Gerry Mulligan and Ray Charles, is also known for his work as music director on The Late Late Show and as a composer of popular signature tunes.

After a sell-out gig over Easter, Stewart and Doherty will be returning to JJ Smyths in Dublin for a ‘launch’ performance on Tuesday, 23 April, at 8pm.

 The tracks on the album are as follows:
1. It Could Happen To You (Burke & Van Heusen)   
2. You Go To My Head (Coots & Gillespie)
3. Broadway (Wood, McCrae & Bird)    
4. I Remember You (Schertzinger & Mercer)
5. Comme Ci, Comme Ca (Coquatrix, Dudan & Goell)
6. This Can’t Be Love (Rodgers & Hart)
7. Button Up Your Overcoat (De Sylva, Brown & Henderson)
8. I Surrender Dear (Barris & Clifford)
9. I Wished On The Moon (Rainger & Parker)
10. What Is There To Say (Duke & Harburg)
11. My Heart Stood Still (Rodgers & Hart)

beechparkrecords.com