Guitarist Ralph Towner and bassist Gary Peacock are legendary in jazz: Towner for cofounding Oregon and Peacock for playing with everyone from Albert Ayler to Keith Jarrett. A Closer View presents them as a duo performing quietly dynamic, wide-ranging acoustic jazz. Towner"s classical guitar strums urge an almost struck tone, with rich crispness that both shines and aches. But Towner also makes his guitar sing, getting milky resonance from single notes and sharp, quick clarity whenever he wants it. Peacock plays his bass broadly, coaxing a bellow on the low end and a dancing lightness on the high end. The 12 songs here are so intimate they almost make one feel voyeuristic for listening. Towner and Peacock play their fast tunes with bewildering precision and grace, and they utilize silent space, as on "Amber Captive," as if silence were the duo"s third instrument. Whether playing sublimely slow or at a racing clip, Towner and Peacock play with fat power and oceanic depth. --Andrew Bartlett