blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with jazz

I've Kept This Single Faith
4 Out Of 5 Stars

For a comeback album, Sting aligned as many stars for this project as he could. "Brand New Day" features Stevie Wonder's harmonica on the title track, James Taylor drops in, as do many others. As a follow-up to the lackluster "Mercury Falling," he obviously wanted everything in its right place.

Which is odd, because the music plays with risks. The left field hit "Desert Rose" fields Middle Eastern rhythms along with an Arabic (I believe) backup vocal. Sting takes another stab at country with "Fill Her Up," complete with pedal steel and a gospel chorus at the end that exhorts, "Fill Her up with Jesus! Fill Her up with love" before breaking into a jazz piano ending. In anyone else's hands, this would sound clumsy and awkward, in Sting's it all sounds natural.

That's not to say that Sting is playing loose. The sound of the album is meticulous as usual, with the players all being good soldiers and filling out their places on the album in precise fashion. Even the rap in "Perfect Love Gone Wrong" sounds like it was laid in place by architects. But that's what our man Sting has always been about. Think about how serious his "On A Winter's Night" is, and that's his Holiday album. "Brand New Day" was more of that perfect plans of mice and men laid down with impeccable skill, with the good fortune of have Sting and a batch of good singing and playing to match the songs.

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Current Mood: peaceful
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Brand New Day" Sting

A Gold Decade
4 Out Of 5 Stars

This Sting Compilation, "Fields Of Gold 1984-1994," is the best of the Sting anthologies out there. Even more recent releases are less powerful than this one, because Sting was at a peak for the most of this period. The albums range from "Dreams of The Blue Turtles" to "Ten Summoner's Tales," which skips the less than stellar "Mercury Falling" but does miss out on his "Brand New Day" comeback and "Sacred Love."

You get the poetic Sting of "Fortress Around Your Heart," the thoughtful man who wrote "Fields of Gold" and the activist who wrote the still stunning "Fragile." Two of his other political songs, "Russians" and "They Dance Alone" are here, as well. Then there's that voice. Keening and pure, the sound that made The Police stand head and shoulders above so many of the New Wave groups of the day. Granted, the trio rose beyond that label quickly, and it was Sting's determination to stretch out more that led to a solo career in the first place. It's hard to imagine his original trio jazzing it up like Sting did on "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" or the more solemn and personal "When They Dance."

"Fields of Gold" marks the strongest period of Sting's solo years. You may be tempted to go for one of the other sets, but don't. Along woth a Police best of, this is a chronology of a brilliant career.

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Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "When They Dance" Sting

The Summoner Calls
5 Out of 5 Stars

In ye merry olde England, if you were about to be charged with a crime, the law of the day would pay someone to come and fetch you. That person, the Summoner, would be paid for his duty, but as the story goes, could also be paid to look the other way if the object of his attention made a generous counter offer. Such is the case with Sting, who wants to have it both ways. He wants your attention on "Ten Summoner's Tales," intriguing you in ten different ways before offering an epilogue at the end. He's eager to please this time, putting aside the morose but intriguing jazz fusion that his previous three albums had for a more pop approach.

From the first single, the Gospelish "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You," the change is apparent. Sting laments a world where politicians "all look like game show hosts to me" (funny how that still seems true) over a poppy hook and a snappy bass line. Then story time takes over with "Love Is Stronger Than Justice," a pedal-steel inflected story of bandits, and then the tale of the longing that is "Fields Of Gold." maybe one of my all time favorite Sting songs, it drifts across a Spanish guitar and is one of his loveliest ballads.

There are a few attempts at humor, like the dialogue during "St Augustine In Hell," where a special circle is left open for music critics, or the "Epilogue (Nothing About Me)," where he can't help but taunt that, after ten songs about assorted characters, you don't know who the teller of the stories really is. The songs range form poppy to enigmatic ("Something The Boy Said"), yet the man himself remains a cipher till the very end. Seeing as his last couple of albums were such personal affairs, the looser feel of "Ten Summoners Tales" and its songs from outside the sphere may make this Sting's most accessible album. Back in 1993 when I was still writing for a major trade paper, this was one of my faves of that year. Still is.

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Current Mood: energetic
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Fields Of Gold" Sting

It's All About The Groove
4 Out Of 5 Stars

"Sunken Condos" is Donald Fagen's look at getting older. He slyly refers to himself as a "burned out hippie clown" and as being "ready for Jurassic Park." If The Nightfly was his look at a nostalgic past, "Sunken Condos" is a look at how a grown-up loses the starry eyes and gets trapped in the "Memorabilia," calling them all "souvenirs of a perfect doom." If you think that the music should match all this, you'd be fooled, because like "The Nightfly," Fagen is at a relaxed and jazz-funk mood. For the 64 year old Fagen, this is a spry and loose album, filled with impeccable playing yet accessible songs.

Given my thoughts that "Morph The Cat" was inaccessibly complex for a pop-music album, the "Slinky Thing" that is this album is a delight. Fagen and his cohorts (special honors to guitarists Jon Herington and Kurt Rosenwinkle) lay down a funk groove like the best of Steely Dan's memorable songs, all while acknowledging that real musicians are playing these riffs and not some kid on a laptop (who seems to be the antagonist of "The New Breed," where Fagen loses the girl to a techno-whiz. Or he backtracks to the days of Prohibition as he becomes a mob-runner for "Good Stuff," making up people and places that harken back to the days of "Dr Wu" or "Gaucho."

Through it all, "Sunken Condos" doesn't lose the sly nods to his audience and old fans. This is most obvious on the odd cover of Isaac Hayes' "Out Of The Ghetto." Turning a piece of super-funk into the kind of mysterio-sheen that Becker and Fagen always did best, even it's got to be one of the oddest choices for a cover he could have made. Contrast it to "The Nightfly's" rework of Dion's "Ruby Baby" for the effect of being transported out of one zone and into Fagen's world. It's a world that can't be held into the compression of MP3's or pre-processed expectations. "Sunken Condos" is a return to form for Donald Fagen and is sure a welcome pool in a desert of whiz-kids and sine-waves passing for sophisticated music.

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Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Memorabilia" Donald Fagen

New Ships to be Built, new work to be done

5 Out Of 5 Stars

Sting's elegy to his father (who had recently passed) is a moody and moving album, dispensing with conventional pop and loaded with images of the sea, loss and those missing. The gently lolling waves that roll through "Island Of Souls" capture the mood of the album perfectly, as 'Benny' dreams of building the perfect ship to rescue his father and he to a magic island that would free them from the drudgery of living in a shipbuilder's wharf-side. Time soon ensnares them both as Benny seems his dreams crash on the water of loss and the never ending need for warcraft.

So it goes throughout "The Soul Cages." The single, "All This Time" reflects on the wisdom of his father as the river washes time away. That it's the most upbeat song on the CD also tells you the artist's mood at the time. The title track, "When The Angels Fall" or the elegy of "Why Should I Cry For You" are all mournful, cathartic works that Sting used to ponder the harder questions of life. Even the uptempo "Jeremiah's Blues" contemplates the end of the world, and it's the poppier song here.

With same gang of jazz and rock vets, along with Sting on bass for a change, the album is a sonic delight (and due for an upgrade, as is Sting's whole catalog). Just be certain, this is an album that may cause the shedding of tears if you're in a darker place.

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Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "When The Angels Fall" Sting

Play on, Sing on.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The Nylons released "Play On" in 2002, but it didn't see an American release for quite some time. Like so many of their excellent albums, they blend pop and R'n'B into seamless harmonies with the accompaniment of a few rhythm machines and little else. They've been at this game since the mid-80's, and are one of the rare a Capella bands to even score a hit single. So they don't do much to alter the fun. "Play On" will please their long time fans and maybe lure a few newbies.

Claude Morrison is the sole original member (I had the joy of interviewing him in 1997 for the "Run For Cover" album), and long time member Garth Mosbaugh is coming into his own as a writer. Among the terrific covers are three of his originals, including the title song. But they really excel at turning contemporary songs and oldies into Nylons songs. Paul Simon and The Police get a regal working over, with Simon's "Late In The Evening" capturing the song's intent maybe better than Paul himself did. They roll Roberta Flack's chestnut "Feel Like Making Love" into a finger snapping tribute...and then sing "Good Enough" to nothing but the sounds of popping fingers.

In addition, there's very good makeovers of Kenny Loggins' "This Is It," James Taylor's "Only One" and more. The voices mix in such perfection that it's hard to pick out a standout soloist, and the same with the songs. Although if forced, I'd go for "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and "Late In the Evening." After all these years, The Nylons have worn well. You can also now check out their jazzy "Skin Tight" from 2011.

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Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Late In The Evening" The Nylons

One will never be as bad as Tom Waits
5 Out of 5 Stars

A clattering bumpy ride of an album, this is Tom Waits at his visceral best. "Bad As Me" as the Waits persona as God's last drunken bluesman rising from the gutter to try and find what is better, even if even he knows it's all a myth. All you have to imagine is the man with the beaten suitcase at a train station, aware that baggage follows you everywhere you go, bit "maybe things will be better in Chicago." It's a theme that rolls along from beginning to end of "Bad As Me," with the final chorus of Auld Lang Syne fades from the lament of losers gathered on "New Year's Eve." It's a collection of songs worthy of Waits best albums, like "Rain Dogs," "Swordfishtromboines" or even early work like "Blue Valentine."

Tom has also assembled what could be his best band in many a year. Marc Ribot leads an all-star cast of guitarists, including Keith Richards and Los Lobos' David Hildago (who gets the best licks in the rocking "Let's Get Lost"). It's Ribot's typical pick and stab style that makes the greatest impression on the tougher numbers, including the exceptional "Hell Broke Luce." Punctuated by Ribot (and Richards) guitar snap, New Orleans Brass and sampled machine gun fire, Waits barks about the soldiers we've dumped in Iraq and Afghanistan and then forgotten.

"The Big **** bomb made me deaf,
A Humvee mechanic put his Kevlar on wrong?
I guarantee you'll meet up with a suicide bomb."

Then ends with the soldier/narrator home, blind, deaf and broke, cursing "What is next?" It could be the most powerful song he's ever written. Waits does have a sense of humor, though, and that comes through in the non-sequiturs that make up the title track, but goes a bit overboard when he quotes "Mr Jagger, and Mr Richards" while singing a song about getting "Satisfied" as Keith riffs away behind him. It's "Bad as Me's" only misfire, the rest of the album is just a kick. Given the usual long waits for Waits, "Bad As me" is well worth the time it took to arrive.