Fast Forward. Joe Jackson

It was somewhere late summer that a song entered my head that I couldn't get rid off for a while. So much so that after coming home I put on the old LP and played the song (and the rest of the album) exceedingly loud. 'You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)' is exemplary for the Joe Jackson that I like most, 'Night And Day' and 'Body And Soul'. After which I sort of lost track of the man. Much like most of the world. Somewhere earlier this century I saw him play with his Band after releasing 'Volume IV' and lost track again. I faintly remembering myself listening to 'Rain' his previously album and not liking it a lot. It seemed over again.

Then Fast Forward was delivered in my inbox. Something stirred within me. Joe Jackson! I put on 'Body and Soul' instead, but now it's time to make amends. Fast Forward shows that the man is in great form here and adds several very interesting songs to his oeuvre that easily compare to some of the ones of his golden age.

Joe Jackson by now is 61, but I only need to look into the mirror to understand that that has to be inevitable. Time flies when you're having fun.

For Fast Forward Jackson took a different approach to making an album, albeit not unique. The album was recorded in four cities, with four sets of musicians. New York, Berlin, Amsterdam and New Orleans. Graham Maby plays the bass in the New York sessions, but not in the others. The sessions all hold four songs each and were once intended to be released as EPs. I'm glad Jackson didn't, as the impact is so much larger now.

For what the New York sessions are concerned they are stunningly good. Catching everything from Joe Jackson style rock to Sinatra style jazz in a modern coating. They sound familiar, they touch my Joe Jackson strings in the right places, they are good. The good thing is that Fast Forward doesn't stop there. The quality is completely kept up throughout the album. Even when a boy singer (Mitchell Sink) moves in, a symphony orchestra or a Caro Emerald like background played by (the Germans of) Dutch band Zuco 103. It fits the melancholy music that Jackson has written for this session. 'Far Away' about leaving England and ghosts underneath a bed. 'So You Say' is another absolute total beauty of a song. One of those songs to fall in love with. 'Poor Thing' is another mid tempo song but the punky sneer shows through in some spots faintly bringing the first incarnation Joe Jackson to mind.

What strikes me (again) is what good a singer Joe Jackson is. And that I love to hear him sing in the right songs. That includes 'San Francisco Fan', e.g. Though he mostly sings in one timbre, he is able to use that timbre in several ways. From a soothing swooning to a punky gnarl, frightening nearly all who listen. I'm not going to claim that Joe Jackson's voice hasn't aged. It has, in a great way, but listening to that beautiful ballad 'The Blue Time' I can hear that his voice reaches a limit in a way that just is different from 1980. The fact that Jackson comes up with a song that is as beautiful as 'Breaking Us In Two', just to give an example, is the fun fact here. Whoever plays that trumpet, it just is so beautiful. Not to forget the interplay with electric guitar and Jackson's piano. High class.

The New Orleans section kicks off like it 1978 all over. Fast, urgent, without returning to punk with a reggae sauce for one second. A top heavy song, without dozens of instruments. The reggae rhythm does return in the second song, 'Satellite'. ("Gravity is going to get you some day", smart.) Again there is a looseness that could not have been on 'Look Sharp' and 'I'm The Man'. A true mix of 1978 with 1982.

For four such different settings Fast Forward is a consistent album. If no one had written about it, would anyone truly have noticed differences? Perhaps in the moods, but even then. The common denominator is quality. All four sessions have yielded great songs. I can't hear a single lapse, with the possible exception of the German cover song, but that is because I don't like that Interbellum sort of music.

Over the years Joe Jackson stepped out in so many directions that I just couldn't follow him. Some of the things he has done are just not the sort of music I enjoy. This daring most certainly has my respect as he followed his heart and mind. Late in 2015 another re-connection took place. Wo. and Joe both in the right position. The songs on Fast Forward have that Joe Jackson class in combination with the intriguing melodies that make me want to listen. This album reaches a level of sophistication which is exceptional, without losing that pop feeling for a second. Fast Forward is Joe Jackson at his very best as far as I'm concerned. A five star album, but my 2015 album list has already been published.

Wo.

You can listen to 'A Little Smile' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeeVP4a10vE

or buy on Bol.Com

Alone In The Universe. Jeff Lynne's ELO

Bij Electric Light Orchestra denk ik onmiddellijk aan de Jaren 70. Natuurlijk maakte de band ook in de jaren 80 en 90 nog platen en zelfs in 2001 verscheen er nog een plaat van de band rond Jeff Lynne, maar voor de hoogtijdagen van E.L.O. moeten we toch echt terug naar de periode 1973-1977.
 
Ik had dan ook geen hele hoge verwachtingen van Alone In The Universe, dat deze week is verschenen en is uitgebracht onder de naam Jeff Lynne’s ELO.
 
Op hetzelfde moment heb ik Jeff Lynne heel hoog zitten. De man heeft minstens een dozijn briljante singles op zijn naam staan, deed hele mooie dingen als producer en wierp zich op indrukwekkende wijze op als conservator van het werk van The Beatles.
 
De diepe bewondering voor het werk van The Beatles hoor je direct terug in de openingstrack van Alone In The Universe. When I Was A Boy klinkt als een vergeten Beatles klassieker en laat direct horen dat de terugkeer van Jeff Lynne’s ELO een terugkeer is die er toe doet.
 
Invloeden van The Beatles zijn veel vaker te horen op Alone In The Universe. Jeff Lynne beschikt net als Paul McCartney over het vermogen om volstrekt tijdloze popsongs te schrijven en eert in muzikaal opzicht vooral George Harrison. Smullen dus voor liefhebbers van The Beatles, maar er is meer.

Aan het einde van de openingstrack hoor je voor het eerst invloeden uit de hoogtijdagen van Electric Light Orchestra. Deze invloeden zijn op de hele plaat hoorbaar, maar worden nergens fantasieloos uitgemolken. Waar E.L.O. in het verleden vooral vertrouwde op de zwaar aangezette strijkers, is Alone In The Universe vooral een gitaarplaat, waarop met name de uit duizenden herkenbare vocalen aan E.L.O. doen denken.
 
Jeff Lynne verrast op de comeback plaat van zijn voormalige band met een serie ijzersterkte songs vol referenties naar het verleden. Het zijn songs die onmiddellijk klinken als klassiekers en dat is bijzonder. Het zijn songs die stuk voor stuk bijzonder makkelijk in het gehoor liggen, maar het zijn ook songs die lang blijven groeien en ontzettend knap in elkaar steken. 

Het levert een verrassend sterke plaat op, die laat horen dat we in 2015 nog volop rekening moeten houden met Jeff Lynne en zijn ELO. Geldt overigens ook voor 2016, want dan staat de band in de Ziggo Dome.

Erwin Zijleman

Je kunt hier luisteren naar 'One Step At A Time':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0oWuhTzh8

of kopen op Bol.com

The October Kairos by .No on Concertzender

Artwork: Astrid van der Meijs

Each month Wo. listens in on .No's musical choices for his radio program on Concertzender, Kairos, a meditation on music. Music that usually lies way beyond his comfort zone of guitars (often louder), bass, drums and if necessary keyboards, violins and copper. The kind of music they call rock. None of that today, so .No what do you have for me? As you notice October comes a bit later than usual. That's what happens when life and deadlines get in the way of intensive, extra curricular listening.

There is a theme this month: Time. Time is a serious topic, I'd say. It defines modern life. Without it life must have been very different. Time is what gives stress, deadlines, attendance, being too late or too early. Although I do not have the illusion that these sort of feelings did not exist before clocks, but certainly in a different way. A harvest that had to be in on time. landlords with impossible demands, serfdom, unexpected, unexplainable events, all will have given rise to stress too, in ways we don't know any more. These thoughts all come to me listening to Francis Poulenc's sonata for clarinet and piano. Have we become serfs to our clocks and belatedly our smarter and smarter cell phones? Time: a fascinating topic.

The split from Poulenc with 'Lost' by Barzin is immaculate, as I have come to expect in Kairos. No matter how different this switch to modern music is, it is becoming. Barzin plays music that I listen to quite often, so I even have made a discovery here. The band or artist could have been released on Snowstar Records, but is not. The treated vocals are somewhat irritating at first, but I grew into that and started to enjoy all that goes on underneath, tending towards country, because of the pedal steel sound, but enough indie to be very credible, but more importantly, interesting.

The jump to church music is a large one. Especially when a counter tenor is involved. A different kind of shudder goes down my spine than one of pleasure. Gavin Bryar's 'Incipit Vita Nova' is a very serious piece of work. You'd say that the new life we are allowed to view brings joy, but not here. Almost downcast as if we know the ending already and are singing about it. We know, of course, but they at the time did not. So why not rejoice the new life?

Next up is a German song. Another serious affair. The way Ewald Spiss makes music reminds me of Broeder Dieleman, exempting the birds. An acoustic guitar and sharp, almost screeching violins. 'Nacht. Jahrtal' is a song that impresses in its basic simplicity. He also reminds me of a show I saw in December of Jesse Mac Cormack. Spiss also attempts to make things more ugly than they at heart are. There are aspects to 'Nacht' that become unlistenable. Close to the fingernails on the schoolboard. A phenomenon that is disappearing in time, I realise. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Broeder Dieleman, Sun Kil Moon, just some names that jump to mind listening to Ewald Spiss. I want to learn more for certain.

The next up may be part of a song cycle called 'Summer Tunes'. It is rather a drizzly summer as far as I can hear. There's not much in the music inviting me to go out. If I was out camping, I'd go home. The Dutch Navarra Quartet plays Peteris Vasks. The mood does change somewhat on into the tune: 'Coming into Bloom' is caught in the act. The naughty notes as first steps towards blooming, the beauty of the flower? Yes, I can hear it.

The poem in 'A Child's Prayer' is so personal that I refrain from comment here. A very short life is remembered and in a way celebrated. Underneath the poem are voices like the voices of angels, drifting up in a large cathedral in such a way that almost makes me believe there must be something up there. They are so soothing, so comforting. Music to dissolve in. Exactly everything what beautiful music can achieve.

Hans Kockelmans is also a jazz guitarist! I was not aware of that. The short improvisation of spiraling notes, called 'Mijmer', fits beautifully with the angels from just before.

The switch into true jazz of the Thomas Baggermann Trio is a bit of a shock. The music is far more traditional that Kockelmans' lead and solo playing. That late night sort of jazz where a lazy sax leads a band towards the closing of the evening. As it is it is very befitting, but also very neat and nice. Pleasant, let me stop there.

The first sounds made me think that I heard a song by Broeder Dieleman that I hadn't heard before, but it is Ries de Vuyst. The music changes into a sort of blues. The guitar and harmonica remind me of Hot Tuna's first acoustic blues album from around 1970. 'Snijwblind' is a kind of song that stands like a pillar in time. A monolith, so solid it is. With great, extremely self-assured playing and a voice so gritty that I believe it instantly. 'Snijwblind' is, caught in one word, beautiful.

Anouar Brahem's song 'Les Jardins de Ziryab' is presented next. In this song south meets north. North African sounds blend with western piano sounds and accordion (or something like it). The instruments and notes float around each other and exclude one another as if in a push and pull game of attraction. With no one winning, as there is no need for win or lose here. Just the music.

During a poem on this month's theme, time, on Kairos, Brahem's song changes to John Tavener's 'Last Sleep Of the Virgin'. A mesmerising piece of work, where a sort of weightlessness is played by the instruments of the Chilingirian Quartet. The defining instrument here are the bells, played by Lain Simcock. They have a somewhat strange lead role as it is the bells that move up and down the composition, at times even as if they don't really belong. Estranging yet fascinating. The string section gets its role as lead instruments as well, moving into the composition, where it gets darker, (even) moodier. It gets too moody for me, so I don't sit it out, with full attention, until the end. Time caught up with me, I'm afraid.

Summing up, I have the impression that this Kairos is more on timelessness than on time. Most songs made me forget about time. A major function of music. Good music makes you forget about time and most other things. Music is submission, the direct way to the heart, to the mind or to the soul, whatever you would like to call it. Good music touches you in a direct way, changes you and moves with you through life. Where ever you go, whatever you do. Timeless. Always there when you want it and even when you don't in the form of that song that won't leave your head. Time. Music. Timeless. Kairos.

Wo.



You can listen back to what I tried to describe here:

http://www.concertzender.nl/programmagids/?date=2015-10-01&month=1&detail=81091


Playlist of October 2016 Kairos

00:01  Francis Poulenc. Romanza uit Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. Janet Hilton, klarinet; Keith Swallow, piano.
Album ‘Rhapsodie’. Chandos Records Chan 6589.
04:50  Barzin. Lost. Van album ‘Notes to an absent lover’
Monotreme Records MONO-35
07:55  Gavin Bryars. Incipit Vita Nova. David James, countertenor; Annemarie Dreyer, viool; Ulrike Lachner, viola da gamba; Rebecca Firth, cello.
Album ‘Vita Nova. ECM New Series 1533445 351-2.
13:28  Ewald Spiss. Nacht. Jahrtal (Ewald Spiss, zang, diverse instrumenten; Christine Spiss, zang).
Album Lieder Von Unschuld Und Widerfahren. Ahnstern39
21:11  Pēteris Vasks. Coming into Bloom uit String Quartet no. 2 Summer Tunes (1984). Navarra Quartet (Xander van Vliet, viool; Marije Ploemacher, viool; Simone van der Giessen, viola da gamba; Nathaniel Boyd, cello).
Challenge Classics CC72365.
27:58  James MacMillan. A child’s prayer. Gabrieli Consort olv. Paul McCreesh.
Album A Song of Farewell. Signum Records SIGCD 281.
31:48  Hans Kockelmans. Mijmer (improvisatie). Hans Kockelmans, gitaar.
Eigen opname Hans Kockelmans.
32:14  J. Roelofs. Smiling in the cold. Thomas Baggerrman Trio. Album: live Sessions.
Uitgegeven in eigen beheer.
37:19  Ries de Vuyst. Snijwblind.
Album Oondert. Uitgegeven in eigen beheer.
41:02  Anouar Brahem. Les jardins de Ziryab.
Album: Le voyage de Sahar. ECM 1915 9874651.
44:56  JohnTavener. Last sleep of the virgin (gedeeltelijk). Chilingirian Quartet (Lain Simcock, bellen; Philip de Groote, cello; Simon Rowland-Jones, viola da gamba; Charles Sewart en Levon Chilingirian, viool).
Virgin Classics VC5 45023 2

David Bowie (1947-2016) IM

Friday 8 January I bought 'Blackstar' on an impulse. You can find my review the day before this one. I put the album on, again and again. I was so impressed, estranged, pulled closer, pushed away, intrigued, but above all totally captured (and surprised). I started writing a review for this blog, which I finished on Saturday 9. On Monday morning 11 I opened this blog to do a final tuning of the post. That was the reason the radio was still playing. I was fairly annoyed with the music 3FM was playing. Too many rappers and numbing lightness. Then the singer of Triggerfinger was interviewed and while talking of a collaboration by Triggerfinger with some rapper, DJ Giel Beelen fell sort of silent, stammering a little. He had received a message that he needed to check before sharing it. I had even heard the beep of the message when it came in. Within seconds he went into overdrive as well, changing his program on the spot, in the meantime leaving Mario Goossens behind for a while.

It was true. David Bowie had passed away. "Surprised one last time" as my newspaper NRC Handelsblad heads on the evening of writing with a full front page on Bowie, who after all is one of the most important artists in rock of the past 45 years.

Where to begin this personal memory of a person I have never met, but who shares my life none the same for the past 47 years? In Rotterdam 1969 with that single that was released and made the charts, that was mindboggling to my 9 year old ears. 'Space Oddity' is that fantastic single of the kind that they only made in the second half of the 1960s and the first two of the 70s. That few years in pop and rock in which anything was possible. After that single, my story around it can be found in a post on 'David Bowie/Space Oddity' of last year, it took me years to catch on to Bowie again, not being able to buy albums, nor truly understand the concept of albums at the time either. Nor were his songs on the radio. No hits, no exposure. I remember buying 'John, I'm Only Dancing' discounted in 1972 or 1973. Because it was Bowie.

It was through the same cousin that got me onto The Beatles and The Kinks in the 1960s, sometimes WoNo Magazine contributor Tineke, who kept the Bowie flame going. She was a fan. 'Station To Station' and 'Bowie Live' were my first albums in 1976 and as things go the former is still my favourite Bowie album. There simply is no better. It holds it all.

Bowie surprised me many a time. Not always for the positive. The horrid Berlin instrumental experiments and most things after 1983. Some albums had their moments but nothing really made it compared to 'Hunky Dory', 'Ziggy Stardust', 'Young Americans' or even 'Scary Monsters'. Until 8 January 2016 that is.

Groningen Museum

I had the pleasure of seeing Bowie live in 1976, 1978, 1983, 1990 and 2003. My very first big show in Ahoy, made such an impression. That weird movie up front, 'Un Chien Andalou'. Although I didn't know most songs he played, being there was magical. The neon stage of 1978 with a fantastic version of 'Station To Station' with Adrian Belew on guitar? I think so. The stadium concert in Rotterdam with UB40 and Icehouse on the Serious Moonlight tour, the Sound and Vision tour back in Ahoy with finally 'Space Oddity played live. Finally the A Reality tour, with too many songs that I did not really like. So I skipped his last show in the ArenA. I had seen enough through the years. Little did I know that it would be one of his last shows ever. There's no regrets there though.

From the 90s onwards David Bowie slowly became a musician of the past to me. More a thought to cherish. A sense that could make me feel good instantly, without putting his albums on often anymore. A feeling that is triggered by accidental encounters with his music in public spaces or on the radio. Instant pleasure while living my life, discovering new music.

And then came 'Blackstar'. The real impact of the album still has to prove itself. It's only five days old at this point in time. The first encounters were phenomenal though. It was all and more than I ever expected. The whole world already discussed all the signs that no one heard before the news came in on Monday morning -"How could we have been so deaf"- so I'll refrain from that here. What I did comment on was that Bowie's voice on 'Blackstar' is weak here and there. For reasons of decency and above all respect I did not write feeble. Sometimes it actually is. It takes nothing away of the grandness of the album. Bowie made a final bid for the one who always surprises and succeeded. In a grand style at that. I said to my friends on Saturday: "I don't think he will ever perform again. He wouldn't be able to do the up-tempo songs with this voice". Too prophetic. Little was I to know that he was in his final hours, self-chosen or not.

With Bowie a great performer has passed away. An artist who was able to show the world how to renew genres and blend musical genres into something new. Who led as a style icon, in outrageous outfits, opening whole worlds for others to step into. Something that he could not keep up for ever, until that final album. He certainly succeeds again there in blending unblendable styles. Free jazz, dance, 40s crooning and pop. It's all in there in ways that are very far out there. And I'm not even starting on the final videos that have an 80s grandeur.

One of my teenage heroes has passed away, as things go in life. His music lives on (within me) until that final day. And who knows, perhaps even beyond. There's a black star who knows.....

Wo.

You can listen here to my favourite Bowie track, 'Word On A Wing' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYvqa7DFNc

Blackstar. David Bowie

The news just came in. David Bowie died. This review was ready for this morning. So, as a first tribute this review of a fantastic new album.

Come 8 January,  I always get up and congratulate David Bowie in my mind. Bowie, my teenage hero, but also someone who will never leave me, despite the fact that I'm much less a fan than I was circa 30 to 40 years ago.

Come 8 January, a new album is released on his birthday, again. As I happened to be in town, I decided to buy it on impulse. Despite what I had heard and read before. Call it for old times sake. But was I confirmed in my negative thoughts or even disappointed? Please read on.

The song that I had heard was the long opening song. It's name is what the cd cover shows: a black star. That's all, so let me call it 'Blackstar'. The one with that long video, experimental, music and video, with the mysterious lyrics. The one that made me think, I do not need this album. Boy, was I wrong. Yes, the album is experimental, with a lot of difficult rhythms, tending to dance without being very danceable, what is going on is of an extreme high level of making music.

I'm already into my third listening session in one day. By now I'm pretty much convinced that I'm listening to the sort of Bowie I want to listen to. At the same time I'm totally aware that part of Blackstar, is what turned me totally off in the second half of the 90s when Bowie wanted to turn his fans into dance fans. It's that album with the multi colour coat, that I do not possess. I'm nearly 20 years older also and am used to all sorts of sounds that I still don't like mostly, but sometimes have started to appreciate as well. They work miracles at times on Blackstar though.

'Blackstar' runs for about ten minutes and is weird, beautiful, mesmerising, horrible and more within that 10 minutes. On top of all that it is mysterious. So much happens in that ten minutes. What kind of rhythm is this? One and two, three and four. Something like that? The village of Ǿrmen, in Norway features in this song. A song that has several "normal" passages and total experimental parts. The village even had a railway station, since 1914, but no longer. It's this interesting that Wikipedia mentions this part. Leaving the town called "Serpent" behind us, candles and all, 'Blackstar' has the main feature of Blackstar within it. No matter what the music does, Bowie sings, with his aged voice, free flowing melodies. The inherent contrast between the experiment and the traditional is ever present within this 10 minutes. Nowhere is it so gloriously present on Blackstar as here. Having overcome my initial fright of late last year, I'm starting to be convinced that I'm listening to a masterpiece on the same level as 'Paranoid Android'.

'Tis A Pity She Was A Whore' starts as ambitious, loud and wild as Arctic Monkeys' 'The View From The Afternoon'. The drumming is just as fierce. There all comparisons stop. The outing here is jazzy, Bowie's voice is shakey, even weak, but befitting the atmosphere. The feeling gets over me that Bowie was able to morph his greatest form of the 70s with the options the studio offers in the second decade of the 21st century. When I play the record a little louder the sound just envelopes me in an extremely positive way. The effect is so much larger than just loudly played music. It adds to the quality significantly. The music comes from all over the place, as if the musicians are actually present in different corners of the room. With the horns over the place. The electronic elements come out 100%. This record was recorded and mixed with extreme care.

 'Lazarus' underscores all this. It comes close to a ballad in tempo, but is all but one. The singing is drawn out, relaxed, the band is allowed to go all out. The jazz horns go all the way, the drums are nearly a lead instrument, so high placed in the mix they are.The loud, menacing, near threatening guitar strum is impressive.

The rhythm goes all out again in 'Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)'. I have a harder time following Bowie here. Again there is the difference between the slow singing of David Bowie and the all-out rhythm. The vocal, with some (a lot of?) imagination, could be sung by Bing Crosby or Sinatra, who couldn't have dreamed the music beyond their wildest imagination. Bowie manages to keep up this tension throughout the whole album. A blend between different worlds. The 1970s, the 2010s and an older man with his feet planted firmly in both eras.

Again David Bowie worked with the producer with which he worked when he finally managed his real breakthrough, Tony Visconti. The two oldtimers, 69 and 71, have made a current and modern album. An album also that is much more relevant than their previous effort, 'The Next Day'. There I was more surprised that there was a Bowie album, than that I, in the end, really liked it. I honestly can't remember when I listened to it for the last time. Early on in 2013 is my best guess.

If anything Blackstar has surprised me in a very positive way. What a monumental album! David Bowie has released a new album which a can truly stand its ground with those great albums of the 70s. It's different, as it should be 40 years down the line. The quality of 'Dollar days'? You can lay it against any ballad of Bowie's lead era. Blackstar is that good. At that point into the album 'I Can't Give Everything Away' still has to follow. With Blackstar one of the most important records of 2016 already has been released.

Wo.

You can listen and watch 'the song they call Blackstar' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw

or buy Blackstar here on Bol.com