Lasting impressions
CD of the week:
Various: Jazz Impressions Volume 1
This is certainly a laid-back compilation, suited
to soft, peach-coloured sunsets and sea breezes.
This is not an edgy, knock-your-socks-off display
of the flashy talents of green jazz cats. It’s
a beautiful, balanced, accomplished album, writes
Michelle Matthews, reviewing our choice of the
week, Jazz Impressions Volume 1.
avin Minter loves jazz. He even contributes
percussion and vocals to the new Jazz Impressions
Volume 1 (Real Wired), although he’s better
known in the Cape as the music coordinator at
the V&A Waterfront’s jazz venue, the
Green Dolphin.
It was there, four years ago, that Minter initiated
the Jazz Impressions series to give talented
but venueless young jazz musicians a leg up.
The concept worked brilliantly and the series
has recently started its first run in Johannesburg
(at the Blues Room on Sunday evenings). But,
as Minter says in the liner notes, “this
recording reveals that the soul of jazz in South
Africa lives in Cape Town”.
This is certainly a laid-back compilation, suited
to soft, peach-coloured sunsets and sea breezes.
This is not an edgy, knock-your-socks-off display
of the flashy talents of green jazz cats. It’s
a beautiful, balanced, accomplished album, with
a lovely warm feeling provided by Cape Town’s
other “jazz musician’s friend”,
Beach Road Studios.
A tighter Tribe feature. Pianist Mark Fransman
was apparently one of the “hooligans in
hip-hop clothing” that helped inspire
Jazz Impressions — hear how he’s
matured on tracks such as Nommo Blues “Blues
for Moses” (drummer Kesivan Naidoo provides
some flash factor on this track).
Fransman’s other project, Straight and
Narrow, inject a fabulous slab of funk into
the album, as do JAK (James Scholfield, Andrew
Lilley and Kevin Gibson — the standard
Jazz Impressions backing band for young soloists).
Vocalist Natasha Roth shows off her songwriting
skills on two wonderfully loungy tracks. I’m
definitely looking forward to volume two.
Dave Matthews: Some Devil (BMG)
After five studio albums and many live releases,
Dave Matthews has finally committed his singular
musical vision to disc. His debut solo album is
14 tracks strong (including an acoustic version
of the single Gravedigger) and all are, not surprisingly,
lyrically and musically vicarious. The voice is
unmistakable, but Matthews pushes the boundaries
of his vocal ability, pitching way above the typical
monotone, mumbled murmur to which we have become
accustomed over the past decade. He delivers songs
that were written with his band in mind, but somehow
shirked the mould. Occasional saxophone and a
rhythm section as smooth as silk glide below Dodo,
and Up and Away borders on a Jamaican slow jam.
Produced by Stephen Harris, the man responsible
for the Dave Matthews Band’s Busted Stuff,
the album delivers definition, complemented by
the host of guest stars, including Phish guitarist
Trey Anastasio and Tim Reynolds, who spreads his
six-string acoustic magic throughout. Eclectic
at times, yet downright addictive — this
is Matthews as accessible as you are ever likely
to find him. — Jason Curtis
Finley Quaye: Much More
Than Much Love (Sony)
This is a polished, confident return for Quaye.
But it’s lightweight, restaurant-music
stuff. And boring, despite the big production.
His first album, Maverick A Strike, sounded
really fresh, and became one of the soundtracks
to the summer of ’97 (or was it ’98?).
Much was made of his “return” in
the British press lately and how he had thrown
off his bad boy image. I liked him better as
a bad boy — at least his music was more
interesting, and lyrical. Sure, there are a
few pretty songs here, like the catchy Face
to Face or the simple love song This Is How
I Feel, but come Christmas, you’ll have
forgotten them. — Matthew Burbidge |
