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Sotto Voce
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Sotto Voce
Current price: $14.99
Barnes and Noble
Sotto Voce
Current price: $14.99
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The first question one has to ask after hearing
Roy Nathanson
's
Sotto Voce
all the way through, letting the stereo move along into silence, is "Where does music like this come from?" And then one has to note that there is no other record to be played on this day, because in
is everything music should be and often is. Here is a "
jazz
" band that features saxophones (
Nathanson
), trombone (
Curtis Fowlkes
), violin (
Sam Bardfeld
), bass (
Tim Kiah
), and a human beatbox (
Napoleon Maddox
). Every member of this band recites
's words or sings them. This is art, but it doesn't belong in the National Gallery or even the Museum of Modern Art. It belongs in the street, in the gutters, and in the living rooms and basements of every house in America where funky-butt street rhythms, foot-stomping joy, and wacky childlike singalongs are important matters of everyday life -- and perhaps more importantly, it should be in those places where these things are not. Take a listen to the reading of
"Sunny,"
the old
Bobby Hebb
nugget, previously done best by
Jack McDuff
and
David "Fathead" Newman
on
Double Barrelled Soul
back in the '60s -- but theirs had no vocal! It begins with feet on the floor and
's bluesed-out
soul
wail on the alto before they dig into the verse and chorus as a band, with
Bardfeld
playing the violin like a guitar and
Fowlkes
accenting the rhythmic intensity of
Maddox
. But then,
starts singing! He gets it, the
Hebb
vision of the
blues
, and adds
funk
and beat-hop to the bottom. This is no novelty; it is song itself. The evidence is in the reading of
Roland Kirk
"The Inflated Tear,"
introduced by a classicist's violin and
poetry
, where
spoken words
get to
Kirk
's grief and determination before becoming sung call-and-response choruses in the
idiom. It doesn't give up
's intensity either, as
double-tracks his alto. The flipout is that it is immediately followed by a noir-ish reading of
"Sunrise, Sunset"
that sounds like none in the American canon. This baby isn't all covers, however, as the final three cuts are all originals. The big organic FONK on
"It's Alright"
ushers in a plainspoken short story that is both immediate, reminiscent, and angular. Meaning is trotted out between the words themselves and the various instrumental passages -- and the call and response between
is a fingerpopper's wet dream. This bad boy is essential for anybody who digs musical surprise, creativity, and the impulse of originality. ~ Thom Jurek
Roy Nathanson
's
Sotto Voce
all the way through, letting the stereo move along into silence, is "Where does music like this come from?" And then one has to note that there is no other record to be played on this day, because in
is everything music should be and often is. Here is a "
jazz
" band that features saxophones (
Nathanson
), trombone (
Curtis Fowlkes
), violin (
Sam Bardfeld
), bass (
Tim Kiah
), and a human beatbox (
Napoleon Maddox
). Every member of this band recites
's words or sings them. This is art, but it doesn't belong in the National Gallery or even the Museum of Modern Art. It belongs in the street, in the gutters, and in the living rooms and basements of every house in America where funky-butt street rhythms, foot-stomping joy, and wacky childlike singalongs are important matters of everyday life -- and perhaps more importantly, it should be in those places where these things are not. Take a listen to the reading of
"Sunny,"
the old
Bobby Hebb
nugget, previously done best by
Jack McDuff
and
David "Fathead" Newman
on
Double Barrelled Soul
back in the '60s -- but theirs had no vocal! It begins with feet on the floor and
's bluesed-out
soul
wail on the alto before they dig into the verse and chorus as a band, with
Bardfeld
playing the violin like a guitar and
Fowlkes
accenting the rhythmic intensity of
Maddox
. But then,
starts singing! He gets it, the
Hebb
vision of the
blues
, and adds
funk
and beat-hop to the bottom. This is no novelty; it is song itself. The evidence is in the reading of
Roland Kirk
"The Inflated Tear,"
introduced by a classicist's violin and
poetry
, where
spoken words
get to
Kirk
's grief and determination before becoming sung call-and-response choruses in the
idiom. It doesn't give up
's intensity either, as
double-tracks his alto. The flipout is that it is immediately followed by a noir-ish reading of
"Sunrise, Sunset"
that sounds like none in the American canon. This baby isn't all covers, however, as the final three cuts are all originals. The big organic FONK on
"It's Alright"
ushers in a plainspoken short story that is both immediate, reminiscent, and angular. Meaning is trotted out between the words themselves and the various instrumental passages -- and the call and response between
is a fingerpopper's wet dream. This bad boy is essential for anybody who digs musical surprise, creativity, and the impulse of originality. ~ Thom Jurek
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