October 1997 - Popular Music and Jazz

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Arts & Entertainment Preview - October 1997

B Y B O B B L U M E N T H A L & C H A R L E S M. Y O U N G

The Lee Way

Feldman: singer, songwriter, and pianist

In this supposed age of electronica, it's rare to hear a keyboard that isn't connected to a bank of computers. On his debut album Living It All Wrong (Pure/Mercury), Lee Feldman plays just such a keyboard. It's called a piano, and with a minimum of accompaniment -- drums, bass, occasional strings, a lonely clarinet suggestive of Gershwin -- he plays it in just the dry, subtle, understated manner that his dry, subtle, understatedly hilarious songs call for. Drawing on cabaret and jazz more than on Jerry Lee Lewis, Feldman doesn't rock, exactly. His singing is reminiscent of Loudon Wainright III, Randy Newman, and Hamell on Trial. It's smart and vulnerable and has just enough energy to push the inflections but not so much that Feldman emotes anywhere his guardedly eccentric persona shouldn't emote.

Exquisite snippets of stride piano open and close the album. The nine songs in which Feldman sings address the usual dysfunctional relationships with unusual humor and charm, with empathy, and without surrendering his own point of view. But what really seems to interest him is the subject of time. He likes lots of time, because he loves to reflect, to let the aesthetics of a situation just wash over him. Thus he prefers the peace of the suburbs to the tumult of the city and would rather think than rebel. He knows that ultimately we don't have much time at all: "You better have fun, 'cause it's over soon," he counsels in "Always Till Always," a paradoxical reflection on reincarnation. -- C.M.Y.

Living It All Wrong, Lee Feldman

"Living It All Wrong," AU, Real Audio 28.8
"Always Till Always," AU, Real Audio 28.8
"If I Were You," AU, Real Audio 28.8

Rescuing the Voices of Cool

There are no young lions among great jazz vocalists. The singer's art requires native talent and years of experience along with a sense of when and how to apply technique. Several young veterans have hit their singing stride recently. Kitty Margolis ranges from African chants to "in-crowd" camp on Straight Up With a Twist (Mad-Kat), and Count Basie alum Dennis Rowland abandons crossover efforts for modern balladry on Now Dig This! (Concord Jazz). Now Dominique Eade has released one of the year's most haunting and accomplished collections.

Dominique Eade

When the Wind Was Cool (RCA Victor), Eade's third album, is a bold and atmospheric tribute to June Christy and Chris Connor. These voices of cool, who sang with Stan Kenton's band in the 1940s and 1950s, introduced a subtle inflection to jazz vocals and popularized harmonically challenging material. Eade's rich voice, her effortless delivery, and the tasteful assurance with which she embellishes melodies make her sound totally at home with the vintage repertoire of Chris-ty and Connor.

Much of this music is obscure, and Eade deserves credit for rescuing such tunes as "When the Wind Was Green" and "The Bad and the Beautiful." With a talented arranging team, she makes use of ten musicians in unusual small groupings, often putting guitar or vibes in the place of piano. Flute, bass clarinet, and frame drum add other dramatic touches. Excellent accompaniment, especially from Fred Hersch's piano and the tenor sax of the great Benny Golson, could easily have stolen the scene if not for Eade's commanding vocals. -- B.B.

When the Wind Was Cool, Dominque Eade

"Moonray," AU, Real Audio 28.8
"Ridin' High," AU, Real Audio 28.8
"Tea for Two," AU, Real Audio 28.8

An Order of Girl Rock, Hold the Spice

Appearing on The Children's Channel in England -- a necessary credential for any rock-and-roll band coming out of the mother country these days -- the members of Kenickie called the Spice Girls "Tory scum." The band consists of three girls (two on guitar and vocals and one on bass) and one boy (on drums), all twenty or under. They bring the advantages of youth to their album At the Club (Warner Bros.) -- namely, energy, enthusiasm, and attitude, to which they add a forthright desire

to be looked at and to make a lot of money. Yes, they really want to be rock stars, so they're in the right business. Should anyone else pay attention? Yes if your idea of girl rock is the Runaways and the Go-Go's. No if your idea of girl rock is Joni Mitchell. Kenickie's members bash away with contagious abandon on riffs worthy of the Ramones, with the occasional psychedelic interlude. True to the most hallowed tradition of punk rock, they denounce punk rock for conformity, for clichés, and for being self-righteous about low production quality -- which makes them more punk than the punks they denounce in "Punka." Their hit single "In Your Car," which appears to compare the course of a relationship to the course of hitching a ride, has a hugely catchy chorus that goes "Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah." It would be easy to ridicule such a lyric, as has often been done in the past, except for two caveats: Songs aren't about linear meaning, they're about creating a mood. And in the early sixties another band from England had a cho-rus that went "Yeah yeah yeah," and they are remembered a lot better now than their many critics. -- C.M.Y.

Bob Blumenthal is a jazz critic for The Boston Globe.

Charles M. Young reviews popular music for Playboy, Musician, and other publications.

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Copyright © 1997 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.