Customer Reviews

A Transparent Mask

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ken Nordine has been my favorie voice for as long as I've had a favorite voice. Something like 40 years, I suppose. I heard Word Jazz at a friend's house when I was in Junior High School and was *instantly* hooked. What's really remarkable is that Ken's voice hasn't changed since then (early 60's, OK - so I'm old!). He's *just* as vibrant, just as deep and just as cool as ever. Hope *I* sound that good when I'm in my 80's!

This CD won't change your life, but it just might change how you think you see your life. Ken's words and vocal images are razor sharp and waste no time cutting apart your preconceived notions about what you are and how your world really is. It's all Seriously Different than you thought. And it's all Ken's fault.

Get the album, some wine, some low lights and a sound system with a good low end. And be prepared to have your mind changed.

But how can you get angry with Ken for changing your perceptions when he does it with that laughing *edge* to his voice? How can you do anything except say, "...ooh, yeah, man... he's really *got* something there..."

First of all let me just say: I love Ken Nordine. I've bought every CD of his that I can find, and my wife and I even fell in love listening to him. He was always so distinct and clever i was in constant amazement.

But now, man, _Transparent Mask_ is dissapointing. None of the tracks are very clever, in story or words. Plus it's much more "normal" poetry than what I was used to from Ken. It felt like instead of putting energy into clever ideas (like what a museum of sound would be like, or how was the color yellow was allowed into the spectrum) he's just trying to rhyme.And the subject matter is blase also -- songs of birds and spiders, not songs of Vidiots.

He still has one of the deepest voices I've ever heard, but it just aint enough. If you're a fan don't buy this CD, if you aint a fan buy Colors or Word Jazz -- they'll make you a fan.

Ken Nordine's rumbling basso is one of the few voices I have heard that qualifies as a musical instrument when he is simply speaking. In the '50s, he coined the term Word Jazz to describe his various musings to gentle instrumental backgrounds. His pipes are definitely still intact, judging from "Transparent Mask." He's at his best here, as always, free-associating, unraveling the meaning behind common expressions. The cuts "As Of Now" and "A Thousand Dreams" are themselves worth the price of this CD. We're also treated to Nordine's trademark conversations with himself, one track nice and clear, the other with just enough reverb to sound like he's at the other end of a phone line. In "Truth Mute" he tries to sell himself on a new invention that makes it easier to lie to yourself. On other cuts, he gives us his amiably quirky take on quantum physics, fibonacci numbers, and love. Several pieces, such as "The Bullfighter" and "Hello" are quick, short puffs of wordplay.

Less successful are the cuts where Nordine decides his word jazz ought to rhyme. Paul Simon he ain't. The results are often constricted and self-concious, not strong enough to stand as poems, and lacking melodies to make them songs (For example, "You Know the Story" includes the strained couplet "Crowds in the hallway, milling about / Like molecules moving, looking for clout." Molecules looking for clout? I think not).

Bottom line: when he's free-associating just for the fun of it, it works; when he tries to make it sound profound, he's overreaching.

Great album. What a terrific voice. I would even enjoy him reading the phonebook. He found his niche in the entertainment world, and has been doing it for over sixty years very sucessfully Hang in there KEN.

Ah, what can I say? I remember listening to him on PBS in the 70's. This is relaxing if you're into language. Nice to put on at bedtime... a thinking aid, might I say. A lot of people haven't heard of Ken before and, if you slip it in a playlist, the usual reaction is "What is this?" I'm thinking of maybe putting in the elevator at my elderly father's condominium. It'll be all the rage for the geriatric crowd.

To discover a new release from Ken Nordine is a delight. This new album is another in a long series of wonderful releases. If you've enjoyed any of Ken's previous projects from the 1950's Word Jazz to the more recent releases via Grateful Dead, you'll be smiling big time. I will look forward to more as Ken chooses to allow them out. A nice collection completing the missing Word Jazz titles and maybe some of Ken's commercial voice overs would be nice too.