Customer Reviews

Free Country

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

 

 

Ever since I encountered this wildly eclectic original America art form, jazz, in the late seventies, I've been convinced that it provides performers the greatest possibility of personal expression of any musical form. Its intriguing blend of African rhythms, European harmonies, Creole eclectism, and distinctly American brashness often yields music of the most astounding richness and variety.

This remarkable, mind-blowing disc seals the deal. From the spacey, spaced out soundscape gracing the opening cut, the Johnny Cash classic, "I Walk the Line," featuring Norah Jones's finest vocal performance on disc, a musical palette somehow skirting the precincts of Wilco, the Cowboy Junkies, Bill Frisell, and Michael Blake's Drift, to the bleak, parched Southwest sonorities of "Lonesome Road Blues," to the chilling, scary destitution somehow buoyed by the slimmest strain of hope shining through "Wafaring Stranger," to the amazingly ironic-free reading of "This Land Is Your Land," the tune scarcely recognizable until nearly the two-minute mark, then weirdly reharmonized and re-rhythmed (?) into a--gasp--waltz!!, to the jazzy, majestic, elegiac reading of "Twelve Gates to the City," a sinuous, blindingly intuitive take on the glorious precariousness of the American experiment insinuates its way into the listerner's consciousness, beguiling, hortatory, and thoroughly provacative.

Buoyed by a nimble, fluid, sophisticated band with a 10-foot-wide wacky streak, this music takes on a stunningly idiosyncratic yet thoroughly modern Americana sensibility. David Binney on sax, fast becoming one of my very favorite wind guys, consistently lends a gravitas and entirely apposite melancholly to the proceedings, topped only by the aching poignancy of the leader's wrenching guitar voicings, and the scattered samplings of mournful violin-accordian duets clashing into jaunty Jimi Hendrix/Charles Ives sensibilities. Huh?

OK, I'm way over the top here, but what I'm hoping to do is paint some kind of word picture that brands the shiveringly evocative nature of this astonishing music into readers' consciousness.

In sum, I daresay this may be the most remarkable disc I've encountered in this year of outstanding jazz releases.

The title, "Free Country", is a bit of a descriptor. There's some free jazz, and some country. It's more complicated of a CD than that. "I Walk The Line" has Norah Jones' fine voice singing the Johnny Cash classic. The end of the song has an odd free section. "Lonesome Road Blues" features Joel Harrison's singing. Now, Joel is a great guitarist and musician, but not a first-call singer. Jen Chapin's singing helps this one, though. "Wayfaring Stranger" is an out-and-out jazz song, and it's the out-and-out jazz songs on this disc that are my favorites. David Binney does a bang-up sax job on a bunch of them. "This Land Is Your Land" is another instrumental. "Twelve Gates To The City" has my favorite Harrison vocal, again a duet with Jen Chapin. "Tennessee Waltz" is a nice one, blessed again by Norah Jones. "Hell Broke Loose In Georgia" and "Folsom Prison Blues" are fast-paced instrumentals. "Tender Years' is an instrumental ballad. "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" has vocals by Raz Kennedy and some great instrumental parts. "Sing Me Back Home" is another Harrison/Chapin duet. These songs sound the most 'country' of them all. The CD closes with "Lone Pilgrim", certainly the 'freest' of them all. It's the most out-there I've heard Uri Caine play.

This is a varied disc, it's held together with Joel Harrison's good taste and guitar playing. I recommend it to anyone with open ears.

I had never heard of Joel Harrison, so I bought this CD because Norah Jones sings on two tracks.
But it is the instrumental version of "This Land Is Your Land" that makes this CD for me. What a version this is!
And all tracks on this CD are great.
I don't like jazz music, so this can't be jazz(??)
But who cares, as long as this CD make me happy.