Customer Reviews

Maria

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Changing with every album, Jane Siberry makes her most personal and solid statements on this album -- jazzish, not quite jazz . . . not-Jane and yet very Jane at the same time. "Sweet Pumpkinhead" and the twenty-minute "Oh My My" are definitely highlights. Longtime fans may be put off by this album at first (it is difficult), but as time goes by with repeat listenings, the gifts offered greatly outweight any she has before offered. This album has proven to be controversial among fans, but this work will prove to be one of the best of her career.

I just love how different the first nine tracks are from the last, and yet they all belong on this album. "Maria" was my clear and away choice for Album of the Year in 1995, and these four years later, I wouldn't change a thing.

A masterpiece by an artist who already has two previous masterpieces in "When I Was a Boy" and "The Walking."

A nice retreat from highly structured albums like the also-brilliant "When I Was A Boy." I'm not a jazz fan, yet Jane's take makes me swoon in rapture. The soaring vocals express pure joy. I can't get enough of "Begat Begat."

Siberry's last release with Reprise reocords before starting her own Sheeba records. An innovative art-pop-jazz infusion that her old fans will love--quirky, cartoonish and daring. A few hard to swallow pieces that grow on you with time. Otherwise, refreshing and fun with Siberry's typical tender-sweetness and bitter seriousness. Not a serious album, but seriously played. The twenty minute "Oh My My" recalls "When I Was a Boy" rapture. Fun and fleeting, nothing like you'll ever hear.

I bought this album because (1) I am interested in listening to the jazzy arrangements of this album; (2) Because Siberry, like her Mensa-level cohorts (Mary Margaret O'Hara, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush) can dispense the song's inherent sentimentality and go right into the viscera of the music (I mean who can pull off "Lena is a Table" from her "The Walking" album better? Bjork might, but I digress). Maria is not just jazzy, its straight-ahead jazz with muted horns and sizzlingly walking basses! She was beyond par with "Lovin' Cup" where she proves she can be Janis Siegel-like in vocalese. Best of all is her dramatic and apt use of silence (sorry John Cage fans, but I think I like Siberry's use of silence here than Cage's in his own piano works) before she moved to Part 2 (yes Virginia, the album has a concept) and sang "Oh My My". A word or two about the 20-minute "Oh My My" -- the thing I like about avant-garde singing is the use of non-bel canto voices to do it well. Recent effort by ex-Manhattan Transfer's Laurel Masse via "Feather and Bone" proved that the best singers for ancient music are those whose voices have few accoutrements and where evenness is not a criterion. This album I had so much fun with. Like Fiona Apple's "Tidal" but that is another and different story.

Jane Siberry has remained one of the most extreme acquired tastes in music ever since she emerged with the revenge fantasy "Mimi On The Beach" in 1984. Her vocal style, clearly influenced by gospel but intensely dramatic and ranging from theatrical spoken words to angelic and beautiful melodies, will never appeal to anybody without repeated and patient listening. The musical backings on Siberry's work have often aided this dramatic, mystical singer/songwriter's undoubted vocal ability, but have been greatly varied from synth-rock in her early years to unaccompanied folk.

"Maria" was Siberry's effort at a jazz album, being recorded live in the studio with a jazz band including pianist Tim Ray, drummer Brian Blade, bassist Christopher Thomas, trumpeter David Travers-Smith and percussionist Ian McLauchan.

Following on from the hymnal and intensely mystical When I Was A Boy, "Maria" (as one would guess from the title) continued the almost religious focus of that album, but without the languidness of When I Was A Boy. This was evident on the title track, where Siberry appears to be singing an almost-religious invocation with the repeated "Maria, Maria", and on the beautifu standout track "See The Child", which was a most haunting and powerful tale of a lost child and a community's effort to find him.

"Honey Bee" moved back towards the typical nature-based lyrics of Bound By The Beauty, but "Caravan", with the line "how far is the nearest place to kneel", certainly could be too religious for many listeners as she describes a difficult journey across some cold, arid landscape. "Begat Begat", with its lavish piano intro, and the line "mahalaleel shushan shibboleth tarshish shadrak vashtish jared shebadiah shushan mahaleel shekaniah amariah anathoth", was the most upbeat piece Siberry had written for some time, yet was so intensely mysterious that a listener could actually notice this depth without any real effort, especially during Siberry's piercing "Oh Oh".

"Goodbye Sweet Pumpkinhead" and "Would You Go" showed Siberry at her most solemn and her voice at its most beautiful, whilst "Mary Had A Little Lamb" set to a typical Siberry vocal accompaniment moving from rapid, almost spoken voices to a powerful gospel-type chorus, then to a reciting of earlier line from the title tune.

The second part of "Maria" was taken up by "Oh My My", a 20-minute epic dedicated apparently to Siberry's mother and brother.

Though "Maria" was the most coherent and least difficult album Siberry had done, Siberry will always remain an unacquirable taste for most listeners. Here is the place to start if you are confident about her, though.

Maria is to be taken as a work, not as separate songs.
Take the time to listen to the entire cd, and you will truly find that this cd is art, and not just great music.

With its prominent piano and saxophone, Maria has a meandering, jazzy feel. The sound is thus drastically unlike Siberry's work on masterpieces like Bound By The Beauty and When I was A Boy with their soaring, melodic ballads. Her voice and the instruments come up with some engaging textures in songs like Maria and See The Child, but Honey Bee just comes across as a lukewarm piece of lounge jazz.

Lovin' Cup is less jazzy and more uptempo with some impressive instrumental interplay and vocal improvisation like Meredith Monk, whilst Goodbye Sweet Pumpkinhead is a welcome return to the sad ballad form, and my favorite track on this album. Maria concludes with the 20-minute suite Oh My My that includes tabla and sitar for an atmospheric, ethereal feel.

Overall, and I say this as a devoted Siberry fan, I found this album disappointing. It has its merits obviously but only to fans of freeform jazz, I suspect. An admirable experiment, Maria doesn't lure one back for repeated listens and mercifully she didn't pursue this direction. I instead recommend her albums Bound By The Beauty, No Borders Here, The Speckless Sky and When I Was A Boy.

This is Jane's finest hour. An amazing musical journey. Please buy it, you won't regret it.

Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane! Honey! Did you improvise this entire album? The free style jazz sound doesn't work as well as you might think with your beautiful words, which are, thankfully, placed in glory in the song "Oh My, My" which last 25 minutes! (Not a moment too long or short for me) Thank heavens for "Honeybee", "Maria", and "Lovin' Cup"! Otherwise, I might never have stayed through to the end and heard the magic that is Siberry!

Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane! You are so gifted, it's hard for me to find fault with your work, but with this album, I did. The differing styles from song to song clash like nails on a chalkboard. I know the flow you were going for, but I was tossed around like a wave jumper. Once again, though, "Oh My, My" helped ease the pain, and reminded me why the sun sets in your eyes.