The ’90s Paunetto, displayed on Composer in Public, is still surrounded by stellar musicians (most notably pianist Bill O’Connell), and still loves complex, precision-timed arrangements. From the fusion frenetic “Bottle the Edge,” with its darkly appealing dissonant chords, to a lightly swinging waltz passage on “Movies,” Paunetto crafts interesting mini-suites which explore. Public includes more difficult fusion adventures like “When I Get Disconnected,” which keep the old horn chorale around for punctuation. The closest cousin to Paunetto’s old work is the album’s title track, a bubbly lithe Latin number with extra emotional impact added by a string quartet. Although Composer in Public lacks the overall visceral appeal of the earlier Latin romps, it sure is nice to have Paunetto’s inventive spirit back.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro