Just as it would be sinful to mar the stark beauty of a Modigliani by encumbering it with an ornate frame, it seems unjust to imprison Laird Jackson’s gorgeous voice in the sort of fussily overripe orchestrations that dominate Touched (CAP). To steal a line from Jerry Herman, they’re all too lush and loud, fighting Jackson every step of the way. Bill Withers’ wistful “I Want to Spend the Night” is reworked to sound like what can only be described as a Mongolian samba, making it impossible for Jackson to compete with the cacophony that surrounds her. “Tin Angel,” one of Joni Mitchell’s most hauntingly beautiful compositions, is likewise scuppered by a lushly overpowering setting (this time complete with corny sound effects), and Donovan Leitch’s feather-light “Catch the Wind” is rendered almost unrecognizable thanks to a reinterpretation so forceful it borders on strident. Fortunately, Jackson the songwriter helps rescue Jackson the entrapped vocalist on at least three occasions. “Yet Still,” sung a cappella, provides the first appropriate showcase for her voice’s raw resplendence. “You Are Near” is equally effective, and the stark magnificence of the title track provides audible proof that Jackson’s vocal artistry is best displayed in the simplest of arrangements.
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