Track of the Week: Mette Juul, Be a Blessing To Someone, Nilento Records

Drawn from Mette Juul’s upcoming Thank You & Other Stories

The story began with hearing Mette Juul freedom of the night reverie, ‘On Dragon Wings’ a single from the Danish singer that preceded this latest Maya Angelou inspired equal.

“A couple of years ago I found inspiration in listening to people like Maya Angelou. She said things like: I had a lot of clouds, but I had so many rainbows. ”When I step on a stage, I bring everyone who have ever been kind to me with me, black, white, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans, gay, straight, everybody… I say come with me. So I don’t ever feel I have no help, I have had rainbows in my clouds. And the thing to do it seems to me, is to prepare yourself, so that you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud … someone who may not look like you…. But be a blessing to somebody, that’s what I think.”

Mette Juul, on Maya Angelou (photo: Wikipedia) the inspiration behind ‘Be a Blessing To Someone’

Crisply arranged

This original of Juul’s is beautifully and extremely simply arranged. The main interest lies in the words enunciated meaningfully by Juul. After all song, words & music, empowers the imagination, the singer is the vessel through a prism of interpretation built from affinity.

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Her previous work includes collaborations with the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire on Moon on My Shoulder more than a decade ago.

On that Juul sang from Lyle Lovett, Joni Mitchell, words of Carmen McRae’s set to Monk and best of all ‘For Jan’ – an arrangement co-write with Ambrose of the Kenny Wheeler/Norma Winstone (later words added) Music for Large and Small Ensembles piece. And as here on ‘Be a Blessing to Someone’ that was a song that had the great bassist Swedish jazz icon Lars Danielsson on it.

There is a stirring theme in these pages recently involving Danielsson because of Danielsson’s ”vintage”, on so many levels, Trio.

Could it be as simple as that?

With Juul this is far more folky than what’s on Trio or even her own earlier ‘On Dragon Wings’ track.

There is a pithiness in the lyrics, a contemplative spirit that is transformed beyond the despair of silence into the hope that Angelou expressed.

Kindness wins

And the message? Oh, it’s that kindness wins. The looseness of the accompaniment allows the words to breath and make these more human via homespun camouflage. Juul is on guitar and besides Danielsson it’s Peter Rosendal on twinkling keys. Could it be as simple as that? The lyrics in this plea for empathy ask. The song – which is genre-less just as songs that completely work often are – knows the answer all in the space of 2 mins 46 seconds. All the time it needs, there’s strength in that length even in such brevity somehow.