Celebrity musicians aren’t necessarily more interesting than normal non celebrity jazzers. The same goes for movie stars who are also jazzers. Jeff Goldblum!
And certainly pianist, singer, fiddle, mandolin player – you name it – Jon Batiste’s Beethoven Blues album last year was pretty forgettable even though he’s won lots of Grammys and clearly is a monstrously talented musician. Just goes to show even the best can come up with a half baked concept. Batiste’s contributions to the animated feelgood film Soul by contrast are the work of his that I prefer most to date. There was a lot of joy to it.
But the rather detached point of view expressed above is worth partially revising and may have to change if Batiste delivers more and even better albums than the perfectly decent Big Money. The duet with Randy Newman works – although both Kurt Elling and Van Morrison do much better versions of the Doc Pomus song synonymous with Ray Charles – and there are great grooves and a laidback attitude elsewhere throughout that largely appeals.
Certainly to jazz fans who don’t watch much TV and listen to more challenging jazz as a rule than here his approach is a world away even from top New Orleans jazz musicians such as Terence Blanchard, Branford Marsalis and Nicholas Payton.
The more Batiste moves again into the jazz nitty gritty the better artistically although I suppose the worry is he’ll lose his more pop and R&B audiences who flock to his sounds, know him from The Piano and generally are a bit meh or worse completely phobic about jazz. Big Money represents a step in the right direction. But come on, have a little talk with yourself. At the end of the day face it: even though this is perfectly listenable, there’s far more interesting stuff coming out of the States this year from a range of far less famous jazzers than Batiste.
Talkline, Growing Pains, Milk Man EP ***1/2
Words matter. Experiencing the fuller Talkline further joins the dots between poignant 1970s-like singer-songwritery that’s rooted in a liking for John Martyn and Labi Siffre and a more up to the minute jazz sensibility. Growing Pains is quite touching especially ‘I Can See.’
The “art of the prompt”
“My arse” – Jim Royle would have responded. But the jig will be well and truly up come that *happy day* when opinion itself can be faked by AI.
