Deep Forbidden Lake

 (4 customer reviews)

Its a surprising shift of gears for the Jazz Mandolin Project to tackle an album like this. Different from their last album, Jungle Tango (2003), (laden with jungle grooves and improvisation), Jamie Masefield heads in a fresh, acoustic direction in this new release.

The track listing -

1. Winterlong (Neil Young)

2. Ol' 55 (Tom Waits)

3. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

4. Tears (Django Reinhardt)

5. Peace (Horace Silver)

6. Everything in its Right Place (Radiohead)

7. My Little Brown Book (Billy Strayhorn)

8. Tom Traubert's Blues (Tom Waits)

9. Black and White (Django Reinhardt)

10. I Will (Radiohead)

11. The Deep Forbidden Lake (Neil Young)

12. When Will the Blues Leave (Ornette Coleman)

means theres something on it for everyone. Speaking more of thoughtful melodies and arrangements than grooves and exploration, this CD shows a whole...Read more

Ok, now what instrumental aggregation would choose to create a work with two cover recordings each by Neil Young, Tom Waits, Django Reinhart and Radiohead? Then round off with a little Ornette Coleman, Leonard Cohen, Billy Strayhorn and Horace Silver?
The music is cleanly and beautifully recorded. The timbre of the instruments is conveyed so clearly you will swear you can hear the placing of fingers on the fretboards. Crystalline. A calm lake surface is indeed the perfect metaphor.
Unlike their eponymous CD, there is no percussion here and, perhaps correspondingly, the pace is more relaxed. The likelihood that any given listener will be familiar enough with ALL the authors to "pick up" on many of these melodies is rather remote. For example, this is not "Southern Man" or "Heart of Gold" era Neil Young. So you will perhaps be enticed to seek out the originals, to see where the inspiration in these tunes came from.

radiohead's song "i will," and leonard cohen's "hallelujah," are standouts here played by this trio that consists of mandolin, upright bass, and piano (with a little accordian playing thrown in). a recording of all instrumentals that makes for wonderful evening listening (mostly being slow to mid-tempo performances). a refreshing sound unlike any other jazz outfit, i love listening to this disc while i read. excellent stuff.