A Really Big Shoe

Just when you thought Shoegazer was dead, along comes the group Engineers. For those of you not familiar with the term, Shoegazer refers to a style of downtempo music shere the group comes out, and plays with little emotion or movement and stares down at their shoes. Hence the word, Shoegazer. Engineers were formed in London in 2003 and have a dreamy, atmospheric sound to their music. If one had to describe them, I guess you could say they’re a cross between the Beach Boys and early Pink Floyd. Unusual combination? You bet. Their songs have an odd familiarity to them. It’s like you’ve heard them before, but I can guarantee, they’re all originals.

Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Jonsi

If you’re a fan of Sigur Ros then you probably enjoy the band’s lead singer Jonsi. (Sorry, I can’t figure out how to add all the bizarre Nordic accent marks). Anyway, he’s released two cds over the last couple of years and they’re a study in contrasts. The first was a collaboration with his boyfriend Alex Somers, and is quite stunning. The album is titled “Riceboy Sleeps” and the titles comes from the fact that at the time, Alex was down on his luck and ate a lot of rice and spent much of his time sleeping. It’s moody and atmospheric and is dreamy without being boring. It features layers of acoustic instruments and a children’s choir and rarely does Jonsi’s voice appear. At times it almost sounds like something you’d hear in church. The second cd is a solo project called “Go” and it’s just about the polar opposite of his first recording and that of Sigur Ros. It’s happy and jumpy with a strong dancy beat. I’m not sure if he’s singing in Icelandic or the made up language he uses in Sigur Ros and several of the tunes are in English. I really enjoy both recordings and have been playing them over and over—rather addicting.

The Queen of Swing

The Susie Arioli Swing Band from Montreal sure knows its way around the music of the 30’s and 40’s. The group consists of two guitarists, a stand-up bass, and a snare drum, all backing up the charming Susie Arioli on vocals. Actually, Susie plays the snare, not so much to add rhythm but to give her something to do with her hands, she confesses. The combination of instruments sounds odd, but it sure seems to work. Her voice is silky smooth, and she doesn’t employ some of the usual tricks other jazz singers use. She sings the songs pretty straight forward, but they sure make you want to tap your foot. Susie and her group opened for Ray Charles at the Montreal Jazz Festival back in the last century (I love writing that), and the rest is history. Growing up she listened to Nina Simone, Chet Baker, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Billy Holliday, but her sound is all her own. Another wonderful musical gift from our Canadian neighbors!

Dosh Darn it All

Martin Dosh is literally a one-man band. Growing up in Minneapolis, he started taking piano lessons when he was three, switched to drums in his mid-teens, and eventually returned to the keyboards in his early twenties. He’s played in a couple bands and toured with the amazing Andrew Bird for a year. Through the magic of loops, he can make a complete bandful of music. But he doesn’t use tricks for trick’s sake—his music is rich, tuneful, and playful. And it’s great fun to watch him perform.

In the videos I’ve included, Dosh is technically a two-man band. But he does most of the heavy lifting.

Mo Betta Movits!

Mix some hip-hop with swing, and sing it in the goofiest sounding language on the planet, Swedish, and you’ve got Movits! I don’t know a thing about this group except, once you hear them, you’ll be shouting, “Swing, Sven, Swing”! They did appear on the “Colbert Report”, so I’m not the only one who’s heard of them. As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to describe this group. They only have one CD out and I’m not sure how easy it is to find. But give them a listen and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. They’re pretty unique and they’re a whole lot of fun. I imagine they get the crowd on their feet dancing, whenever they play live.

P.S. After listening to Movits! a couple more times, I'm pretty sure they're not singing/speaking in Swedish. I think it's all gibberish, like the "Vout" that Slim Gaillard was doing back in the 40's and 50's. It's still a hoot.

Simply Astonishing

That’s just about the only way to describe the piano playing of Hiromi. I had the good fortune to see her play last night and her performance was nothing short of breathtaking. She played mostly original compositions, and thoroughly charmed the audience. Her playing ranged to blazing, powerful runs similar to McCoy Tyner to soft delicate passages that are totally her own style. On stage she’s bursting with enthusiasm and smiles the entire time she’s playing. At times, she gets so into the music she stands up and continues playing.

And her technique is so remarkable, the audience burst into applause mid-song, several times. They also didn’t wait to the end to give her a standing ovation—they rose to their feet after almost every song. Her approach to playing is at times irreverent—at one point she placed something metallic on the strings to make the piano sound like a harpsichord while she riffed on Pachelbel's Canon. While playing a bluesy tune, she reached into the piano board and plucked to lower strings and did a long bass run. I kept trying to compare her to other pianists, but in the end, I just have to say, she sounds like Haromi.

A Beautiful Melody

The story of Melody Gardot is truly an example of the human spirit triumphing over adversity. When she was 19, she attended a fashion school in Philadelphia. While riding her bike to school, she was struck by a car and left for dead. While recovering in the hospital over a several month period, she wrote and recorded a number of songs, which would eventually become the EP Some Lessons. It was through her music that she persevered and recovered. Today, Melody is hypersensitive to light and noise and she walks with a cane. She also needs a special electronic unit to help suppress her pain. In spite of all this, she continues to record and perform live.

Her voice and phrasing are both elegant and subtle. And it has a touch of innocence that reminds me of Doris Day. Her songwriting is mature and insightful. I’m surprised she isn’t better known. If she keeps making recordings as fine as her first three, I think that’s about to change.