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Joe Jackson a été posté le : 26/11/07 18:00
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Nouvel album, "Rain", le 29 janvier, et tournée en trio (le JJ Band moins la gratte) qui passera à la Cigale le 4 mars 2008 !
On retrouvera sur l'album les chansons jouées sur la tournée que j'ai raté au printemps dernier (à noter l'absence de The Drunk Song qu'il a joué plusieurs fois depuis 99 mais jamais enregistré) et qui a été filmée pour un dvd bonus (mais cette dernière info est à prendre au conditionnel, on parle toujours d'un dvd mais le contenu n'est pas confirmé). Je me contente d'un c/c pour compléter ce sujet, mais j'en dirai plus dès qu'il y aura matière...
Joe Jackson
Rain
1. Invisible Man 5:07
2. Too Tough 4:37
3. Citizen Sane 4:20
4. Wasted Time 5:10
5. The Uptown Train 5:46
6. King Pleasure Time 2:47
7. Solo (So Low) 5:55
8. Rush Across The Road 5:21
9. Good Bad Boy 3:18
10. A Place In The Rain 5:20
Total running time: 47:45
When Joe Jackson went into an East Berlin recording studio with the rhythm section that has accompanied him, off and on, for nearly three decades, he had the most strikingly simple line-up in mind: just piano, bass, drums and his unmistakable, eternally yearning voice. As he later pondered a name for this compellingly to-the-point collection of ten new songs, he took a similar approach. “I wanted something elemental because that’s the kind of album I wanted to make,” Jackson explains. “There is no padding on it at all; the album is stripped to the bare essentials, so I hope it has a timeless quality. The title seems to fit.”
The natural elements were indeed a leitmotif, not so much in the words of the songs themselves as in Jackson’s surroundings as he created them: “It seemed like rain was a constant companion. It always seemed to be raining when I was working on these songs, and it rained every day while we were recording them. But I like the rain, and I don’t understand why for many people it has this automatic association with doom and gloom. What would we do without rain?”
Rain may have the occasionally melancholic moment, but it also boasts plenty of humor, swing, sophistication, barbed social commentary and even some punk-like rocking out – no guitars necessary -- on “King Pleasure Time.” “Rush Across the Road” evokes a split-second moment of sweet recognition between two former – or soon-to-be – lovers, while “Wasted Time” gently examines both the longing and regret in an affair gone sour. “Too Tough” balances the swagger and vulnerability of an emotionally guarded character in a classic Jackson arrangement that features big, dramatic choruses and a rough-edged lead vocal. “Good Bad Boy,” with quick shuffling rhythms and a rollercoaster of a piano solo, skewers the pre-packaged rebelliousness of a modern-day rock star or fashion model.
In its adventurous spirit as well as its piano-based sound, the material on Rain recalls Jackson’s 1982 Night and Day, the best-selling and most critically lauded album of his career, and its equally well-regarded 2000 sequel. On the original disc, Jackson had created a gorgeous love letter to his newly adopted home of New York City, incorporating Latin rhythms and a cinematic, Gershwin-like sweep in his work. The album yielded the multi-format Top Ten hit, “Steppin’ Out” and showcased for his widest audience ever Jackson’s stylistic breadth as a composer. Jackson has since moved on to an apartment in Berlin, which currently boasts the kind of anything-goes cosmopolitanism that epitomized Manhattan when Jackson had first arrived there. But he still manages to evoke a magical sort of New York City-inspired urbanity in his songs, the aural equivalent of a movie classic from half-a-century ago, filmed in shimmering black and white. As Jackson admits, “I lived on and off for twenty years in New York. You spend so much time in one place it gets into your bones and into your heart.”
It’s especially present on “Uptown Train,” which has the offhanded, hip feel of a vintage Ramsey Lewis, piano-trio jam. Jackson is well into his groove before he starts his vocalizing, punctuating the number with some very soulful falsetto singing. Says Jackson, “As you might be able to tell from that track, I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz stuff from the late fifties and early sixties, a lot of classic Blue Note records, a lot of Horace Silver and Art Blakey, Lee Morgan and people like that.”
The playful mood Jackson evokes on “Uptown Train” belies the surroundings in which Jackson and longtime band-mates Graham Maby (bass/vocals) and Dave Houghton (drums/vocals) cut Rain: “We recorded in a very interesting place called Planet Roc in the Eastern part of Berlin. It had been a major East German radio station, a huge complex that used to have close to 20,000 people working in it. Now half of it is derelict, which is really weird; it’s gradually being converted into studios, production companies, things like that. But it has this sort of desolate, Communist kind of feeling to it, which I like.”
Fans who have been following Jackson’s live shows in recent years will already be familiar with a few of these tunes, in particular, “Too Tough,” which started appearing on set lists around 2004. Jackson explains, “It got finished about the same time as ‘Citizen Sane.’ It’s been about three years. I wasn’t in a hurry to make a new album. I promised myself that I wouldn’t make a record until I had an album’s worth of songs that were the best I could do. I think several of these songs are the best songs I’ve ever written, and I wanted to have 10 or 12 songs that I felt that way about before I put out another album. I used to be a bit of a workaholic, but I am now much more patient. The quantity has gone down, but the quality has gone up.”
In 2003, Jackson reunited with his original Look Sharp! band-mates -- Maby, Houghton and guitarist Gary Sanford – to record Volume 4, the fourth studio album they would make together. It also marked 25 years since they’d worked on Jackson’s star-making debut disc. The group toured for seven months, then released the concert recording, After Life. Jackson subsequently embarked on a solo piano tour, co-billed with Todd Rundgren. Rain, then, is the best of both worlds. Jackson explores a pared-down sound within a comfortable band format, a mix that, he decides, has helped his songwriting: “There are quite a few songs that I can play solo if I had to, and that was never the case in the past. I was always thinking of band arrangements as I was writing songs. It’s a bit of a new approach, really. I have been trying to write songs that are bulletproof, that could be done in a very simple way and still work.”
But Jackson emphasizes that he has no intention of going it alone right now; in fact, Jackson, Maby and Houghton have full-on European and American tours planned for 2008: “It’s so great to go out and play with guys you know so well. Apart from the fact that we have fun on the road, that we’re friends, the shows are very spontaneous. We’re able to give and take because we know each other so well. We make our shows different every night, which is great.”
Despite his early image as dapper new-wave rocker in skinny tie and pork-pie hat, Jackson has never allowed himself to be limited in where he can go as composer or performer. In the eighties, he explored reggae, jump-blues and Latin rhythms, and he produced several memorable film scores. A decade later, he segued into long-form composing and won a Best Pop Instrumental Recording Grammy in 2000 for his 1999 Sony Classical release, Symphony No. 1, which featured jazz and rock players instead of a traditional orchestra.
“I’ve always been pretty diverse,” Jackson concludes. “It you go back and listen to the first album, you might find that it’s pretty eclectic. I think that artists, especially new ones, get slotted into one movement or genre or another. People were so anxious to put me in a certain category that they didn’t notice how eclectic Look Sharp! was, so they acted surprised a bit later. It’s kind of ironic.”
Rain, then, is not surprising at all – at least for those of us who have been following Jackson’s extraordinary 30-year career. It’s just another genre-stretching effort from an artist who continues to extend the boundaries of his craft.
-- Michael Hill
Pour écouter des extraits : ici et là
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Dernière mise à jour par : ZiGGy le 26/11/07 18:30
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*** Et c'est ainsi qu'Allah est grand. ***
O.D.ed on life !
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-= Chaos Servants =-
Inscription le 11-01-03
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Age : 42 ans
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Réponse au Sujet 'Joe Jackson' a été posté le : 29/11/07 01:40
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Et voilà pour le dvd bonus :
The Joe Jackson Archive Newsletter
27 Nov 2007
Joe Jackson, first studio album in four years, "Rain",
released in Europe on 28th January (29th January in North
America), will now be released by Rykodisc as a two-disc set,
including a bonus DVD directed and produced by Julie Gardner,
the recording engineer who recorded Joe's last two studio
albums. With a running time of over 40 minutes, the DVD will
feature recent live performance footage, behind-the-scenes
footage and a rare television interview.
"We decided to let Julie Gardner, who we've worked with for
years now," says Jackson, "to follow us around as we worked,
playing a live show, rehearsing, and just talking about
playing together and our long history together as band mates
and just mates."
The DVD will consist of three live songs that Jackson
performed at London's Islington Academy on 24th May 2007.
The songs performed include "Invisible Man", "Wasted Time"
and "Good Bad Boy", all of which appear on the forthcoming
studio album.
Other DVD features include a rare interview on the German
television show "Rockpalast", behind-the-scenes footage of
Jackson with fellow band members Dave Houghton (drums) and
Graham Maby (bass), footage of Jackson walking around
Berlin, pointing out some of his favourite things about the
city, plus footage of the band in the studio working on the
new album.
Jackson follows the release of the album with a rare London
concert at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Sunday 2nd March 2008.
(Source: Noble PR press release)
Et je ne résiste pas à l'envie de vous faire partager un extrait (vive la légalité) d'une super chanson écrite à l'occasion du smoking ban, en 2003 (raison pour laquelle JJ a quitté NY pour Berlin) : 20-0-3
In 20-0-3
A man joined the army
And soon he got shipped out to fight in Iraq
He got caught in a crossfire
And lost his right arm
But they didn't ban bullets
Or missile attacks
He's on his way home now
And who wants to tell him
He can't have a smoke with his beer?
So do what you want
Or do what they tell you
It's the land of the free,
but don't take it too far
You can do what you want
You can march off to war
But in 20-0-3 you can't smoke in a bar
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Dernière mise à jour par : ZiGGy le 29/11/07 02:27
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*** Et c'est ainsi qu'Allah est grand. ***
O.D.ed on life !
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Cachée
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-= Chaos Servants =-
Inscription le 11-01-03
Messages : 1232
Age : 42 ans
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Réponse au Sujet 'Joe Jackson' a été posté le : 13/02/08 14:06
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1. Invisible Man 5:07
2. Too Tough 4:37
3. Citizen Sane 4:20
4. Wasted Time 5:10
5. The Uptown Train 5:46
6. King Pleasure Time 2:47
7. Solo (So Low) 5:55
8. Rush Across The Road 5:21
9. Good Bad Boy 3:18
10. A Place In The Rain 5:20
Total running time: 47:45
C’était en 1981, et après trois albums avec son groupe personnel, Joe Jackson affrontait pour la première fois les attentes des auditeurs avec un virage jazz inattendu. En 2008, tout a changé et tout reste pareil, le virage est maintenant attendu, et ne manque pas le rendez-vous. Pour faire suite au retour du Joe Jackson Band avec son Volume IV (2003), l’anglais s’exile à Berlin et prend les mêmes (diminués du guitariste Gary Sanford) pour recommencer avec un virage de plus. Sans coup de frein à main et dérapage contrôlé, mais virage tout de même, vers une pop où le piano domine. Pour ce Rain, Joe Jackson enregistre avec le groupe le plus minimaliste de sa carrière, un trio, comme sur le live jazzy Summer In The City, mais cette fois pour de nouvelles compositions. Une formation qui ne laisse qu’une rythmique derrière le chanteur et met donc en avant son travail dans une forme plus « singer / songwriter » que jamais, c’est à dire plus de piano que dans Night & Day, plus de chant que dans Night Music, mais toujours des textes aussi importants que tout autre aspect de chaque chanson.
Ce que propose Joe Jackson ici est assez clair : dix chansons, et un album pop sans trop de difficultés pour l’auditeur, ce qui n’enlève bien sûr rien à la quantité et la qualité du travail de l’artiste. C’est toujours ce live de 1999, Summer In the City, qui se rapproche le plus de Rain : la formule du trio, mais aussi cette légèreté musicale incarnée par The In Crowd, repris à l’époque et dont la mélodie est détournée aujourd’hui dans les longues parties instrumentales de The Uptown Train. Un morceau qui donne la voix au piano et où la partie centrale, quoi que chantée à merveille, est éclipsée par une mise en bouche et une conclusion au swing aussi peu novateur et totalement enivrant que l’était celui de Jumpin’ Jive à son époque. Alors de même que Summer In the City ou Jumpin’ Jive étaient minimisés par certains pour leur aspect passéiste, de même que la nostalgie de Volume IV a pu être dénigrée, Rain représente bien un nouveau virage dans une carrière ou l’inconstance finit elle même par sembler constante, mais, au delà de ça, n’apporte absolument rien.
La question doit alors se poser : qu’attend on d’un nouvel album de pop, en 2008 ? Qu’attend on d’un nouvel album de Joe Jackson, déjà vétéran du genre ? Comme d’habitude avec les vétérans, ceux qui connaissent et ont envie d’écouter vont aimer, les autres continueront de s’en tamponner le coquillard sur les palétuviers avec allégresse. Et le travail du chroniqueur devient bien illusoire. C’est d’ailleurs le propos de la chanson d’ouverture, pas la meilleure, cet artiste qui avec le temps devient – enfin – un homme invisible, peinard. Et l’artiste invisible fait bien ce qu’il veut. Alors que veut Joe Jackson en 2008 ? Si l’on en croit son interview dans le petit dvd fourni en bonus (et qui a le mérite de proposer trois titres filmés live), son ambition essentielle est de passer du bon temps, que ce soit en étant productif en tant que musicien ou non. Rappelons nous qu’on a affaire à un homme qui aime cloper au point d’avoir enregistré une de ses meilleures chansons récentes (20-0-3, à se procurer d’urgence) sur le sujet de l’interdiction des battons à cancer, et a écrit à la même époque un long article débordant de cynisme sur le sujet. Voilà une ambition qui en dit beaucoup sur les prétentions de ce nouvel album, et ce que l’on peut en attendre : une œuvre au sens minimum et à l’intérêt quasi nul.
Chacun voyant midi à sa porte, cette description pourrait bien être celle de tout bon album pop. De bonnes chansons, juste pour le fun, un projet offrant l’occasion au chanteur de s’amuser avec de nouvelles formes sans que le résultat ne soit plus que le plaisir qu’il a déjà eu l’occasion d’offrir à ses auditeurs. Il peut donc prendre son plaisir avec de longues parties de piano et des prouesses vocales tout en nous offrant quelques histoires d’amours tristes ou cyniques (pour ça au moins, il n’a jamais changé, entendre Too Tough pour s’en convaincre), et même si Solo (So Low) a la mélancolie d’un Drowning déjà vieux de dix-sept ans, ce plaisir n’en est pas moins grand. Ainsi Joe Jackson poursuit sa route, fier à juste titre d’avoir écris une chanson comme Wasted Time, et comme d’habitude le commun des mortels l’ignorera à raison tandis que les intéressés s’en délecterons. C’en est presque lassant, mais un quinquagénaire peut il faire mieux dans une musique dont il sait lui même qu’elle est frappée du sceau de l’adolescence (souvenons nous de son Awkward Age décrivant la chose alors même que ses cheveux depuis toujours dégarnis étaient bien grisonnants) ? Il n’est plus question d’attendre quelque chose de musiciens comme Joe Jackson, mais ça n’est pas une raison pour eux d’arrêter d’enregistrer, ni pour nous d’arrêter de les écouter. Il suffit d’apprécier.
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*** Et c'est ainsi qu'Allah est grand. ***
O.D.ed on life !
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