New music

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This article was published 23/06/2023 (1171 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROCK

Jenny Lewis

Joy’All (Blue Note Records/Capitol)

Right in the middle of Joy’All, the fifth full-length solo album from Jenny Lewis, the indie-pop singer-songwriter juxtaposes a song called Essence of Life with another titled Giddy Up. The first is a ruminative breakup tune, in which she croons that “the essence of life is suffering,” while lamenting “we had the essence of life at our fingertips” and repeats a forlorn refrain of “I want you back.” Giddy Up, meanwhile, is a dreamy flirtation, full of entreaties to a potential lover, even cooing a whispered invitation to “take a chance on a little romance, we’re both adults.”

This contrast between the pathos of heartbreak and the excitement of possibility informs all of Joy’All, a record that embraces Lewis’ wit, humility and self-awareness and which ultimately acknowledges, as she sings on Cherry Baby, that “life’s a mystery, we’ll just wait and see.” (Because she’s Jenny Lewis, the last two lines of that verse are, “If I don’t lose my mind / Get it right this time,” but that’s her way of ducking out of the first observation, which is ultimately the message.)

Lewis has said the origins of this album’s 10 songs are roughly split between pre-pandemic tunes that are about people and places (and thus life and loss) and numbers that were written during lockdown, which are naturally more reflective. A couple even had their origins in a week-long songwriting workshop conducted by Beck on Zoom at the height of the pandemic — including the gleefully singable Puppy and a Truck, which is about self-reliance.

To bring this material to life, L.A. native Lewis took the songs to Nashville, where she also owns a home, and put them together with über-producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton), who brings her gentle melodies and soft, sweet voice to the fore in mostly mid-tempo arrangements, embellishing them with a multi–instrumental backing that practically shimmers (while the record works as headphone/earbuds music, it should really be heard in full stereo on a proper system to be fully appreciated). Ultimately, it’s a joyous treat… y’all.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Psychos, Essence of Life, Cherry Baby

On YouTube: Joy’All deluxe playlist.

— John Kendle

COUNTRY

Jess Williamson

Time Ain’t Accidental (Mexican Summer)

Jess Williamson’s fifth solo album incarnates 2023 through a lyrical road trip that unpacks America, its western landscapes, reckless storms and evanescent roots, transforming country music’s legacy into her own search for redemption.

Merging the grit of heartbreak with the lyricism of repair, Williamson’s voice ranges like tobacco smoke ascending into electric sunrises that beam into the full moon as mellow acoustics, brass, beats and sonic twists ground the soundscapes of the winding path. Her lyrics question genres, like the lies behind her dubious love song “now that the love is gone” and they argue with classic norms of the country song, “I’m not a good woman if I leave or if I stay” and her transitions play on each other, “Whatcha take me for?” as she answers “Take me for a ride.”

Love is both a delusion and a cure as her lyrics trace her roots in Texas, reinvention in California and all the pitstops in between. It slowly slips away in A Few Seasons, an ode to its loss. It’s “as pure as the universe, honest as an ashtray” in Hunter, her anthem for self-possession. Later, in Roads, she feels a hurricane in her heart, hail storm in her head, a tornado blowing through her bones for her lover.

Her sense of self wanders from wondering if she’s “a one-time dream or a country queen” in Topanga Two Step and how she compares to the “women in boots, with their long hair in tassels” in God in Everything. Williamson roves between her wanting to leave LA, where she could “start a garden with the landlord” in Chasing Spirits and being “kept between the bridal and being built to run” in I’d Come to Your Call. Time wavers between the one sun and one moon at her fountain of her youth in Tobacco Two Step and the days before her broken heart when she read her lover “Raymond Carver by the pool bar like a lady” in Time Ain’t Accidental.

She’s at her best when the rich details of her past morph into the surrounding terrains, metaphors like the stormy weather of love that fade into waterways of searching for closure. Mapping her heart along the desert zephyrs, country stores and two-step bars, Williamson ventures through heartache in all its pain and glory.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THIS: Time Ain’t Accidental

— Amancai Biraben, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Will Bonness

Is This a Dream? (Self-released)

Winnipegger Will Bonness, now a citizen of the larger jazz world, has come “home” for this new album. In this, his fourth album, Bonness shows his continuing development as pianist, arranger and leader. (A personal aside — I first met Bonness when as a teenager he was playing background music at a Christmas season house party. When I realized he was playing Monk between two seasonal tunes, I realized he was not just a background guy, and talked to him for a while.)

Bonness celebrates the album’s release tonight, Friday June 23, at the Royal Albert as part of the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival. Personnel on the album are Virginia MacDonald on clarinet, Jocelyn Gould on vocals, Alison Au on alto, Dan Fortin or Andrew Goodlett on bass and Fabio Ragnelli on drums. A fine mix of covers and originals, this reflects the maturity of all participants.

Originals like Contraption swing like mad, while the pop standard I Get Along Without You Very Well has a mellow and haunting groove with vocalist Gould nailing the mood perfectly.

Round and Round has a Latin influence, while Dusk has a cool dialogue between Gould on vocalese and MacDonald’s clarinet (MacDonald is a standout throughout).

Rapture has a basic samba rhythm that allows Bonness to cut loose in a trio format with Fortin and Ragnelli. There are terrific complex and tricky moments. A favourite of mine on the album is Bonness’s beautiful arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s Blood Count. Here again his maturity and the versatile work of MacDonald combine to offer a track that would have made Strayhorn smile and nod.

Reverie sets the perfect mood with bassist Goodlett opening with a bowed intro that works well. I loved the final track — a clearly not serious but jaunty and humorous version of Cole Porter’s Don’t Fence Me In. The band was obviously having fun here.

Fun is the watchword for this thoroughly enjoyable album. And if you are reading this in time, you can catch the fun tonight at the Royal Albert.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Blood Count, Round and Round

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Orchestre Divertimento

Bacchanale: Saint-Saëns et la Méditerranée (Harmonia Mundi)

Conductor Zahia Ziouani whisks listeners to the sun-kissed climes of the Mediterranean, highlighting music by the travel-loving French composer Camille Saint-Saens, as performed by her own ensemble, the Orchestre Divertimento.

Born to a family of Algerian immigrants and the subject of 2023 biopic Divertimento, Ziouani includes 19 works in this inaugural recording, including Suite algerienne en do majeur, op. 60 and Jota aragonese, op. 64, reflecting Saint-Saëns’ multiple visits to Algeria and Spain, respectively. Listeners are also treated to excerpts from his ballets Parysatis, R 312 and Samson and Dalila, Op. 47 — including a zesty performance of its Danse Bacchanale, which inspired the album’s title — with the entire program interlaced with works penned by contemporary Algerian composers, including Idir’s A vav Inouva, and Brahim-Djelloul’s Istikhbar Mezmoum.

A particular highlight is Tarantelle, op. 6, with its hypnotic rhythms brought to life by flute and clarinet as well as the orchestra, which also includes Ziouani’s sister, cellist Fettouma Ziouani. A series of fascinating improvisations fill out the recording, while providing further texture and multicultural flair, including a shorter offering based on Leyla performed by traditional oud player Yousef Zayed. The instrumental numbers are balanced by mesmerizing vocal selections, such as the more fully scored arrangement of the latter piece sung by violinist Rachid Brahim-Djelloul.

Despite some (minor) unevenness, there’s a lot of heart, soul and integrity in Ziouani’s debut album, so in tune with our increasingly diverse global village with its lingua franca of music.

★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THIS: Tarantelle, op. 6

— Holly Harris