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Canwest News Service
Far from Home: A Tribute to European Song
Beat Kaestli
B&B Productions
Rating: three and a-half stars
Like American jazz singer Jimmy Scott, Beat Kaestli has a voice that defies gender, making you ask yourself, “Is that a woman singing?” But unlike Scott, Kaestli has roots overseas, having come to New York from Switzerland, and on this 15-track offering he pays tribute to his native continent.
That's not completely true. Sure, a song like La Habanera, from the Georges Bizet opera Carmen, resembles something you'd hear in an Old World cafe, but it also could come from New Orleans' Preservation Hall (check out trumpeter Kenny Rampton's plunger work). The use of violin, accordion and harmonica on some songs send you across the Atlantic Ocean, but then Missing/Here Comes the Rain Again takes a detour to Havana, and Eso puts the listener in Rio de Janeiro..
The songs, which include nine that Kaestli wrote or co-wrote, are striking, and standouts include a piano-vocal rendition of Kurt Weil's September Song, where Ben Stivers keyboard work sends chills up the spine, and the funky, spacey original Conflicted.
– Marke Andrews
Here and Now
Jake Langley
Tone Poet Productions
Rating: three stars
A half-decade spent with organist Joey Defrancesco motivated Canadian jazz guitarist Jake Langley to start his own guitar-drums-Hammond organ trio. Teaming with New Yorkers Sam Yahei on Hammond B3 and Ian Froman (best known for his work with Metalwood) on drums, Langley puts out a strong program of originals, standards and cover tunes.
Playing vintage Gibson guitars and amplifiers, Langley has a warm tone on everything he does, even when the tempos are brisk (Singularity), and it absolutely fits a ballad like Charles Mingus's Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.
Froman's crisp drumming, punctuated by rim shots, is made for an organ trio, and the beat he puts on L-Train crosses a funk with a march. Langley nods to his homeland with a jazz-waltz version of Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind.
– Marke Andrews
