Lovers

構成数 : 2枚
合計収録時間 : 01:29:55
Personnel: Nels Cline (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar); Julian Lage (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Zeena Parkins (harp); Amy Kimball (violin, viola); Jeff Gauthier, Antoine Silverman (violin); Stephanie Griffin (viola); Erik Friedlander, Maggie Parkins (cello); J.D. Parran (alto flute, bass flute, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone); Charles Pillow (alto flute, bass flute, bass clarinet, oboe, English horn, alto saxophone); Gavin Templeton (clarinet, alto saxophone); Ben Goldberg (alto clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet); Doug Wieselman (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone); Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon); Steven Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet, flugelhorn, alto horn); Taylor Haskins (trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone); Michael Leonhart (trumpet, flugelhorn, celesta); Alan Ferber (trombone, bass trombone); Yuka Honda (celesta, synthesizer); Kenny Wollesen (vibraphone, marimba, percussion); Devin Hoff (bass guitar); Alex Cline (drum set, percussion). Audio Mixer: Ron Saint Germain. Liner Note Author: Nels Cline. Recording information: Pat Dillett Studio, NYC (11/2013/12/2013); Sear Sound, NYC (11/2013/12/2013); Water Music, Hoboken, NJ (11/2013/12/2013). Arranger: Michael Leonhart. Whether playing with his own avant-jazz bands or Wilco, strangeness and invention are two of guitarist Nels Cline's defining characteristics. Since the 1980s, he's longed to cut a large-scale album of "mood music" revolving around the concept of love and romance. He made ever changing lists of tunes from the Great American Songbook, cinema, jazz, pop, and exotica, but thought the project beyond his capability. Poet and producer David Breskin convinced him to pursue it. Cline enlisted award-winning arranger/conductor Michael Leonhart and a chamber orchestra of 22 players -- trumpeter Steven Bernstein, guitarist Julian Lage, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, harpist Zeena Parkins, and vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen among them. Blue Note made Lovers a physical reality. This 18-track, 80-plus-minute set pays homage to iconic muses: Henry Mancini, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Gary McFarland, Jimmy Giuffre, Jim Hall, and more. Uncharacteristically, over 13 covers and five originals, there is little anarchy and no guitar freakouts. Tunes fold into and rise out of one another, emerging with lush romanticism and erotic tension. Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Glad to Be Unhappy" commences with lilting clarinets, guitar chord voicings, strings, whispering brushed drums, and muted brass. Cline's "Hairpins and Hatbox" is a warm, lithe setup for the bluesy read of Giuffre's classic "Cry Want." Gabor Szabo's "Lady Gabor" is painted in drones and spacy modal melody. Guitars entwine around sweeping harp, moaning flutes, and rolling tom-toms. "Secret Love" is a direct tribute to Hall; it begins with a slightly dissonant percussive woodwind intro but breaks into airy swing as brass punctuates Cline's six-string break. Disc two is more experimental. Arto Lindsay's "It Only Has to Happen Once" is read as a mutant samba-cum-tango with a Morricone-esque guitar atop chamber strings. Cline juxtaposes noir-ish jazz, modern classical, and cabaret via the disparate themes from the films --"The Night Porter/Max, Mon Amour." A medley of Annette Peacock tunes, "So Hard It Hurts/Touching," offers shifting dynamics, drones, dissonant ambience, and sparse lyricism. Sonic Youth's "Snare Girl" is adorned by hypnotic tom-toms and an Americana-flavored guitar before Cline backmasks it and turns it inside out. The strings join in and it blurs toward psychedelic exotica. "The Search for Cat," from Mancini's Breakfast at Tiffany's score, is a serial cue that didn't make the soundtrack. Cline simultaneously balances swing and wry humor with suspense and theatricality, and even briefly quotes "Moon River." Closer "The Bond" is a tender, romantic ballad erected from a single rockist guitar vamp. Cline's emotionally resonant solo, framed by the backi