Letters From a Black Widow

アレサの声とプリンスのギターを兼ね備えたファンキーディーヴァ!
マイケル・ジャクソン「THIS IS IT」でデュエット、プリンスのサポートを受けたりの才女ですが、その2人の訃報時には一部ファンからいわれなき誹謗中傷をうけたそうでその際のよろしくない呼び名(5)"Black Widow (黒い未亡人)"を楽曲に落とし込んだりの前半(1)～(5)はダークでシリアスにタッチ。それがゴスペル的バラード(6)で雲が晴れるように一転、曲調が開けていきます。ジョニ・ミッチェル的コード感の(7)、ふんわりしたファンク感でメロウ味ある(8)、南部的ダイナミックさの超カッコEファンキーロック(10)、ダニー・ハサウェイ的ニューソウルなバラード(12)など70'Sソウルファンなら親しみやすい楽曲がズラリと並び最高!

Fans of Judith Hill will immediately understand the reference in Letters from a Black Widows title. Its the epithet she was saddled with after the death of mentor and collaborator Prince, after working with and losing Michael Jackson to the same fate. She reclaims the phrase used by an online mob and transforms it into a mantra of power. Hills newfound use of the electric guitar, an instrument she taught herself to play after Baby, Im Hollywood, symbolizes that power. She is backed by her parents, Michiko Hill on keyboards, Robert Lee Hill on bass, drummer/percussionist John Staten, Daniel Chae on various stringed instruments, and a host of friends on backing vocals. Opener "One of the Bad Ones" offers a majestic piano, flute, fingerpicked guitar, and strings. Hill recounts a psychedelic healing experience; the tune elongates, fragments, and splinters into crackling angular funk-rock. Her lyric addresses an unmovable inner mountain of negative emotions: self-doubt, confusion, and pain. Her solution is not to fight, but to accept their presence as threads in her lifes fabric, along with joy, pleasure, and love. The bluesy guitar rock in the single "Flame" builds on the lyric resolve of the previous track, as Hills protagonist not only stands tall but swaggers amid lifes chaos as a rumbling B-3 doubles the bassline for momentum. "We Are the Power" prefaces the title track with bubbling drum funk, wah-wah guitar, and a melody that underscores her apprenticeship at Paisley Park as her sensual multi-tracked vocal soars over the backing singers in a fingerpopping chorus. "Black Widow" is a theatrical ballad that suggests the influence of Nina Simone -- a master at transforming hate. An ominous piano introduces Hills harrowing lyric, reflecting on the burden the epithet imposed from outside. She turns that perception inside-out amid electronically treated chorus vocals and swirling strings. Following a badass guitar solo, Hill accepts the entire journey as a transformational growth experience that strengthened her spirit. Single "Dame de la Lumiere" is a musical love letter to her mother and grandmother, and an empowering tribute to women delivered in a gorgeous chamber jazz vernacular that touches on gospel and pop. Hills phrasing is elastic, seamless, and carries the emotional truth, creating new meaning when taken with the previous two cuts. "Let Me Be Your Mother" is a mutant blues with stellar interlocking interplay between upright bass, plucked violin, spiky electric guitar, and Afro-Latin percussion before it gently mutates into neo-soul. Her 2023 single "Runaway Train" is rave-up, revue-style soul with an anthemic chorus, soaring Wurlitzer electric piano, and a Hammond B-3 buoyed by the swaggering rhythm section. Hills lyric details her life as a musician with its struggles, blessings, love, and heartbreak, and she says yes to it all. Letters from a Black Widow is a cathartic album. Exceptional in its writing and production, this is a mature statement of an artist who knows her worth, expresses empathy, practices acceptance, and embraces possibility. ~ Thom Jurek

日系米国人シンガー/ソングライターの3年ぶりとなる新作。"Dame De La Lumiere"などで歌われている通り、困難に立ち向いながら自分を育ててくれた母や祖母に感謝しつつ自身の苦悩や闇とも対峙して女性たちへのエンパワーメントを謳ったコンセプト作で、今回も母ミチコ(オルガン)と父ロバート(ベース)を含むバンドがバックを支える。ファンク、ブルース、ゴスペル、ロック、ジャズが一体となったサウンドとパワフルで情熱的な歌声はこれまで以上に激しくスケールが大きい。一方で"You Got It Kid"などでは親しみやすさもある。マイケルやプリンスの名前も不要となった音楽家の才気が迸る作品だ。
bounce (C)林剛