![]() ![]() ![]() Henry's character asks simple questions that offer significant difficulties in his inner world, but he embraces them: "I want my story straight/But all the others bend/From wondrous to strange/To beauty at the end." It's a haunting melody that would be - if we had them anymore - a parlor song. "Channel" follows it, a love song about disorder that is played as anything but. James Infirmary") led by piano, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and a minimal trap kit? The music seems to come from antiquity in "The Man I Keep Hid," but Henry's voice is right firmly in the historical present: his protagonist voices his desires and how they are thwarted - usually by himself - as horns, organs, piano, and rhythm section swell and offer the chaos just under the surface of the singer's voice. Who cannot relate to the swinging blues (à la "St. They drift in and out and are allowed to play a part in the songs. Many are dressed in horn arrangements and offbeat sounds that seem to enter in from the rafters. Louis, and Kansas City from the early 20th century some even rock - a little. Many of these songs are based on the blues (and even folk-blues) some are standards-style pop some walk out the jazz of New Orleans, St. Henry's love of traditional jazz has blossomed - the album sprawls over history, genre, and song forms, but there is no consciously retro aspect in its presentation and it is not a jazz album. Some are immediately identifiable others you've never met before and perhaps hope never to. It introduces all the characters here, with a note or two here, a chord flourish there. It begins with the short "Prelude," played by Jason Moran. Engineer Ryan Freeland is as important as the players: he managed to give this record its strange yet welcoming sound. His band includes Marc Ribot, Patrick Warren, Jay Bellerose, David Pilch, and now his son Levon on saxophones and clarinet, as well as vibist Keefus Ciancia. He's worked with jazz musicians often, but he's never made a record that employs the form so prominently. Blood from Stars is the album Joe Henry's been getting at since Scar.
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