Tuesday, August 1, 2006

CD Review: Arlington Jones’ Move The Heart

By Kaitlin Parker

There are probably folks out there less qualified to write a review of a jazz album than I am, but they have to be few and far between. Giving myself all due credit, I did take a course entitled “The History of Jazz” sophomore year of college. While the course perhaps garnered some appreciation for the genre, it also made listening to jazz a tedious chore—trying to tease out the differences in the “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” and the “New East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” attempting to tell Lester Young from Coleman Hawkins. The only thing I knew for certain after that class was that Thelonious Monk wore really cool hats. That, and if anyone ever made a movie of my life, I wanted “Blue Rondo A La Turk” on the soundtrack. Too bad the creators of Wedding Crashers had the same idea. I spent the following semester in Prague, arguably the jazz capital of Europe, which means that looking back, I now associate jazz with ancient pubs and new age Bohemians, which makes me think of $1.00 half liters of the world’s best beer, which makes me think of–well, there’s not much thinking to be done after that. All this to say that somewhere on the continuum between thinking too much and not thinking at all, Arlington Jones has made himself a home.

The opening track, “Comin’ & Goin’,” the only studio cut on an otherwise live album is decidedly mellow, but not without intention. This is the music the savvy hostess plays at a dinner party she spent all day cooking for but tells her guest the four course meal is just something she threw together last minute. She and Arlington share the secret of making it look (and sound) easy.

The remaining tracks I’m told are live, but the clarity and sound quality are so superb I often forget this was the case until the obviously rapt audience applauds at the end. “For the Sake of Your Name” draws the listener in, gradually picking up the pace, until in the last minute it really catches on fire and makes it impossible not to get up and dance around, only to subside and soothe any achy feet before it finishes. In a pleasant shift of style, “The Marriage of Love and Faithfulness,” take on more of a fusion, bossa nova type feel—are we sure that Stan Getz didn’t ever cover this?

The last half of Move the Heart features some stunning vocals, most notably those of Arlington’s wife, Hope Jones, who starts with a satisfyingly smoky approach on “Call Me Love,” gaining strength and smoothness as the song progresses. The daughter of Arlington, Christian Jones, who cannot possibly be described as anything other than adorable is spotlighted on “I’m Happy.” She does in fact sound happy and comes across as so blissfully innocent, this track earned itself a place on my personal monthly music mix for August, an honor not to be underestimated.

“Deference” is appealing but long—too long if you’re trying to focus solely on the song, but the kind of long to get lost in if you have other things on your mind. Yet my favorite track on the album, “Timing is Everything,” (you speak the truth, Arlington), keeps reminding me of someone else. Innovative piano work, a kind of economy with the notes where the silences are just as important as the sounds, the ability to visualize someone a piano player occasionally laying out and dancing around sparingly while the band improvises–as much as I try to submerge everything I learned in that jazz class, Thelonious Monk keeps coming to mind. But what do I know? Maybe I’m still stuck on his hats.

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