Marc Johnson - Shades of Jade

[Tanager]

Marc Johnson
Shades of Jade
ECM, 2005

Personnel:

Marc Johnson - b, leader
Joe Lovano - ts
John Scofield - g
Eliane Elias - p
Joey Baron - d
Alain Mallet - organ

I wanted to love this disk at first listen. I really did. I read praise from folks like Captain Hate, whose opinions are usually on the money (and who know my tastes), and I wanted to love this disk. It's got several players (Johnson, Baron, Scofield, Lovano) whose playing I readily enjoy and whose releases, in the case of Lovano and Scofield, I usually pick up pretty quickly. I wasn't terribly familiar with Elias, and I'd simply never heard of Mallet, but he only plays on one or two tracks. I first listened to this album Tuesday evening while driving to an appointment, and it started promisingly. The languid "Ton Sur Ton" leads off, and all are in fine form. Lovano and Sco state the melody in unison with Elias taking the first solo - her playing is moody and tempered, in keeping with the tune. I was somehow reminded of the Pink Panther theme - I felt like it should be a rainy night in Paris. Good start, I was thinking.

The album continued very promisingly. Lovano took the majority of solo space, playing with a light feel and sticking (mostly) to the upper register of his horn. The next three tracks are all down-tempo as well - good rainy-night-in-Paris music. Scofield sits out until the fifth track, the appropriately-named "Blue Nefertiti," which is a fun and quirky romp - Scofield brings his trademark blues-meets-odd-angles approach to the table, and Lovano cuts loose with some squeals and squonks to keep you on edge. The song has a wierd sort of fadeout finish, however - it's not a board fade, but the band just sort of subsides amidst some sonic noodling from Lovano and Scofield. The following track, "Snow" is really the first time Johnson interjects his personality noticeably (beyond able accompaniment) and takes any sort of solo space, that over a repeating piano figure.

Johnson follows that up with a duet between him and Baron (sticking mostly to cymbals), who is outstanding throughout the entire disk, but the one after that, the gospelized soul-jazz swinger "Raise," was for me easily the weakest track on the disk. Maybe it was meant to change the mood, but its effect is more jarring than anything else, and not in a good way. Scofield, in particular, sounds like he's just trying to sound like every other guitarist who's played in an organ trio, and I like him much better when he sounds like Scofield.

"All Yours" is a restatement of the theme from "Snow" although Elias doesn't pep up the proceedings in her solo as much this time around - it's not entirely somber, but it's not quite the ray of light effect that her solo in the earlier tune had. The album finishes with the bass-organ duet "Don't Ask of Me," with Johnson playing bowed here, and the effect is entirely sobering - it's a sad glower of a tune which underscores the overall moody feel of this excellent album.

I said I wanted to love the album at first listen, and to be honest, I didn't. I just liked it - I didn't care for Elias' solo in "Snow," and I *really* didn't like "Raise" - now I just don't like it, and at further listening, I think Elias' playing is just fine, although I still think her solo on "Snow" is one of her weaker moments in the album. But after a second and third listen, it's really grown on me. Baron doesn't have a weak moment anywhere, and the compositions are all pretty strong (with the one exception). I also thought that Lovano and Scofield were underutilized at first, but then I decided that the sparse settings served the feel better, probably. It's really an excellent effort, I think, even if it won't change any lives.

[Captain Hate]

Nice review, T; and glad it grew on you because it did the same with me. I think Mallet appears on two cuts; the liners don't make that clear (although it *might* be why they listed him last ) and I kept thinking "Where's the effing organ?"

For some reason it reminds me of the ECM releases in the mid to late '70's when I was buying them on vinyl in large gobs (especially those *primo* German pressings).

[jaka]

Oh no, not again.
I thought I would be able to avoid this one, for budget's sake, based on the mixed and somehow only mildly enthusiastic reviews I came across.
But it seems I'll finally have to add it to the other long-loved Marc Johnson releases I already have.
Thanks T.

[Tanager]

Originally Posted by Captain Hate

Nice review, T; and glad it grew on you because it did the same with me. I think Mallet appears on two cuts; the liners don't make that clear (although it *might* be why they listed him last ) and I kept thinking "Where's the effing organ?"

Yeah, the liners are typically uninformative (ECM's liners, that is - almost always just a series of photos of the band, although the Charles Lloyd CD I'm about to write up has some fine input from the Grouch, *sigh*. Actually, he doesn't say anything too controversial or whacked out). And sorry jaka, but I like this disk lots, too.

Re: Mallet, I kept thinking that he might be there somewhere in the background mix on "Raise," but I couldn't be sure.

[Peterdubya]

I like this CD a lot.
Eliane Elias, Scofield, Lovano, Marc Johnson, and Joey Baron.

Great to hear this group all the way through. Sco and Lovano have great chemistry as do Elias and Johnson, so combined, the music is great. Eliane can play so great..... wish she would do things like this more often.

[Ron Thorne]

I've had this on my wish list, Peter. Your post has reconfirmed why, so I'd better get my butt in gear.

I really like every player on this session, especially the often underrated Elias and Johnson.

[Peterdubya]

Lovano and Scofield work so well together..... an underrated gem from 2006.

[Vince Kargatis]

I like this one a lot too.

[Paul B]

Count me in as an admirer of this album...It got pretty regular play chez moi for a few months. Oh wait, jazz is dead....

[Tom Storer]

Jazz isn't dead--it's banned itself for life.

[Lois Gilbert]