JEREMY BASS
NEW YORK IN SPRING
Jeremy Bass

www.jeremybassmusic.com
 

Bass, following up on the Winter Bare collection, reveals another string from his musical bow with an album of Bossa nova inspired tunes. Many of the songs on New York in Spring come from Bass’ back catalog, written when he was exclusively playing nylon-stringed guitars, as he had in his early days as a classical guitarist trained in the academies of Italy and the flamenco bars of Spain. This great CD is influenced by the composer Antônio Carlos Jobim and Brazilian guitar masters Luis Bonfá and Baden Powell. “We already had a feel for how we played together and we knew the tunes, so we ended up recording all seven songs in a single day,” Bass explained of the process. “The snow was piled in drifts outside and the wind was so fierce it would sting your skin. But in the studio we were immersing ourselves in these sunny Bossa nova style songs about the city in the spring.”

New York in Spring is an elegant and stylish reprise from the more home spun charms of Winter Bare. The fine guitar picking and lilting Latin rhythm of the opening instrumental “Berimbou,” lead you into the wry charm of “Style.” This track evokes an era of dressing and comporting for effect. It’s set off with a charming accordion harmony. “Work” reveals Bass’s characteristic narrative panache, enhanced by a Jacob Valenzuela’s spicy trumpet playing. The instrumental, “Theme form El Decameron Negro” is a sun-filled Spanish guitar track giving us a chance to enjoy Bass’s masterly playing. He snuck in the Lennon elegy “Julia”; always a weeper. He delivers it with a quiet intensity.

In addition to being a fine Spanish guitarist, Bass is a poet. Perhaps it takes a wordsmith to deliver the intensity of Lennon’s own poetry: “sea shell eyes and windy smile.” One of the standout efforts here is “Firefly,” which, to use the great wordwright, Ian Drury’s epithet, is “upful” in the extreme. It’s a modestly beautiful track with the trademark rolling rhythms, adorable tune and great piano fills. “Prayer” with its invocation to avoid fear and think on the infinite is another great listen. Again, the understated sophistication of the Latin rhythms and Bass’ fine band, enhance this track. Bass has a gift for the cinematic evocation of place in his music and words. The bass line which introduces the title track of the CD is like a map grid leading us through the streets of his favorite city in the post winter season. “From the window the sound of strings, up streets an echo, love birds in a fling.”

New York in Spring took me rolling through a time tunnel to New York many decades ago. Although the New York in question is a much more sophisticated lady now compared to the feral punk I knew in the 1980s, this track’s a paean to the eternal joys of your own great city, with a divine string arrangement. “How could you not live here and truly say you had not been alive?” A fizzing potential for happiness exudes from this track and the whole album.

Try to listen to New York in Spring without breaking out with a smile, dance or both.

— Rosa Redoz