About
Jewels & Binoculars
Label: Ramboy / Upshot
since circa 1999
Jewels and BinocularsMichael Moore, Lindsey Horner, Michael Vatcher play music of Bob Dylan
Some consider Bob Dylan to be one of the most influential musicians of our era. His materials are traditional-song forms inherited from the blues and the music of the British Isles, and imagery inspired by the greatest writers of our culture. He has, however, found some very personal ways of combining sound and text: indeed, a great poet.
Jewels and Binoculars was born out of Lindsey Horner and Michael Moore’s mutual love of Dylan’s music. Starting in the late 90's, New York bassist Lindsey Horner would get together with reedist Michael Moore and percussionist Michael Vatcher, longtime residents of Amsterdam, Holland, to explore that repertoire.
Interpreting the songs instrumentally, the trio uses the power of the tried and true folk song forms as the starting point for their improvisational flights, all the while keeping the power of the words and images fresh in mind.
Rather than guitar,voice and harmonica, the instrumentation relies primarily on the clarinet, bass clarinet or alto saxophone for the melody, the acoustic bass for the harmony, and Michael Vatcher’s wide variety of percussion instruments for textural variation.
The latest recording, the third from this collective trio, is entitled Ships With Tattooed Sails on Horner's Upshot Records label. As of May 2007 it is available through www.lindseyhorner.com, downtownmusicgallery.com or cdbaby.com.
The previous two releases, Floater and Jewels and Binoculars were released on Moore's Ramboy Recordings label.
Ships With Tattooed Sails
Third CD from this collective trio focusing on improvisatory, instrumental interpretations of the bard.
Tracks include:
If You See Her, Say Hello; Senor, I Believe in You, Father of Night, Cold Irons Bound, Spirit on the Water, Jack-a-Roe, One More Cup of Coffee, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
And three with guitarist Bill Frisell as a guest:
Blind Willie McTell, Gates of Eden and It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding).
As of now, you can order this new CD directly from Lindsey Horner by sending a check or Money Order for $17 U.S. to:
809 West 181 st. #111
New York, NY 10033
or from Downtownmusicgallery.com
or from CDbaby.com:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/jewelsbinoculars
Reviews
"Jewels and Binoculars is a surprising, effective tribute to the music of Bob Dylan, imbued with a lyrical sensibility but spiked with an array of hard-edged corners...A trio finding power in the interpretation of simple forms with thoroughly un-saccharine sweetness. The openness here never comes the easy way-three consummate stylists serving up sincerity with rough-hewn, hard fought rigor. Without qualification, this is a classic of a new century." — Charles Walker, Sudden Thoughts
"Jewels and Binoculars confronts us with a scarcely recognized paradigm-that jazz music has folk roots...As a whole, there is a blend of courage and melancholy in the tunes, which owes largely to the careful sequencing of the record. Bob Dylan should be flattered, as his music here is imaginatively interpreted with gorgeous instrumentation, while treated with obliging respect."
— Alan Jones, One Final Note, UK
"Bob Dylan's focus is on words, messages, and simple melodies that speak to the soul...Stripped of their pop rhythms and vocals, the songs stand on their own as attractive melodies with hooks and nooks. It doesn't hurt to have the kind of extraordinary talent comprising this trio. The results are never less than fascinating." — Steven Loewy, Cadence Magazine
"...All melodies well suited for Moore's touching Jimmy Guiffre inspired clarinet. Switching to alto saxophone for "Dear Landlord" and "With God on Our Side", among others, he gives a glimpse of the rude sputtery energy he's brought to Mengelberg's ICP Orchestra and the late Clusone 3, thereby honoring Dylan the surrealist and Dylan the reckless crooner. Horner takes the simple harmonies as they are, but can row back and forth over a scale and make it sound like a solo, thanks to creative phrasing and precise timing, articulation and intonation. Vatcher loves the zillion timbres an extended trap set can produce and can be a weirdly hiccupy timekeeper, testing the parameters of a beat, taking perfectly good phrases and stretching them dangerously out of shape. Like Bob Dylan." — Kevin Whitehead, Chicago Reader
Unknown
