idlero
I was never a Robert Wyatt fan and wasn't 'exposed' too much ( I actually tried a couple of his albums and dropped them) to his music, which in this case may be an advantage because I had no big expectations of this album. `I'm not a jazz musician,' said Robert Wyatt once, `but it's the fountain from which I drink, so I piss some of it out in my records.' Well, I can say he p....ed quite a lot of it in this album in which he collaborates with saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, violinist Ros Stephen, and Stephen's Sigamos String Quartet. Atzmon has previously played on Wyatt's albums and collaborated with Stephen on Gilad With Strings, a project honouring Charlie Parker's dalliance with classical orchestration. The 11 tracks include seven jazz standards(Laura, In a Sentimental Mood,What a Wonderful World), two originals(The Ghosts Within being the best IMHO) and two jazzy reworkings of Wyatt originals(Maryan, At last I am free). Wyatt sings on 9 tracks and whistles on one, Atzmon brings the Middle-Eastern flavours on most of the tracks on one or more of soprano and alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet and accordion. The music is dreamy, restrained, reflective, lush, spiced in the right places with Atzmon's Middle Eastern accents. Wyatt's version of "What a Wonderful World" is a very nice surprise too. The approach is unconventional, but the result is beautiful chamber jazz. An album for the late hours of the day.