True confessions: I had lost interest in famed singer/songwriter Paul Simon decades ago, not because of his composing charms. In fact, Graceland is still one of the iconic rock albums of all time. Instead, I’ve always felt that Simon’s voice just didn’t work on its own; he sounded better with Art Garfunkel, who himself pulled the boner of a career move by thinking he was the brains in the famed duo.
Here, with an aged voice that sounds fantastically world wise, Simon returns to a selection of songs that were either obscure on hit albums, or obscure on (deservedly?) obscure albums. It works wonderfully, as Simon brings in pop and jazz artists ranging from John Patitucci/b, Andy Snitzer/sax, Sullivan Fortner/p, Wynton Marsalis/tp, Steve Gadd/dr, Wycliff Gordon/tuba and Bill Frisell/g along with a collection of strings, exotic instruments and electronics to create rich and bohemian moods.
The only slightly familiar piece, “One Man’s Ceiling is Anohter Man’s Floor” has an easy swing to it here, whereas shadowy moods are created by Frisell and Simon’s harmonium for “Love.” A hip little jazz combo creates a bohemian mood on “How the Heart Approaches What it Yearns” and a big horn section gets almost vaudevillian for “Pigs, Sheep and Wolves.” Mystical guitars from Odair Assad and Sergio Assad bring out the best of Simon on “The Teacher” and the yMusic team of Cj Camerieri/tp, Alex Sopp/fl, Hideaki Aomori/cl, Rob Moose/vi, Nadia Sirota/va and Gabriel Cabezas/cel create Old World moods on “Rene and Georgette Magritte with their Dog After the War” and “Can’t Run But.” This album has Simon at his most relaxed and comfortably mooded. Impressive in a number of planes.