Vocalist Theo Bleckmann has always travelled his own vocal road, with this latest being possibly his most intriguing. Also doing “live electronic programming”, he teams up with the four trumpet team of The Westerlies (Riley Mulherkar-Chloe Rowlands/tp and Andy Clausen-Willem de Koch/tb) to mix brass and voice to a series of songs about social issues as traditional as Woody Guthrie as well as bringing a bit of satire to the mix.
Of the latter, there is great irony on the re-creation of the jingle “Look for the Union Label” while just a bit later you get a bit of American church in the waltz “In The Sweet By and By/The Preacher and the Slave”. There are abstract moods as on “Looking O ut” and solemn spirituals such as “Wade In The Water”. Sometimes Bleckman sings out the lyrics with passion as on Joni Mitchell’s “The Fiddle and the Drum” while other times he wordlessly blends in with the brass, as on the genteel “Grandmar”. The horns themselves come across like vaudeville or pre-ragtime as on the home “Two Good Men” or “I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore” with short solos taken by each during one of the pieces. You get the impression that you’re watching a demonstration of some sort, seduced by the “old time” musical feel, but viscerally stirred by the message. A riveting combo punch.