CD/LP/Track Review
Roberta Piket & Alternating Current: I'm Back in Therapy and It's All Your Fault (2002)
Dan McClenaghan
A lover of sounds, and the way they fit together.
Piano Lady Roberta Piket is looking quite cool, a little bit saucy, on the cover of her new CD... sunglasses and a hot pink sleeveless blouse, hips cocked, hands planted thereon, head tilted at a "you got a problem" angle. And then there's the title: I'm Back in Therapy and It's All Your Fault. That leads one to believe she's working a bit tongue in cheek, that the music here may play around with the whimsical side of song. But the sounds on I'm Back are actually rather dark and brooding, for the most part music that brings seventies Miles Davis to mind, around about Jack Johnson time.
Piket is a New England Conservatory grad and has played, most notably, with Lionel Hampton, as well as with her own trio and quintet. Her Alternating Current foray takes her into electric land, as she tries on the Wurlitzer electric piano (with effects) for size, and includes electric bass and guitar in the mix.
The unit has a tight, polished sound, churning out surprising/driving grooves, piano and guitar involving themselves in spirited conversations, the Wurlitzer sounding haunting, eerie, and angry at times.
Maybe Ms. Piket's not kidding around; maybe she really is in therapy; maybe it is our fault. But no matter—her neurosis, real or not, makes for a fine futuristic sonic experience.
And interestingly, Piket, with a BS in computer science, gave up a lucrative career as a software designer for her music. The sane choice; no therapy needed.
Track Listing: Conclusive Evidence, Unfair Competition, I'm Back in Therapy and It's All Your Fault, A Scene of One, Mixed Signals, Fatherless Figure, Just a Blues, Somethin; Easy, Speak, Memory, Bad Mistake, Blue Slipper Frogs
Personnel: Roberta Piket, Wurlitzer electric piano with effects; Bruce Arnold, electric guitar; Cliff Schmitt, electric bass; Kirk Driscoll, drums
Record Label: Thirteenth Note Records | Style: Funk/Groove
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