Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Rosenthals: Fly Away

3

The Rosenthals: Fly Away

The Rosenthals: Fly Away
The continuing atomization and commingling of musical styles leads both to new styles and vibrant recapitulations of old ones. Either path, an evolution of the music. Father and son duo, Phil And Daniel Rosenthal, prove both directions of this observation on Fly Away, an assembly of fourteen mostly original compositions that is at once beautifully strange and deeply traditional.

An immediate umbrella classification of this music could be "American Baroque." The presence of the elder Rosenthal's various stringed instruments and pious, doctrinal voice immediately set the bluegrass brand to these songs, but this can only be seen as the basis upon which alternate styles are layered. The younger Rosenthal's tart trumpet brings a fruitful palette of implied influences to task, while adding to the "Baroque-ness" (or country counterpoint) of the songs. Son Daniel penned music to lyrics his father had written and mostly abandoned decades ago. Daniel took advantage of his father's unique vocal delivery by placing it among a variety of melodic inventions.

"I'll Fly Away," "Single Again," "Pretty Polly" and "Over The Mountain" are the folk songs adapted into the Rosenthal amalgam. "I'll Fly Away" is straight bluegrass-gospel with Daniel's trumpet serving as the church bell. "Single Again," bears the fractured contrapuntal play of New Orleans Jazz showing just how closely related these styles are. The original "This Rainy Afternoon" captures a true magic between the Rosenthals singing together lyrics of a homespun crystalline clarity. "Masquerade Ball" supports an Hispanic flavor and would have been more than appropriate in The Wild Bunch soundtrack. The instrumental "Relaxed" evokes very much the same sound, Will Graefe's slightly overdriven electric guitar giving the song a contemporary grit.

"Dreamed Last Night," written by Daniel and sister Naomi Sommers (mother Beth Sommers provides harmony vocals), provides a sample of lyrical content of the disc:

Could it be a ruse...something that went wrong...someone we couldn't lose...like the world turned bad and that is why I feel like it is raining in my bones...


It is this music that is the soundtrack of Greil Marcus' "Old, Weird America." It is, at once, deeply steeped in the vernacular while spreading stylistically in all directions. I'll Fly Away is one of those infrequent recordings that begs a reconsideration of what we label as musical styles. It is not iconoclastic or enigmatic, merely a quiet reminder of where creativity can lead.

Track Listing

This Rainy Afternoon; I'll Fly Away; Single Again; Since I Met Her; Masquerade Ball; Dreamed Last Night; Relaxed; Pretty Polly; Sunlight on the Garden; Over the Mountain; Little Birdie; Dirt Farmer; We'll Talk Tomorrow; Waitin' on Down the Line.

Personnel

Phil Rosenthal: vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo; Daniel Rosenthal: vocals, trumpet; Rick Stone: alto saxophone; Mike Conners: drums, percussion; Will Graefe: acoustic guitar; Beth Sommers: vocals; Naomi Sommers: vocals.

Album information

Title: Fly Away | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: American Melody

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.