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Gordon Lee: How Can It Be?
ByThe music reflects the way Lee feels about the world as it is now. How can it be? Many rational people must feel the same way.
The title tune opens the show. Lee displays an ebullient splendor on the piano. Saxophonist Renato Caranto sounds raw and anguished. How the hell can it be? Bassist Dennis Calazza and drummer Gary Hobbs drive things hard. It plays out as a worried but hopeful sound.
"Hypatia" was an Egyptian scholar and astronomer murdered by religious fanatics in Alexandria. in 415. Unsettled times are not confined to the present. In spite of the darkness of the demise of a brilliant and educated man at the hands of the ignorant and deluded crowd, the tune has a whimsical feel, perhaps ironically so.
Speaking of the ignorant and deluded, "Bozo Sulks On the Golf Course" was written with a certain former President of the United States in mind. It is sharp-edged and antic, like the soundtrack for a speeded-up round of golf, the golfer-protagonist dancing, herky-jerky, Keystone Cop- like, over the green links in a red baseball cap and a too-tight white golf shirt, his furious frown bobbing across the screen like the face of a gargoyle goosed with a nine iron. A splendid piece of music.
"'Deed I Did It," a contrafact for "Deed I Do," is jaunty and fun, wrapping up a largely optimistic eye on the question How Can It Be?
Track Listing
How Can It Be?, Hypatia, Angry Mother Nature, A Robin Weeps, Show Pain, Shaky Assets, Too Soon, Bozo Sulks on the Golf Course, 'Deed I Did It.
Personnel
Album information
Title: How Can It Be? | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: PJCE Records
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