Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Gordon Lee: How Can It Be?

3

Gordon Lee: How Can It Be?

By

View read count
Gordon Lee: How Can It Be?
For a couple of years the Covid virus did its damnedest to shut the music down, especially the experience of live shows. During that downtime, pianist, composer & bandleader Gordon Lee put his idled hands to work practicing and composing new music. At his wife's urging, he also began a series of front porch concerts, casual shows for his neighbors and anybody else who happened to wander by. These quartet sessions were the impetus for Lee's How Can It Be? To steal and embellish a line from that dinosaur movie: "Life and music find a way."

The 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

Renato Caranto
saxophone, tenor

Album information

Title: How Can It Be? | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: PJCE Records

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.