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Mark Winkler: Late Bloomin' Jazzman
By"You're playing better than in your well-regarded youth...the prodigies come and go, don't they?" If there is a mirror image to "September Song," "Late Bloomin' Jazzman" must be it, and Brian Swartz' tart trumpet adds the exclamation point. Yeah, novelty is sometimes confused with talent, or youth with beauty. Is it not, one thinks, the truth of the well-traveled?
"Bossa Nova Days" really drives it home. "I wasn't born for these times, music's not musical, and words don't even rhyme." Winkler remembers being lost in those bossa nova days, "singing of lost romance, sand beneath my feet." You, too, brother? "Take me back," he intones. Well, maybe not to Brazil, but some less exotic shore worked just as well. There were wars in 1967, too, but they had not visited one's doorstep yet. Not better times, but memory convinces otherwise. "Old Enough" explains it all. With ironic good humor. "I'm old enough not to be fooled by the lights and the show." "This time the clever is gone." And one gets it, including, "too many notes and too little feeling." Rueful, but funny. "I'm still young enough to know that I don't know that much." Point taken.
Too sentimental? Maudlin? Then try "Old Devil Moon." Winkler can swing, and he does not try too hard. The musicians are especially well placed here: Rich Eames on piano; Bob Sheppard on tenor sax; Christian Euman on drums; Gabe Davis on bass; and Grant Geissman on guitar, with Brian Swartz playing a solid backup line. Players of this caliber make it easier for a singer to sound good.
"Marlena's Memories" is almost too painful to hear, but a good reminder of how ordinary are the sources of pain. Winkler confesses he once wrote bad songs. Somehow, that seems implausible.
There are twelve tracks here. It really is not possible to write about all of them. And probably not necessary. To paraphrase a Founding Father, "If you have to ask, you will never know." A memorable performance indeed in a most memorable career.
Track Listing
It Ain't Necessarily So; Don't Be Blue; When All The Light in The Sign Worked; Late Bloomin Jazzman; In Another Way; Boss Nova Days; Old Devil Moon; I Always Had A Thing For You; Before You Leave; Old Enough; Marlena's Memories; If Gershwin Had Lived.
Personnel
David Benoit
pianoJohn Clayton
bassJamieson Trotter
pianoBob Sheppard
saxophone, tenorNolan Shaheen
flugelhornKevin Winard
drumsJon Mayer
pianoGabe Davis
bass, acousticClayton Cameron
drumsBrian Swartz
trumpetGrant Geissman
guitarChristian Euman
drumsMark Winkler
vocalsAlbum information
Title: Late Bloomin' Jazzman | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Cafe Pacific Records
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