Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Michelle Lordi: Two Moons

9

Michelle Lordi: Two Moons

By

View read count
Michelle Lordi: Two Moons
The art of the jazz diva does not shy away from the dark and mysterious. From putting a spell on somebody to helplessly falling under that old black magic, the tradition always seems to include some small touch of witchery, and Michelle Lordi, for her part, does not let a modern-day sound obscure those roots. The mood of Two Moons sits somewhere between a late-night set in a small jazz club and a round of spooky stories around the campfire.

Lordi drops us into a weirdly beautiful spoken-word fever dream at the start, and the feeling of drifting somewhere unreal never quite goes away. A handful of original pieces present lyrics that could have come from decades-old love songs; in between are some well-seasoned chestnuts going back as far as the 1930s, themed around dreams, ghosts and/or broken hearts. All are arranged for a standard combo (sax/piano/acoustic bass/drums) in quasi-angular chord arrangements that keep the mood anything but standard.

That slight edge always keeps the pieces just a little unsettling as they drift from sad-happy to happy-sad. A lot of that is down to co-witchdoctor Orrin Evans and his instinct for blocky jagged edges. While Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon" is slowed to a creepy crawl, or Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" skips and hops, they still get an extra jolt when Evans suddenly decides to get up and dash around the room knocking things over. The other edge comes from Lordi herself, spiking odd notes at just the right times and infusing the wistful words with her own share of ghosts. Such a clear alto should almost clash with the heartbreak or trepidation in these performances, but somehow it fits with this mix of tones always pulling in different directions. Old magic does indeed fit in these striking new dressings just fine.

Track Listing

Both; Blue Moon; Never Break; Only Love Can Break Your Heart; Close Your Eyes (intro); Close Your Eyes; Haunted Heart; Scare the Ghost; Moon and Sand; Sailor and the Sea.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Two Moons | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Self Produced

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.