Metropole Orkest - My Flame Burns Blue

	€		22
	$		26

Allgemein

Trackliste LP - 1

Trackliste LP - 2

Beschreibung

Beschreibung

We might as well face it: Declan MacManus writing as Elvis Costello is arguably one of the greatest living composers of popular songs. He has everything: brilliantly idiosyncratic lyrics, immensely compelling music, complete command of a huge range of musical styles, and, as Elvis Costello, a cogent and convincing compositional identity. In this recording of a concert given at the 2004 North Sea Jazz Festival called My Flame Burns Blue, Costello with Holland's Metropole Orchestra under Vince Mendoza plus longtime accompanist Steve Nieve turns in an amazing set of performances featuring arrangements of originals and collaborations with a cover thrown in. The originals range from Costello's early Hitchcock-inspired "Watching the Detectives" to his Chet Baker-influenced "Almost Blue," to his wonderful collaboration with Burt Bacharach on "God Give Me Strength" and his posthumous collaborations with Charlie Mingus on "Hora Decubitus" and with Billy Strayhorn in the title song. The arrangements were written by diverse hands for diverse forces, but the Metropole Orchestra, the world's only full-time jazz orchestra with a string and wind section, handles everything in the charts with panache, power, and grace. Many of the arrangements are heavily influenced by the sound of the Charlie Mingus big band, with its full brass plus classical woodwind section. Some of the arrangements are clearly influenced by the sound of Nelson Riddle's charts for Frank Sinatra and Nat Cole, with their glistening strings and sentimental solo woodwind writing. And one of the arrangements, "Watching the Detectives," is a pastiche of Henry Mancini's writing for the Peter Gunn television show. The cover is David Bartholomew's "That's How You Got Killed Before" set to a raucous arrangement reminiscent of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. In all of the arrangements, the focus is entirely on Costello's voice. Over the years, Costello's learned an enormous amount about how to sing. He's always been a passionate interpreter, but here he shows he knows how to use vibrato, how to hold a note, how to phrase a line, how to build a climax, and how to put a song across. While still not a beautiful instrument, Costello does everything he can with the voice God gave him and who could ask for more than that? But whatever one may say of his voice, as a showcase for Costello's songs, this concert can't be beat. Deutsche Grammophon's sound is crisp, clear, and very immediate.

James Leonard

Beschreibung

My Flame Burns Blue is Elvis Costello's fourth record released on the classical label Deutsche Grammophon, and by now it should be clear that just because Elvis releases something on DG, it does not necessarily mean that the album itself is classical. That term may apply to For the Stars, his duet album with opera vocalist Anne Sofie Von Otter, as well as his orchestral piece Il Sogno (which is excerpted on a bonus CD attached to this release), but it doesn't apply to 2003's song cycle North, nor does it apply to My Flame Burns Blue, which is accurately described on his official website as "his first rock 'n' jazz album!" Evidently, Costello reserves his art projects for his albums on Deutsche Grammophon, of which My Flame Burns Blue is clearly one. As he says in his thorough liner notes (preparing those double-disc reissues apparently has unleashed the rock critic within), "this record may explain what I've been doing during the last twelve years when I haven't had an electric guitar in my hands...I've had the opportunity to work with a number of contrasting ensembles, from chamber group and jazz big band to symphony orchestra. Consequently, I had plenty of charts to consider for my concerts with the Metropole Orkest in the summer of 2004. The Metropole are the world's only full-time jazz orchestra with a string section." Such an ensemble is ideal for a restless musician like Costello, who is eager to write in different idioms, or rearrange his old work in new ways, which is precisely what he did at the July 2004 concert at the North Sea Jazz Festival that is now captured on My Flame Burns Blue. He completely reworks "Clubland," which is now woozy and elastic, and "Watching the Detectives," which has been turned into "the style of a 1950s television theme." He expands but doesn't alter both "Almost Blue" and "God Give Me Strength," while reviving the David Bartholome number "That's How You Got Killed Before," which has been a standard in his repertoire since the mid-'80s. This makes for roughly a third of the album, with the rest of the set list containing reinterpretations of recent original material, songs he wrote for Von Otter and blues singer Charles Brown, plus Charles Mingus and Billy Strayhorn compositions that have been given new lyrics by Costello. It's an eclectic batch, veering from torchy ballads to rambunctious, sprawling jazz reminiscent of the Mingus Big Band, but it holds together well for two reasons. First, it's all anchored by the always remarkable Steve Nieve, whose piano is simultaneously fluid, florid, and tasteful, giving this a musical throughline that holds it steady throughout its twists and turns. But My Flame Burns Blue ultimately succeeds because of Costello, who has chosen his material wisely, sequenced it sharply, and has given it an enthusiastic reading that is arguably his richest live vocal work, rivaling that on the Costello & Nieve box set. As good as this is, it is ultimately closer to a detour -- or perhaps a scenic drive -- than a major item in Costello's catalog. It's inspired and unexpected without quite being surprising, and that's because all the music here does have a natural antecedent somewhere within his catalog. What is noteworthy about My Flame Burns Blue is that Costello manages to tie all these seemingly disparate strands in his work into something that is not only cohesive, but explains an area of his work that hasn't necessarily been accurately documented on record before. But what really makes it a good record is that the performance is lively, energetic, and, yes, joyous, which means that even if this may be an art project, it's flat-out more entertaining than any album he's released since Painted from Memory. [My Flame Burns Blue was released on LP in 2016.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Mitwirkende

• Artist: Metropole Orkest
• Artist: Elvis Costello
• Composer: COSTELLO ELVIS
• Record Label: Deutsche Grammophon