This thirteen piece group is guaranteed to cloud the minds of those who cannot distinguish their reality from their dreams. Though if your ears are in dire need of musical rebirth, I cannot recommend James McGowan Ensemble enough. Give a listen to album opener Imagine (Part 1) below.
The second track on this album is one of my favorites, clocking in at just over four minutes that I wish would never end. Thoughts and Prayers is a terrific title for a song cornered between gloom, doom, serenity, and joyful expression. Each instrument is used with precision, with not one member of the group outshining the other. Sure, there are standout guitar lines, piano rolls to die for, and a brass section that screams “yeah we know our shit, pal” but altogether, they trade solo bravado for the chance to make an instant classic together. Thoughts and Prayers not only leads the rest of the album away from what Imagine (Part 1) tried to establish, the song creates beautifully literate themes without a word spoken. I love that.
So when Internal Conflict or Grief and Despair enter into the picture, there is already a framework to reference, a seedy underworld depraved of love that melts into an operatic clash of “what could have be” and sounds of “what have I done?” The music does all the talking on these two tracks and I am thankful for it. James McGowan did a hell of a job producing this, with every piece of musical chess perfectly balanced by his diehard quartet of talent behind lofty orchestrations of DAMN FINE jazz.
The guitar just slides and slinks away into a serene nothingness Brian Eno would adore replicating, but in the end, the notes plucked are futile and fragrant as all other instruments played… everyone trying their best to encapsulate the murky echo of existence long after you’ve left this pale blue dot… and the seven minutes just roll on by like sinking stone.
I may not be a master of jazz knowledge. Hell, my favorite Miles Davis albums are Sketches of Spain and Live at The Blackhawk… but what those two albums have in common is their ability to transport listeners to another time, another place, and a completely different world (one live, one painstakingly studio recorded) that they would kill to go back to, as well as distance themselves from. James McGowan Ensemble brings about those same dire feelings, no hard drugs needed (that I know of).
I highly highly highly suggest you listen to this sprawling sixteen song collection. Who knows, maybe you’ll hear your story in these tracks as much as I do.
