Feathers travels a different road than
Jeanette Lindström's previous albums. Where earlier releases have her sounding like an Afro-American singer with overtones of
Abbey Lincoln and
Diane Reeves, her newest is introspective and soft. There is no hint of soul, R&B, or anything resembling an up-tempo pace. This change of rhythms may have something to do with the label. Her earlier recordings were with Caprice, which has featured African/Middle Eastern music. Sweden's Prophone, on the other hand, not only records jazz, but classical as well, and probably is a bit more conservative. It may also have something to do with her fellow performer;
Steve Dobrogosz's compositions and recordings are calm and collected as the listener will find out since there are four of his tunes on the 13 tune play list. His songs are also characterized by disconsolate, and in one case, cruel lyrics "So I reached out to rub off its color, break its small body, and pull off its wings" on "Butterfly." Maybe there's an allegory here somewhere. Then there's the not so appealing conclusion that "Love Makes You Suffer." Even tunes that one normally hears played if not in quick, at least in medium tempos, are offered in unusually slow measures.
But there are gems here as well.
Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" has an ethereal quality about it with
Lindström's voice floating above the
Mozart sonata-like piano of
Dobrogosz. The
Andy Williams' monster hit "Moon River" opens with a lengthy
Dobrogosz introduction which changes the phrasing and accents of this tune, giving it a much different play than
Williams'. The hopeful lyrics are sung with an appropriate feeling of longing. Every now and then, one needs to take down an album from the shelf if for nothing else than as a proper backdrop for quiet times. You could do a lot worse than purchasing this CD for that purpose. ~ Dave Nathan