On and a-poppy we go to the light “I Can See” – “Could it Be I’m Falling Love?” by the Spinners comes to mind, and it even ends with a cold fade like any number of cut on side one of “What’s Goin’ On”. Next comes “Lie” with a bit of that friendly and familiar Michael Franks-type cadence that almost tweaks long past memories of the “middle of the road” radio format – again noticing latent honey-heavy-stringed orchestration. Song five, “Little Bird”, Jose James will capture your heart with a throbbing portrayal of one person’s plea to recapture the nature of love like the shopping Sparrow you spy on the window sill even on a winter’s day.
“Rockin’ You Eternally” re-introduces a long lost and familiar family-member, Leon Ware with more Marvin Gaye overtones. “Ware” has he been all this time? I wonder because, as I remember, he was a classic songwriter about thirty years ago as we can still hear on this sexy side. Unfortunately, lest we stray, the next spit, “So Far From Home” trips and falls over its own Hip Hop attempt by using the “n-word” – nuff said. “What Do You Want?” does not for anything, as Joe Dukie affects a stylish quest for love. The other very notable jam, “Gafiera” featuring Pedro Martins on lead vocal, is the cut that lives-up to the album’s moniker and should be the title track in my opinion. Step smoothly to the piano bar, but shade your eyes as the “Morning Scapes” arise among the after-hours lyrics portrayed by Bembe Segue.
With a title like Jazzanova this effort will always be the source of curiosity and able to stand upon its own, but I like it because it gave me reason to pull-out some of my old 1970s Marvin Gaye and other assorted golden nugget vinyl penned by the likes of Ware, or Holland-Dozier-Holland from deep within my crates. Lay-dees and Gen-tle-men, I cast these twelve moving, crooning melodies as worth their stone as four stars on the pre-fight weigh-in scale.
Released October 21, 2008 on Verve Records.
