Thursday, August 01, 2013

Kristin Slipp & Dov Manski - A Thousand Julys

What a nice little record - 11 jazz standards ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in two different versions), performed to piano/Wurlitzer. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the only one that I knew, but, as is the way with standards, all the others sound like I might as well have known them; and I expect it helps that I'm not familiar with the versions by the likes of Billie Holliday et al for which they're better known, because that lack of expectation has allowed these songs to sink in, the spare, modern readings - at once direct and somewhat oblique - given them striking a chord with me. (I came to it via a glowing review on popmatters.)