Composer and pianist Jeremy Siskind programmatically organized the 22 tracks on this double-disc pandemic collection…
Composer and pianist Jeremy Siskind programmatically organized the 22 tracks on this double-disc pandemic collection of original songs about loss and renewal. The first disc, “True Believers,” concerns rebirth and transformation, while the second, “Cynics and Skeptics,” deals with struggle and failure. All claim a range of literary inspirations, from Rumi to Edna St. Vincent Millay and Kurt Vonnegut. In this context, Siskind’s Housewarming Project trio — with vocalist Nancy Harms and multi-reedist Lucas Pino — is like a troupe of theater actors in mini dramas. Siskind constantly shuffles not only musical approaches but also each player’s entrances and exits, so that solos, duos and trios remain as varied and unpredictable as his harmonic and rhythmic choices. Agile singer Harms may be the voice for Siskind’s lyrics, but the players work equally in conveying each song’s story. It also helps that Pino can assume different roles on tenor sax, clarinet or bass clarinet. Though the mood is generally quiet and contemplative, Siskind varies textures and themes and occasionally gives everyone some hard swing to dig into. There’s a lively drinking song titled “Drinking Song” (Charles Bukowski is the inspiration), and the comic “I’d Break Quarantine (for You),” spread in five separate verses across both discs, could be straight out of musical theater, with a Cole Porter vibe. Lyrics can be mordant (“We’re all gonna die/April’s a lie”), as well as melancholy. “Demeter” — based on the Greek myth, from a poem by Carol Ann Duffy — begins with wordless minor-key vocal lamentation and burbling clarinet before turning turbulent and, finally, epic. Harms’ clear, unfussy, text-centered delivery supports the emotional directness this music demands, in hushed, almost whispered passages as well as moments of vaudevillian humor, declamation or straightahead swing. She’s another reason this chamber jazz trio can sound so big and capable of anything Siskind devises. — Jon Garelick https://open.spotify.com/album/2TIxlPNGIwiJuKf0gwYVFH?si=e8WPkM-QTFCz9hQAoyx4hA
