SOUND OFF: Nellie's HOME & Jason's GOOD

This week, in conjunction with BroadwayWorld's new songwriter discussion series Modern Music Masters that premiered on Monday, we are taking a listen to two new releases from the astonishingly accomplished first two artists selected to participate in the songwriting celebration series: the winsome, witty wordplay and guileless wacky charm of Nellie McKay, and the wordy gravitas and overall commitment to excellence of Jason Mraz. With Nellie McKay's new studio album of original material - HOME, SWEET, MOBILE HOME - she reveals many new sides and angles to her versatile and varied sound that has previously been firmly established by her notable prior releases. On Jason Mraz's LIFE IS GOOD EP the fans around the world are treated to a handful of newly-written material performed in the hypnotic and energetic style Mraz is so famous for in his live concert events - one of the few artists who are even better live than in the studio and whose voice sounds even more impressive (high praise indeed). Both of these performers have what it takes to perform a song with the utmost conviction, and their songwriting ability alone would warrant much praise, but it is the fact that they can hold an audience's rapt attention so seemingly effortlessly only magnifies their appeal to connoisseurs of the crème de la crème of singer-songwriters who write to the best of their abilities. These are two of the very, very best songwriters around. Two true masters. With them in the world writing music and performing it, life is much, much more than merely good! It's great... or it very well could be genius.

Up Top, The Underdogs

What do you have to do to prove yourself as a performer today? What are the requirements of making a lasting impression on the rich American history of stage performance in the age of reality TV and AMERICAN IDOL? Where do the real singers go? Where do the real songwriters go? Where do the real geniuses go? Who knows?! Nobody knows the answers to any of those questions anymore - if they ever did - but it is clear from the work, careers and the persuasive proof in the performative pudding of both Nellie McKay and Jason Mraz that genius can still get heard, get seen and get gotten by an a worldwide audience in a big way. It just takes really, really, really big talent to make it happen. Thanks to these two albums released this week - McKay's HOME, SWEET, MOBILE HOME and Mraz's LIFE IS GOOD EP - for once it seems safe for the critic to sneak a sigh of relief. Songwriting has been saved by Nellie McKay and Jason Mraz, as they have both proven on their three respective solo studio albums before now. These fourth entries into an already agog-inducing portfolio of compositions establish both as the most respectable, accomplished, innovative and gifted songwriters of the twentieth-century. They are the real thing, true modern masters. While both of these albums display the artists branching out and trying almost entirely new things - exploring new genres, exhibiting new musical techniques, breaking through to new phases of lyrical poetry - they also show how writing and performing the contemporary does not necessarily have to exclude the classics. Quite the opposite, actually. These are studied, astute, mature and innovatively anomalous artists in the tradition of Bob Dylan, Laura Nyro, Carole King and Paul Simon. They are that good. Hell, they are the twentieth-century George Gershwin and Cole Porter as far as this critic is concerned. Tastes may vary, but it is impossible to deny the talents - in voice, performance and songwriting - of both these blazingly bright lights on the almost barren horizon of the future of music in America. Big words, big talents - and it is a big deal. Rejoice. Twice. It's been three years since both Nellie McKay and Jason Mraz released albums of new material so, perhaps, it would be even more befitting with the celebratory theme - for these two have an infectious joy like few others, onstage and on albums - to rejoice thrice. Both of these albums warrant much serious consideration - and celebration.

Unknown Genius

Nellie McKay - HOME, SWEET, MOBILE HOME

Nellie McKay proved she could beat the eight-a-week Broadway grind - and record a stunning concept album of sorts while doing so, OBLIGATORY VILLAGERS - onstage at Studio 54 with Cyndi Lauper and Alan Cumming in the 2007 revival of THE THREEPENNY OPERA in the Roundabout revival of the Brecht/Weill musical masterwork. But, now, a predominantly reggae/jazz album? Wait, first mistake: never put Nellie in a box of any kind. While there may be less rock and rap on this album than on her previous, and equally complex, albums, it is in the longer form songwriting McKay has adopted for this new album that it a true welcome treat. While past albums have had nearly thirty songs - two two-disc releases, both 2004's GET AWAY FROM ME and 2007's PRETTY LITTLE HEAD among them - HOME, SWEET, MOBILE HOME has cut that number of cuts in half. Yet, there is just as much - if not more - musical and lyrical content. And complexity. And dexterity. Without question, this album has such a wide breadth of material as to leave one a bit put off at first. Just how to categorize it? Then: why must it be categorized? It can't, nor should it. Reggae, rock, jazz, blues, show tunes, specialty songs, ruminative pop ballads - it's all over the map, in the many senses of that term. It's a melting pot album, a musical and lyrical (vegetarian) gumbo. Only Nellie McKay releases albums as varied - yet always uniformly convincing - as this. From the ganja-grind of "Caribbean Time" to the Victorian psychedelic psychodrama melodrama of "The Portal" to the bouncy, brusque ditties like "Adios", it will take the listener a few go-rounds to absorb all that is entailed in this emotional, political, spiritual worldwide voyage of discovery - that of a young woman, a songwriter, a student of the world and an activist. All of this - and more - come into play in the most memorable and affecting moments on the across-the-board A-plus HOME, SWEET, MOBIE HOME.

While not an outright political record, the issues addressed - those of veganism on "Unknown Reggae" and the eponymous disappearing New York borough "Bodegas" - are both prescient and persuasively presented in a less than in-your-face fashion, though it would be hard to recommend this album to a Republican for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the strong political content. This album is about mind-expansion and the exploration of not only the world at large, but the world within one's self. If you are not open to new ideas, new experiences and new sounds, this isn't for you. It is in the surprise that we find that the most treacherous bodies of water lie within our own body of (mostly) water that the true journey of self-discovery - of establishing one's own indomitable ideals and passions and issues - actually begins. "Bruise On the Sky" is the most obvious hit-ready single on the album so it is for the best that the album begins on that comfortable plane, for the avenues - and universes - navigated and explored on the rest of the album take us very far from the familiar and known. The aforementioned unknown - of "Unknown Reggae" - is just one of the handful of reggae tracks here and the pulsating production and booming bass of these tracks gives a sound system a workout with lots of punch. The whole album has an appealing all-around sound that always lets the songs dictate the mood and never overwhelms them with over-production or over-stylization, by the many moods offering everything from lilting and languid - "The Portal" - to booty-shaking and banging. McKay even entertains us with a ukulele ditty - as she told me in our interview, a much appreciated gift from THREEPENY cast-mate Jim Dale - and some salsa and meringue. "Coosada Blues" is a gritty barn-burner with a great hook and gives the jazz singer in Nellie's soul the opportunity to shine on for a few moments. "Bluebird" is a New Orleans-style cakewalk rise-up number with all the brassy and bluesy trimmings. "Beneath The Underdog" is a lite FM Euro-pop sounding song with some more sinister lyrics lying underneath the surface smiles - as is so often the case with the at-first-glance impenetrability of the complex content of much of McKay's material. Yet, the hooks and choruses will pull you through until the brilliance bubbling up below begins to reveal itself to you. After all, such is the joy of all the best songs: the many layers of meaning we can discover on repeated listening. Once, twice or three times will not be enough to even begin to permeate the levels of genius on display here - but it is a great start. What a wonderful and enjoyable journey it is!

After your first listen, you are immediately struck by the staggering versatility in the thirteen selections on this fourth studio album, HOME, SWEET, MOBIE HOME. Evoking so many styles and sounds - from all around the globe, New Orleans to Jamaica - as to spur head-spinning from some of the indoctrinated, it is McKay's weaving together of these disparate threads into a enormous tapestry of idea, emotion, ingenuity and genius that makes it something you will want to revisit again and again like any great work of art. It is an intricately woven wall-to-wall tapestry of sound and songwriting assuredness, first note to last. Once you start you cannot help but to be caught up, enraptured by it - wrapped up like a bug in a rug in the warm embrace of McKay's soulfulness, shrewd songwriting ability and commendably convivial conviction to her craft. She makes it seem far easier than it is to do these complicated masterpieces with such a light touch. That's only a part of her charm. And genius.

Mr. A-Z's Mastery

Jason Mraz - LIFE IS GOOD EP

Jason Mraz's music may be new to people who only listen to musical theatre music, but he is one of the most theatrical - and talented - songwriters alive and writing today. Perhaps you know some of his hit radio-friendly songs - "You and I Both", "Geek In The Pink", "The Remedy", "I'm Yours" - or even his smash-hit studio albums - WAITING FOR MY ROCKET TO COME, MR. A-Z and WE SING, WE DANCE, WE STEAL THINGS - but it is in his live performances that the unmistakable showman of the highest order reveals himself in full regalia - maybe I should make that reggae regalia. As any Broadway or touring hoofer can tell you, holding an arena's attention for two or three hours basically by yourself alone on stage is not an easy task: it takes an unbelievable amount of charisma, stamina and sheer star power to make it happen and make it work time after time, night after night, in place after place. Whatever the venue, vocal prowess is vital. Secondly, a strong songwriting ability that showcases the idiosyncrasies of one's instrument to such an extent as to render the songs nearly uncover-able by another artist is the mark of a true original. Thirdly, to put those two elements together and somehow create that indiscernible magic that only comes when the words and music and minds of everyone in the room - performer, back-up, band, crew, audience; all - converge and focus on that one ringleader onstage is the very essence of what true artistry is all about. Jason Mraz makes it happen - or, to quote the opener of his platinum 2007 disc, he "Make[s] It Mine" - and makes magic in mid-air and mid-song, every time. I am happy to report that one of those moments has been captured on this new disc, the inimitably titled "San Disco, Reggaefornia". All of this high praise of pop prowess is not to say that the influence of theatre artists and theatrical techniques are not employed throughout, for they are, but it is a true mélange in both the more general "mixture" and "rock mix" definitions of that word. Theatre formed the basis for Mraz's performance style and it shines through in his live tracks like the ones on this album like a follow-spot on a bare stage. Mraz himself revealed to me in our comprehensive conversation on the songwriting process earlier this week that he was little Gleek (before GLEE) and that premium on giving a good show is always at the absolute forefront in the live performances given here, most of which were taken from the LIFE IS GOOD festival itself. Truly, the LIFE IS GOOD EP confirms that when you have a formidable vocalist, a spellbinding songwriter and mesmerizing performative magician wrapped into one persuasive and powerful performer you can beat even the best of Broadway. After all, good is good, great is great and genius is, well, genius. Here, you get all three. After all, Jason Mraz is the greatest songwriter of the twenty-first century. A genius if there ever were one. Porter would even be proud as punch.

"Freedom Song" is a crowd favorite and is a fun frolic of a frippery, though it is not truly representative of the myriad Mraz abilities on display on the rest of the album. It's the perfect capper to the Summer and brings back the memories of summers - and tropical beaches - gone by, so it does its job more than merely well - and makes a valid point while doing so. Next up is the strongest track on the album and a perfect example of Mraz the master firing on all axels and bringing down the house, doing it all - rapping, scatting, singing, jamming - all with that life-affirming joyful abandon he effortlessly exudes: "San Disco, Reggaefornia". "Up" is a slow-burner that builds to a stunning climax and gives Jason a chance to show off his stunning vocal instrument - and, on "What Mama Says", that faultless falsetto, as he previously did in the castrato-esque choral solo section of the somewhat similar-to-"Up"-in-its-airy-assertions, the rueful pop anthem "Plane" on MR. A-Z. Over the course of these two songs Mraz reveals that he writes outside of the normal musical and vocal strictures and structures of most artists because he can pull it off performing them. No one else is Bob Dylan, and the same can be said for Jason Mraz: from singing style to songwriting style to sheer stylistic sensibility, period. "What Mama Say" is another feel-good track and its inclusion on this album boosts the joy barometer - an intrinsic part of Mraz's whole vibe - to near-brimming. When was the last time you heard an actual pop song with the wit and panache of this - certainly on the lyrical level of Porter, as are almost all of Mraz's hundreds of compositions - with such a relatively unsung yet so universal and applicable a theme and thesis at its heart? It is in making the ordinary extraordinary that the mark of a true artist of the highest order is revealed and in these five tracks - and an electrifying live version of the studio album track "Coyotes" - Mraz exhibits more pure talent - vocal, performative, musical, lyrical, even spiritual - than anyone else doing concerts and performing live original music today. You cannot help but be moved - lifted up, up and away on a cloud of pop euphoria. There is more musical and lyrical meat here than on five albums from most songwriters today - whether they be writing for Broadway, Hollywood or concert arenas worldwide. He bests them all. As Jason Mraz proves on the LIFE IS GOOD EP, all the world is a stage and he is one of the leading, starring players.

The LIFE IS GOOD EP is the perfect introduction to one of the best pop performers today for the Broadway babies and twenty-first century new music neophytes out there. As San Diego, California is to "San Disco, Reggaefornia" so, too, must "Broadway, New York" be "Way new, Broad work" when it comes to Jason Mraz and this thrilling, compellingly theatrical triumph of a live show as represented on this disc. Varied, vivacious and vital. Additionally, a live album this great courtesy of a performer this charismatic vies to be the very definition of vivid, inviting vitality made human. If only all live albums were this real and representative of their respective subject as this is. Live it "Up" - and love it.

 

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