Sometimes you just remember the sleeve of an LP. The way it is designed feels timeless, stands out among the other hundreds of paper cases, all of them relicts of a different time. But this billboard face with its missing panels, its smile welcoming and a bit creepy at once has stayed with me although I had probably never listened to the record inside before.
The name Al Jarreau rings a bell. I think I might have read it in a book, a poetry collection maybe or one of the many coming-of-age novels that made their way into my library. The lure of jazz music, the air it gives off. I usually find it really hard to connect to this genre, to find my way into the song structure and the artist’s vision. But Al Jarreau does that work for you.
The Masquerade Is Over features a plethora of classics, from musical theatre (My Favorite Things and Come Rain or Shine) to old fashioned pop before it was called pop music (The Masquerade Is Over). But there is a playfulness to the way Jarreau performs these tunes, the way his voice takes the lyrics and makes them their own. As if these tracks were written for him alone. As if they had never been recorded before. Lacking the need for comparison completely.
Slow scatting, mellow lines in the lower piano register and magnificent pronunciation make up My Favorite Things. Carefree in its improvisation on the traditional melody, recognisable but coloured with a flirtatious tenderness. There is just enough deviation from the usual renditions to make it its own song: It’s the way Jarreau takes the lyrics and twists and turns them just enough, giving them a new life in his voice. The natural crescendo placed on and then I don’t feel / half as bad makes me swoon every time it plays, the tiniest breath taken before the second half of the line, creating just the right amount of tension. A simply beautiful track and the perfect opening for this record.
Even sweeter vocals and a more pressing sense of closeness emanate from The Masquerade Is Over. Jarreau’s lower register shines on this track, a colour he doesn’t use enough on this album in my opinion. It’s rich, dark, but never forced, containing the same level of emotion that drips from every other line. Beautiful lyrics alone don’t make a great song. But a beautiful delivery, beautiful as this one, does. It’s a nice change to really have the vocals take control of the song, leading the accompaniment around every corner, leading the way through this tale of poetic heartache.
Get up and walk to the record player. Turn the vinyl to the second side. Al Jarreau is so close. There is not an inch between you and his voice, so full, so full of charm and life. Sophisticated Lady, the first track on the second side is soft. Deceivingly soft. Intimacy is inescapable, Jarreau’s voice so warm, accompanied only by a delicate piano line. There is suspense in simplicity, the question of when movement will enter the equation. Sultry, smooth, quite sexy. Even more so once the percussion joins in, providing the motion I’ve been yearning for for the last bars. Eruptions of emotions chase each other only to return to a moment of tenderness, a moment of intimacy for the end.
The entire record feels playful, but the climax of this feeling is reached with The One Note Samba. A musical game, a sketch captured in rhythm, in song, in lyrics and music all the same. A little game Jarreau plays with his listeners. A dance danced with the music itself. Accentuated rhythms paired with a wonderful simplicity. Choosing something fun and light as the closing track is a smart choice, presenting something charming, something memorable, something simple but effective.
The Masquerade Is Over is an incredibly accessible album, not only due to the music that is tinted with an air of jazz but stays away from the sometimes overwhelming improvisation and fusion experiments. It’s also structured very cleverly, opening with a well-known classic, capturing the listeners attention with incredible closeness as you turn to the second side of the LP and closing with a playful take on the self-referential song. It’s an album that invites listeners in, that makes the active choice to comfort you and lead you from bar to bar, from verse to verse, from note to note.
You like jazz but want it a bit more funky? Listen to Thundercat – Drunk
The Dad Anthology 