Future standards

"As the title implies, this time around Gelb is ambitiously bidding to add to the Great American Songbook with a jazz-flecked collection of wry, wee small hours ditties ... It's a pleasingly consistent collection of songs, but special mention goes to the raunchy Relevant (complete with solos for Reinhardt-like guitar and swaggering piano) and May You Never Fall In Love's wordly advice. All said, it's a good look on him".

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"A jazz-blues album that serves as an attempt to write more songs that might last through the ages ... As is his deceptive way with a graceful melody, his drowsy voice slips through these songs like smoke. Future Standards is both an intimate, low-key experience and a highly welcome new detour".

"This is music meant for a cabaret or a piano lounge, not a rock club, and Gelb not only plays it straight, he sounds comfortable and playfully sly as he croons over his piano work, which manages to embrace the melodies while toying with them at the same time ... Future Standards isn't quite "Howe Gelb, the Moonlight, and You," but it's closer than anyone might expect, and he plays lounge lizard here entirely on his own terms, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable detour for a multi-faceted artist".

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"Det [ville] ikke være forkert at kalde 'Future Standards' for Howe Gelbs jazzalbum. Grundformationen er en klavertrio med hans danske følgesvend, Thøger Lund, på bas og trommeslageren Andrew Collberg i en afdæmpet rolle. Undervejs er der også lidt krydderi i form af elektrisk guitar, og ikke mindst kigger sangerinden Lonna Kelley forbi på en række stemningsfulde duetter. Det er dog klaveret og Gelb, som er i centrum ... Gelb bliver aldrig den store jazzpianist (...), [men] han kan kan sparke liv i standardernes stive dogmer med sin skæve tilgang til musikken ... Gelb løber ikke hen over tangenterne, han slentrer, og som hos valgslægtskabet, Tom Waits, har klaveret drukket. Resultatet er en særegen form for cocktailjazz med cowboyhat ... Vigtigst af alt formår han på trods af sin begrænsede teknik at swinge. Hans malmfulde røst afleverer med sløset perfektion den ene punchline efter den anden".

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