Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra
The Capitol Studios Sessions
Decca
IN one of the early years of T in the Park at Strathclyde Park I saw Keanu Reeves’ band Dogstar comprehensively dismissed by having to appear on the same King Tut’s tent stage as Teenage Fanclub, one of their problems being in having a rather less musical bass player in Keanu Reeves.
The same criticism cannot be levelled at his Holywood senior Jeff Goldblum, who can undoubtedly play a fine jazz piano, as those who saw him accompany Gregory Porter in a version of Mona Lisa on a sparkling episode of the Graham Norton show that also featured Hilary Clinton, Gerard Butler and Jack Whitehall can testify.
To some degree this album is a consequence of that encounter, but while the US version of the disc is packaged with a picture of Goldblum at the piano, the UK release mystifyingly echoes the look of the albums of Frank Sinatra. In fact the singers on it are all female – Sarah Silverman, Haley Reinhart and Imelda May – and the slay-‘em-dead guest star is trumpeter Til Bronner, whose virtuosity lifts half a dozen of the tracks.
For the most part, the band leader (Goldblum, not the facetiously name-checked Mildred) takes a back seat, clearly revelling in playing the music and creating the faux-live atmosphere of the recording. If it is his own selection of tunes – beginning with Herbie Hancock and meandering through less-known standards via Mingus to Ellington – it is a clever one, but to be brutally honest there are better versions of them all out there.
Keith Bruce
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