Jad Tariq – Precious Company
This is Jad’s sophomore set recorded with a warm stereo hi-fi sound popular in the mid to late ‘50s. This gives the performance elements that possess a calm, warm touch, almost as atmospheric, with an embodiment of gypsy vitality that suggests Django Reinhardt. The set emphasizes basic blues, roots, rock, easy listening & rhythm & blues. The opening pieces “September Moon” & “I Want A Mean Woman” are blues, but not in the traditional bluesy connective tissue of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, or Buddy Guy.
Instead, Jad runs it through a strainer of vintage musical settings, almost as if the singer took along a penchant for romance – romance in the blues. It crops up wonderfully in “Room For Two” as well. It works because the musical application is lissome. “Poor Me” is a fifties styled blues cum middle-of-the-road take that would be found on the last of the 78 rpm records made in the ‘50s. The early doo-wop settles on the ears with the gentleness of leaves on the surface of lake water in autumn. It’s mellifluous & graceful.
“Precious Company” pours out easy listening in the style of Leon Redbone & with more in common with big band vocalists than blues artists. The cornet & low-fi brass smolder. It’s a hot pinch of another time that still shows its promise & potency. There are 10 well-flaunted melodies to Precious Company (Drops Sept 18/MoMojo Records/37:31) produced by Jad (vocals/guitar) & filled with a universal groove that, while vintage, has no mold on its skin.
The guitar tone’s deep, with the haunted, stalking notes of “Half Measures.” Quite good. It almost sounds like a tune Louis Armstrong with the Hot 5 & 7’s would’ve sunk his lips into & allowed his trumpet to mess with. It’s an American primitive style with touches of early, early big band, small jazz band with rural blues ingredients. Strange but true. It has reflective qualities that mix generously with the tang & sweetness of vegetable soup.
Much closer to the blues of Robert Johnson is “Inflation’s High Blues,” with its ritzy guitar, formidable brass percolating over Jad’s restrained, mellow B.B. King vocal intonation. A generous sparkling antiquity is in each arrangement, as if Robert Johnson met Chick Webb & they redefined each other. The most memorable single tune is the closer “To My Used To Be,” quite accessible & lovely.
Highlights – “September Moon,” “I Want A Mean Woman,” “Room For Two,” “Poor Me,” “Precious Company,” “Half Measures,” “Inflation’s High Blues” & “To My Used To Be.”
Musicians – Earl Lowe (drums), Matthew Wilson (upright bass/bgv), Wyly Bigger (piano/bgv), Jon Hay (rhythm guitar/bgv), Kirk Smothers (tenor & baritone saxes), Marc Franklin (trumpet), Nikolas Karolewicz (upright bass, track 3), Jacob Huffman (harmonica) & Benton Parker (bgv).
CD image courtesy of Mary Gunning & portrait from Bandcamp. CD @ Bandcamp & Amazon + https://www.jadtariq.com/albums/precious-company93.html