Countless poets, philosophers, artists, musicians, writers
and dreamers have taken up that same subject since Hafiz's day, but despite
seven intervening centuries of exploration love continues to offer an
inexhaustible supply of complexities and mysteries. On The Subject Tonight Is
Love, their first album as a trio, vocalist Kate McGarry, guitarist/bassist
Keith Ganz and keyboardist/accordionist Gary Versace rise to that eternal
challenge, investigating the concept of love in its many forms and from several
different perspectives over the course of a dozen alluring songs, from timeless
folk tunes to transformed jazz standards, celebratory pop songs to evocative
originals.
Love is not only the subject but the very substance of this
project. The Subject Tonight Is Love (due out February 2, 2018 via Binxtown
Records) is the culmination of more than a decade of work and friendship.
McGarry and Ganz are partners in life as well as in music, while Versace has
been a close and frequent collaborator with both, dating back to McGarry's 2007
album The Target. In various combinations the three have worked together under
each other's leadership, alongside drummer/composer John Hollenbeck and with
the vocal supergroup MOSS.
Only such longstanding relationships could lead to such
free-ranging but sharply focused sounds as are captured on The Subject Tonight
Is Love. Beginning from McGarry's gift for bringing a lyric to life, the trio
improvised cinematic settings for each song, painterly enough to conjure vivid
imagery in the listener's mind while leaving space for their own spontaneous
creations to shape each piece anew and allow an audience to make its own
discoveries. Both Ganz and Versace pick up a variety of instruments throughout
the session, with Ganz supplementing his acoustic and electric guitar with acoustic
bass and, on one piece, drums, while Versace plays piano, keyboards, organ and
accordion. McGarry also takes over the piano for her own "Losing Strategy
#4."
"Kate's music is very story-oriented," Ganz says.
"There's a soundscape or mood that goes with each particular tune, so this
trio offers an unusual situation where we're all improvising within a specific
mood. With just Gary and me, it's easier to get a hold on the little world for
each song and shape it or move it around in the moment each time we perform
it."
"I really appreciated that they were so receptive and
sensitive to the origins of the stories behind the songs," McGarry adds.
"That's always the driving force for me emotionally. Keith and Gary were
able to be an extension of that, forwarding the narrative in instrumental ways.
That's a rare thing."
Another kind of love was an important factor in bringing The
Subject Tonight Is Love to fruition - namely, the love of their fans for
McGarry, Ganz and Versace. The project was supported by a PledgeMusic
crowdfunding campaign, which permitted the trio to take their time to discover
an approach to the music and record at a more leisurely, exploratory pace.
"We wouldn't have had that kind of freedom in other circumstances,"
McGarry points out. "It was really beautiful to see so many people jump up
to the plate and say, 'We want this music to get made and we're going to make
sure that happens.'"
The title piece, a stark, atmospheric recitation of the
Hafiz poem, sets the elusive mood for the album, followed by a gentle,
diaristic take on the classic "Secret Love" that captures the song's
shift from the surreptitious to the celebratory. Their breezy, intimate
"Gone With the Wind" meets the notion of lost love with a resigned, "easy
come, easy go" shrug, while Ganz's hushed, intimate arrangement of
"My Funny Valentine" is a perfect fit for McGarry's unique sincerity,
overcoming a lifetime of resistance to what she rightly calls "this most
abused of love songs." Joy pervades "What a Difference a Day Made,"
combined in a medley with Ganz's "Mr. Sparkle."
While these familiar tunes span the spectrum of love songs,
the remainder of the album steps back for an even broader interpretation of the
core idea. McGarry's haunting "Climb Down" depicts a dream-like
venture onto her own family tree, offering both a challenge and an expression
of gratitude to the spirits of her forebears. The Irish folk tune "Whiskey
You're the Devil," with Obed Calvaire making a guest appearance on drums,
emerges at the end like an ancestral memory. Co-written by Benny Golson and
Kenny Dorham, "Fair Weather" is an expression of brotherly love
sorely-needed in these most divisive of times, while "Indian Summer"
is saturated with the wistfulness of time gone by. Egberto Gismonti's carnivalesque
"Playing Palhaço," with new lyrics by singer Jo Lawry, finds love
peeling back the layers of masquerade we tend to hide ourselves beneath.
McGarry's confessional "Losing Strategy #4," with
Versace's expressive accordion supplying the voice of conscience, is a
reckoning with the notion of retaliation, coming to terms with the fact that
vengeance tends to backfire on oneself. "She Always Will" finds the
trio revisiting a song, with music penned by guitarist Steve Cardenas, that the
three originally recorded a decade earlier on The Target, now deepened and
reflecting on the idea of maternal love. Finally, an impromptu romp through The
Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" provides an inviting epilogue, with a
guest appearance by trumpet great Ron Miles to enhance the all-embracing
message.
"Love is the substratum of all things," McGarry
says. "I wanted to look at love from a lot of different angles. The point
wasn't to sing about some idyllic love; it was more thinking about how love
functions in our lives. What brings it to us? What keeps us from it? What helps
us connect with it inside ourselves? What helps us connect to humanity? Having
that current flowing through everything really affected the way we
played."
CD Release Concert on Valentine's Day, Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at The Jazz Standard, NYC
o Fri. Feb. 2 - The Velvet Note, Atlanta, GA
o Sat. Feb. 3 - The Oak Room at Serenbe Inn, Chattahoochee Hills, GA
o Sat. Feb. 17 - The Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham, NC
o Wed. June 27 - Rochester Jazz Fest, Rochester, NY
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