| Rolling Stone's Sept. 2004 Review of Jessie Harris and the Ferdinandos WHILE THE MUSIC LASTS |
| Since penning Norah Jone's breakthrough hit, "Don't Know Why," New York singer-songwriter Jessie Harris has gotten more attention than he bargained for. Still, he's struggling for his own voice to be heard; on his second album he's recruited friends such as Jones, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and the legendary Van Dyke Parks to ensure that people listen. Harris skirts between minimalist ail-country, light jazz and waltzing blues with equal aplomb thanks to a top-notch band, the Ferdinandos, and killer string arrangements by Parks. Jones delivers backing vocals on a few of the mellowest tunes, but Music Lasts is no spinoff; Harris has learned how to keep an audience interested- and wanting more. |
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| Paste Magazine's Aug. 2004 Review of Jessie Harris and the Ferdinandos WHILE THE MUSIC LASTS |
| Long before he took home a Grammy for writing "Don't Know Why" for Norah Jones, Jessie Harris was honing his craft in New York with the Ferdinados. The group including guitarist Tony Scherr, who's worked with Sophie B. Hawkins and John Lurie, and (until recently) drummer Kenny Wollenson, who's performed along side both Ron Rexsmith and Bill Frisell. But this is just the long-winded way of saying Harris's attempts to bridge the gap between pop and jazz go back nearly a decade. And also why it's all the more furstrating that, in such an interesting musicial environment, Harris still comes out with music that has all the excitement of a middling James Taylor record. Like Jones, Harris attempts to pass himself off as pseudo-jazz by using chord progressions uncommon to pop in order to convey a sense of sophisication. When he's prodded by guest musicians- like Frisell on "I Never Changed My Mind" and Van Dyke Parks, who arranged the strings on four of the tracks including "Mirror Ball," which boasts a jaunty little Eastern European rhythm- Harris is capable of producing music that lives up to his pedigree. And the playful horns on both "Wild Eyes" and "More" packs a punch thats missing from the majority of the album. For the most part, though, Harris plays the middle, neither embracing the adventurousness of jazz composistion and improvisation nor the irresistibility of pop hooks. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, of course (see Brad Mehldau or Frisell's own work for recent examples). Heck, just put on Jone's "Don't Know Why." Harris capture that image once, and maybe he's got another one in him. But there's nothing so undeniable on While The Music Lasts. -Eric Schumacher-Ramussen |
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