Bob Wiseman, l'ex pianista e organista dei Blue Rodeo,
si mise in luce come cantautore con
In Her Dream (Atlantic, 1989), che ne rivelo` l'eccezionale talento
di compositore e narratore.
Lo stile spaziava dal blues al country & western, dal jazz al folk.
Ma a tener banco era soprattutto il suo modo di cantare e suonare, una maniera indefinibile al confine fra
il "wit" urbano di Randy Newman, il surrealismo rurale di John Hartford e gli acuti di un matto del
villaggio. I testi sono attribuiti a un poeta e filosofo itenerante, tale Wrenched Tuttle, e sono quanto di piu`
ilare e arguto sia dato di ascoltare dai tempi di Jonathan Richman.
Wiseman ha dieci pelli, e le indossa tutte alla rovescia. Il jamming casuale di
Older Brother fa pensare ai Grateful Dead, la burla di Bhopal ai Fugs, il tono hippie di
Blind Horse al Donovan di Season Of The Witch, il passo solenne di In Her
Dream al primo Neil Young, l'esuberanza di All The Trees a Neil Diamond... tutti trasfigurati
dal suo humour bislacco. Al tempo stesso il disco e` un omaggio continuato alla musica del primo
Novecento: country (If I Knew), blues (Just Tourists), jazz (Cockroach), boogie
(Dog On A Leash), rhythm and blues (Airplane On The Highway),...
Stesso humour e stesso eclettismo fanno di
Presented By Lake Michigan Soda (Worn Er Muzak, 1991) un'opera
altrettanto personale.
In piu` un titolo come
Diary Of a US Crop Dusting Pilot Spraying The Defoliant
Tebuthiuron (Spike) On Cocoa Plantations In The Upper Huallaga Valley
(Peru).
Un po' distratto invece il terzo City Of Wood (Worn Er Muzak, 1992),
in cui l'artista sembra
contemplare se stesso e il proprio far musica senza successo.
Dopo tre album "sotterranei", l'artista venne riscoperto negli USA tramite la
antologia In-By Of (Bar None, 1994).
L'opera successiva fu pero` di nuovo sottotono, le improvvisazioni
strumentali per trio jazzrock di Beware of Bob (Sabre Torque, 1994).
Wiseman, l'uomo che colse di sorpresa
"The Artist Formerly Known As Prince"
annunciando di voler cambiare il proprio nome in "Prince",
non ha smesso di sciorinare "wit" da maestro su
Accidentally Acquired Beliefs (Worn Er Muzak, 1996).
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More Work Songs From The Planet Of Apes (GFC, 1997) includes the
ten-minute Sweet Gertrude.
By his standards, It's True (Blocks Blocks Blocks, 2004) is only
intermittently demented. The
odd autobiographical rant of My Cousin Dave and the tragic
portrait of Lori employ only acoustic guitar, one in a street-minstrel
style and the other one in a sloppy, dissonant style.
But his musical genius is best appreciated in the
Queen of Sheba, possibly his idea of a neoclassical lied (majestic
melody, soaring harpsichord-like accompaniment, bubbling electronica),
Fluke Fluke Fluke, which blends
Jonathan Richman's self-parodic wit and
the rhythm of Talking Heads' Psycho Killer,
and Born To Love You, a wedding of intergalactic signals mix with doo-wop harmonies.
Whether he goes purely acoustic or he ventures into electronics,
the results are always unpredictable.
Theme and Variations (2006), several years in the making, is a concept
about a failed relationship.
Bob Wiseman tortures himself to death by reenacting
the story of his love and of its ending. He begins by searching for his
identity in Who Am I, and then pities himself in the relatively
upbeat pop tune Man of Misery, that (at nine minutes) stands as one
of his most accomplished visions of how to put feeling into words into notes.
Search The World is another poppy peak, in which
languid melody and tender lyrics are perfectly integrated in the piano-based
accompaniment.
So is the desolate elegy of Three Men, dressed up in semi-waltzing chamber music and audio-verite'.
And the six-minute agony of Kissproof, sung from a distance and topped by a barely-tuned piano that awkwardly flirts with both blues and jazz music, displays more of these "scenic" virtues.
However, Wiseman seems more comfortable singing his misery in the
spare folkish style of Passion Flowers and Henry Moore Room.
The "theme" of the album is not particularly engaging but some of the variatios
are strokes of pure genius.
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