Ken Nordine - A Transparent Mask (2001)

To anyone who grew up within earshot of a radio or TV set, Nordine's sonorous baritone is, of course, mighty familiar. As a pitchman, the Chicago-based broadcaster has spent the past half century helping to boost sales of everything from coffee to blue jeans. His is an irresistible voice, drawing you in like a hypnotist's rhythmic drone. According to fan Web sites - and there are many - his experimentation with word jazz began in 1957 and has since been embraced by artists as diverse as Fred Astaire and Jerry Garcia. On his current album, A Transparent Mask, recorded in the attic studio of his Chicago home, Nordine explores topics as wide-ranging as insects, numbers, dreams, love and loss.

Through it all, it's impossible not to be reminded of the once fashionable beat poets. To my admittedly untrained ears, it's like Kerouac set to an Esquivel beat. Word jazz is clearly an acquired taste, and I can't help but feel that I've been invited for drinks while everybody else is staying for dinner. Still, even I can appreciate the free-form finesse of various Nordine riffs. "Hole In the Ego" is, for instance, a delightful deflation of pretentious pricks, and "You Were So Crazy" cleverly suggests that we've all circled Ken Kesey's cuckoo's nest a time or two. A Transparent Mask won't transform me into a rabid Nordine disciple, but has taught me that there's more to my local jazz department than I've been willing to notice. Christopher Loudon

Ken Nordine's witty texts and deep baritone voice reached something of a cult status in the last decade, possibly due to the fact that he has been releasing some of his albums through the NY based avant label Asphodel, and possibly because the industry and the "scene" paved the way for the profusion of cult-like figures of all sorts. But still it is surprising that such "difficult music" as the one Nordine has been producing for the past three or four decades is becoming increasingly popular.

In "A Transparent Mask", Nordine again revisits the long-lost traditions of spoken word jazz, which were so vital for pre-punk American counterculture. Nordine is here backed by old friends who have played in some of his previous records (like Kristan Vaughan and Howard Levy) and is joined, among others, by Paul Wertico (who is mostly known for his contribution to the legendary "Sign of 4" album together with Derek Bailey, Pat Metheny, and Gregg Bendian). 

This is not, unlike some of the stuff you might have heard via Ginsberg, plink-plonk jazz kept in the background merely to simulate the ambiance of a smoky Village club. Rather, these accomplished musicians create themes that stand on their own and adjust to the thematic strands in Nordine's texts, diversifying the genres and "ambiances" accordingly but never subordinating the music to the text. The inclusion of electronic elements certainly adds to the scenic possibilities, and the band easily navigates between jazzy, dubby, and more abstract sounds.

The texts, of course, draw on a wide range of themes, and should perhaps be read as metaphors for more mundane and familiar issues. There are reflections on the nature of spiders, egos and clichés, fantasies on Spanish bullfighters and modern gurus, straightforward narratives about people obsessed with numbers, intriguing parables about cats and birds, etc. Nordine's humor is rampant, for sure, and just as intelligent as always. But this may be one of Nordine's darkest albums so far: there is a certain gloom and bitterness which is not so obvious in his previous recordings, a darkness which the band sometimes brilliantly manages to reproduce, thus making this a much less straight-forward and "fun" record than most others in Nordine's career. Howard Keel

01. As Of Now 

02. Hello

03. Cat & Bird Blues 

04. You Know The Story 

05. For The Birds 

06. A Good Year For Spiders 

07. You Don't Love Me Blues 

08. The Bullfighter 

09. The Guru 

10. The Akond Of Swat 

11. You Were So Crazy

12. Cliché Heaven

13. Truth Mute 

14. A Thousand Bingbangs 

15. Quark 

16. Fibonacci Numbers

17. Hole In The Ego 

18. Miniver Cheevy 

19. A Thousand Dreams

20. What's There To Do?

Jim Hines - drums 

Paul Wertico - drums

Kristan Vaughan - guitar, synthesizer  

Howard Levy - penny whistles, keyboards, harmonica 

Eric Hochberg - trumpet

Ken Nordine - vocals, texts

Check Ken Nordine's website and podcast here 

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