Remember the Audio (Alma Records)
Monkey House
Released July 15, 2022
JAZZ FM 25 Best Jazz Albums of 2022
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n0kkL_MKYgBxSvWL-gJPR2z9NO2WAwQFg
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/5wISoJ08OCirXbfOxMiljp?si=u4U1e7vDQ3G8QGA8OTBCgg
About:
The world has changed a lot since 1992, when Don Breithaupt first collected an album’s worth of his irresistibly hooky and jazzy pop songs and formed Monkey House. Since then, the talented and prolific Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer has stamped the band’s Kurt Vonnegut-inspired moniker on five albums of original material, including Headquarters (2012), Left (2016) and Friday (2019), the latter a blazing tour de force which topped the iTunes jazz chart and went to #11 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. Now, to mark their thirtieth anniversary, Monkey House presents their most accomplished and exciting set yet, Remember The Audio, on which Breithaupt is joined by his A-List wrecking crew of Mark Kelso on drums, Pat Kilbride on bass, Justin Abedin on guitar, and guests including trumpeters Randy Brecker, Guido Basso and Michael Leonhart, guitarist Drew Zingg, and singers Lucy Woodward and David Blamires. After years of fluid lineups, Breithaupt says he had an epiphany back in 2011 while rounding up the usual suspects to make Headquarters: “Hey, wouldn’t it be nice if this coalesced into a steady band?” Breithaupt got more than just a band: Monkey House is a crack team of virtuosos playing in sync and in service to his instantly hummable songs. Like the last three Monkey House albums, Remember The Audio was produced by Peter Cardinali and Breithaupt. Breithaupt had already written most of the music on Remember The Audio pre-COVID, but he figures “at least half of the lyrics were written in the spring of 2020, after the world shut down.” That’s why the only cover on the album, Mose Allison’s ‘Ever Since The World Ended’ fit right in. I thought it would be a good coda for the album because it’s fatalistic, but it’s also really funny and not too heavy.” Remember The Audio is sophisticated pop for now people, and a new high-water mark in Monkey House’s musical journey.
Like the last three Monkey House albums, Remember The Audio was co-produced by Breithaupt and Peter Cardinali, with basic tracks recorded live off the floor at Noble Street Studios in Toronto. “Horns were next,” says Breithaupt. “Then we started collecting solos.
Breithaupt had already written most of the music on Remember The Audio pre-COVID, but he figures “at least half of the lyrics were written in the spring of 2020, after the world shut down.” Not surprisingly, a sense of foreboding hangs over some of the songs: a glance at titles like “The Future Is Almost Gone” and “Last Days of Pompeii” is akin to doom-scrolling.
“I’ll cop to the end-times theme,” says Breithaupt over Zoom from his Santa Monica studio. “Will the last one out of L.A. kill the light, etc. The music isn’t downbeat at all, but under the shiny surface and the hooks… That’s why Mose Allison’s ‘Ever Since The World Ended’ fit right in. I thought it would be a good coda for the album because it’s fatalistic, but it’s also really funny and not too heavy.”
Monkey House make pop for people who aren’t afraid of jazz, and vice-versa.
Track Listing:
1. The Future Is Almost Gone 6:21
2. Remember The Audio 4:24
3. New York Owes You Nothing 5:30
4. We Will Meet Again 4:52
5. Skin In The Game 3:35
6. Before You And After 4:43
7. Major Minor 4:48
8. Last Days Of Pompeii 4:11
9. Do Whatcha Gonna Do 4:04
10. Let Jenny Be Jenny 4:08
11. Ever Since The World Ended 4:59
Personnel:
Don Breithaupt: piano, Rhodes (solo on 7), Wurlitzer, organ, synthesizer, vocals
Mark Kelso: drums (solo on 5) and percussion
Pat Kilbride: bass
Justin Abedin: guitars (solo on 6, 9)
Additional Musicians
Peter Cardinali: bass (4), Funk Machine (3)
William Sperandei: trumpet
William Carn: trombone
John Johnson: tenor saxophone, alto saxophone (solo on 9)
Vern Dorge: alto saxophone (solo on 4)
Tony Carlucci: trumpet (2, 5, 7, 10)
Lucy Woodward: background vocals (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10)
David Blamires: background vocals (4)
Drew Jurecka: violin, viola (3)
Blair Lofgren: cello (3)
Soloists
Randy Brecker: trumpet (8)
Guido Basso: flugelhorn (11)
Michael Leonhart: trumpet (3)
Drew Zingg: guitar (1, 2)
Chris Butcher: trombone (solo on 5)
Recorded at Toronto’s Noble Street Studios
Produced by Peter Cardinali and Don Breithaupt
Recorded and Mixed by John ‘Beetle’ Bailey
Additional Engineering: Jonas Dyson ans Taylor Kernohan
Mastered by Harry Hess
Cover Photography: Jill Ferry
Graphic Design: Don Breithaupt
Review:
On another brilliant jazz-meets-pop album by Toronto mainstays Monkey House, it’s easy to draw comparisons to Steely Dan in terms of both composition and sound. Bandleader Don Breithaupt might be a pop structuralist when composing, but by the time the song gets into the studio, he and his brilliant bandmates all have something colourful to add that takes the song to a level that is as easy to place in a jazz format as a pop radio station. Spanning catchy shuffles, heartfelt ballads and plenty more, Remember the Audio delivers everything you’d want from Monkey House and more.
Jaymz Bee (JAZZ.FM 91)
