US composer and musician Jane GETTER have an almost 20 year long career as a solo artist, and while she hasn’t been the most prolific solo artist around she has three studio albums to her name from previous years, all of them met with positive critical acclaim. “On” is the fourth studio production in her solo career, this time released under the moniker Jane Getter Premonition and, presumably, as more of a band effort than a purebred solo production. The album was released in the fall of 2015 through UK label Madfish Music.
Personally I’ll have to admit that Jane Getter is an artist that had flown completely under my radar, and I guess that will be the case for many others as well, at least if they don’t have a deep interest in jazz and jazzrock circles, as I understand that Jane’s previous productions were met with higher interest in those fields of the music business than in most others. And while her latest excursion isn’t what I’d describe as either a jazz or jazzrock album, a certain taste for music of that kind will be needed to be able to enjoy the material at hand here.
Initially we’re treated to a couple of creations with a rather firm foundation in progressive rock though, as opening cut Surprised and the following Where Somewhere comes across as compositions with at least a few nods in the direction of progressive rock giants King Crimson in general and the talents of Robert Fripp in particular. The former of these in more of an early 70’s kind of manner, the latter with more of an early 80’s touch as far as this general context is concerned.
There’s more to these songs than this aspect of course, with a fair share of classic and progressive rock touches used more or less liberally on these as well as the rest of the songs on this album. There’s references to everything from Jimi Hendrix to pastoral archetypal English-sounding affairs with more of a ballad oriented touch tucked into this production, and while a few of the songs does appear to mainly hover around a jazzrock-oriented style, the greater amount of the tracks appear to operate out of more of a general classic and progressive rock foundation, with subtle or more dominant jazz or jazzrock details added in key sequences, interludes or as more supplemental instrument details. As such this is more of a classic rock or progressive rock album with some distinct nods in the direction of jazzrock than the opposite, and the compositions have all been made in a manner that makes this approach sound smooth, natural and organic.
If you hate jazz this isn’t an album that will send you screaming away in terror, if you like that style in moderation this is a CD that may well make you a bit curious and inspire you to listen to more music in that vein. As far as making an album with a rock foundation and jazztinged flavoring goes, this one does so in an arguably smooth and easygoing manner, and also manage to maintain the edge and nerve of the rock music foundation quite nicely.
In sum this is an engaging example of sophisticated and arguably progressive rock with at times subtle and occasionally liberal amounts of jazz and jazzrock details adding flavor and identity to the material. In terms of sound and approach an album that may have more in common with productions of a similar nature that were made a few decades back than to contemporary music, up to and including mix and production. In this context this is meant as a positive description of course, and also signifying that the overall sound of this album is one probably much more analogue sounding than it really is.
My rating: 85/100
