Album Reviews: Two from Adrian Younge

Adrian Younge is truly a musical renaissance man for the 21^st century. As prolific as he is creative, Young continues to turn out new material of the highest quality with astounding alacrity. This year alone, he embarked upon multiple high-profile endeavors. The first of those was Something About April III, the concluding chapter of his trilogy of soundtracks for films that don’t exist. Younge then mounted a tour in support of that album, one in which he led the band, played bass and sang in Portuguese (a language he taught himself in preparation for making the album).

Now – with the years headed toward its end – there are two new releases from Adrian Younge. Both are remarkable, both as standalone efforts and as more pieces of the puzzle that is Younge’s larger body of work.

Samantha e Adrian
Despite its title and cover art, Samantha e Adrian isn’t a duets album. Here Younge is band leader, co-composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and mixer. Though she’s primarily known as an actor, Brazilian vocalist Samantha Schmütz co-wrote the album’s nine tracks with Younge. Listeners who heard and appreciated Something About April III will find the music on Samantha e Adrian warmly familiar; texturally, its primary difference is Schmutz’s creamy yet assertive lead vocal on every track. Younge’s music is as cinematic as ever, with plenty of retro flourishes – monophonic synthesizers, fizz and wah guitar, kinetic bass lines – to root the vibe in years gone by.

As with the recent mind-movie soundtrack, nearly all of the lyrics are in Portuguese. By listeners who speak only English will still get the feel of the songs thanks to Younge’s sultry melodies and flawless arrangements. Samantha e Adrian even leans a bit toward sexy ‘70s disco with the album’s sol English language track, “More Than Love.” Everything about the tune is note-perfect in conjuring and sustaining that disco-era character. The string section is particularly tasty. Samantha e Adrian is highly recommended for fans of bossa nova, deep groove soul and quality music in general.

Jazz is Dead 24: Dom Salvador
The title sets up what’s on offer here: the 24^th entry in the ongoing Jazz is Dead series, a collaborative adventure led by Younge and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad. This time it’s keyboardist Dom Salvador who’s spotlighted, on eight cuts he co-composed with Younge and Muhammad. A leading light in Brazilian soul and samba funk, Salvador is a deeply soulful and expressive player.

He’s also a fascinating singer. On “Os Ancestrais” he provides some mesmerizing vocalisms that (to this listener, anyway) connect his music with exotica of the Martin Denny variety. Elsewhere on the album Brazilian singers provide Portuguese vocals. The music is haunting, hypnotic and finely-tuned; Younge and his cohorts make it plain that they can craft a wonderful piece of music out of one chord (check out “Nao Podermos O Amar Para” for proof).

There’s a winningly organic character to this music, cut as it was without any digital gear in the mix. In fact, save for bits of electric guitar and electric piano, Jazz is Dead 24 is primarily an acoustic affair. And a fine one at that; also recommended in the strongest terms.

Postscript: I should mention that Younge’s 2013 project with Ghostface Killah, 12 Reasons to Die is the subject of a chapter in my new book, What’s the Big Idea: 30 Great Concept Albums. Adrian was kind enough to discuss the album at length with me, and our conversation forms the backbone of that chapter.