recording of his group playing at a wedding reception<\/a>. He asked me if I\u2019d make a copy of the tape for him, which of course I did. As thanks, he sent me some of his music that I didn\u2019t already own.<\/p>\nWe remained in touch sporadically; that mostly took the form of me watching his videos posted online. Most recently I watched a few solo performances he did during the lockdown phase of the global pandemic. Little did I know that his time on this planet was rapidly nearing its conclusion. Fish knew \u2013 or strongly suspected \u2013 that was the case, and that sense informs what will now be his final release, The Highest in the Land<\/i>.<\/p>\n
As a longtime fan, I was pleased to note the participation of guitarist Max Eider; not to take anything away from Fish\u2019s talents, but Eider\u2019s work on those \u201880s albums is a key ingredient of what makes them special. (His own very like-minded solo LP The Best Kisser in the World<\/i> is a must-have, should you be able to locate it.)<\/p>\n
With maturity can come subtlety. And while Pat Fish has always has the ability to exert a light touch, on Highest<\/i>, it\u2019s his primary method. Right out of the gate, \u201cMelanie Hargreaves\u2019 Father\u2019s Jaguar\u201d adopts a caf\u00e9 society vibe, with hints of No\u00ebl Coward and Cole Porter. The song\u2019s instrumental breaks feature lovely lead guitar (by old pal Max Eider) and a separate melody on muted trumpet by Simon Taylor. The closest the record comes to rocking out is \u201cSebastian\u2019s Medication,\u201d but what the record might lack in electric oomph it more than makes up for with emotional intensity. Holding his passing in mind while taking in the closing track, \u201cGoodnight Sweetheart\u201d might bring a tear to your eye.<\/p>\n
While the music is the thing, the cover design merits mention. From its layout to its choice of typeface, The Highest in the Land<\/i> echoes Fiscotheque<\/i>. Is that a subtle means of connecting Fish\u2019s final album with one of his most high-profile releases? Perhaps and perhaps not. But the music is a delight, even when \u2013 as on \u201cAmalfi Coast May 1963\u201d \u2013 there are no words.<\/p>\n
Gentle lyricism is the defining feature of the album. While hints of the younger, wiseacre Pat Fish crop up in \u201cRunning on Fumes,\u201d for the most part snark is dialed back, replaced by a more thoughtful and serious tone. True, against the backdrop of Fish\u2019s passing, it\u2019s impossible to disentangle one\u2019s thoughts connecting to his loss with one\u2019s processing of this material. But what is clear is that the final word from The Jazz Butcher is a lovely one, a warm and wonderful parting shot from a master.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I first stumbled upon the body of work by The Jazz Butcher (aka Pat Fish) way back in my college days. I happened upon a copy of Bloody Nonsense, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[1112,1651],"class_list":["post-22479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-jazz-butcher","tag-pat-fish","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22479"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31463,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22479\/revisions\/31463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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I first stumbled upon the body of work by The Jazz Butcher (aka Pat Fish) way back in my college days. I happened upon a copy of Bloody Nonsense<\/i>, a well-chosen best-of compilation released in 1986. I was immediately taken in by his deft synthesis of what I then viewed as Things That Do Not Go Together: jazz, punk and a razor-sharp, literary-grade lyrical wit. That same year I also picked up a new Jazz Butcher (Conspiracy) record called Distressed<\/i> Gentlefolk<\/i>, featuring the demented, vicious and lovely anti-love song \u201cWho Loves You Now?\u201d It\u2019s a stone classic.<\/p>\n