Album Review: Joe Jackson – The Duke

Review by Robert Pugsley
Yes this is a new album by Joe Jackson but it isn’t a new album of Joe Jackson songs. It is called The Duke and it’s a cover album of fifteen Duke Ellington songs reinterpreted into a medley of ten tracks.

Duke who? I hear you say. Well Duke Ellington (1889-1974) was an American composer, often associated with Jazz music but who wrote for every musical genre and has been considered by many as ‘beyond category’. He was a very prolific and talented composer and is still a huge influence on many current musicians and is, of course, a huge influence Joe Jackson himself.

Jackson, like Peter Gabriel, Sting, Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, definitely isn’t a stranger to eclectic experimentation, he’s been doing it for thirty years, so when you think of it, The Duke really is an obvious album for Jackson to release; an album of Jazz/Latin/World music by Duke Ellington, a kind of climatic salute to one of his greatest influences.

Looking at the playlist of what Ellington songs Jackson chose to cover, you may instantly presume it will be a big band, brass heavy kind of album but surprisingly Jackson used no brass at all on The Duke, which, to squeeze in a metaphor, would be like covering a Metallica album without using guitars. “That was my only rule”, Jackson says on his album blurb. “I wanted to take it in a completely different direction, and there was a danger of just sounding like watered-down Ellington if it wasn’t different enough. Not using horns was a good place to start. It makes you think: what else can we do?” So, instead of reeds and brass, Jackson interprets Ellington using amongst other things synthesizers, a vibraphone, an accordion, and a string quartet.

It would be fair to describe this album as arranged by or presented by Jackson. It is a cover album of songs written by Ellington and featuring music and vocals by guest musicians. In fact Jackson only sings briefly on four tracks, ‘I’m Beginning To See The Light’, ‘Mood Indigo’, and ‘I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)’, while in ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’ he duets with Iggy Pop, yes that’s right Iggy Pop. This duet is probably the highlight of the album, its pacey, upbeat and a bit of fun.

Instrumentals do feature heavily on this album with ‘Isfahan, Rockin’ In Rhythm’, ‘The Mooche’, and ‘Black and Tan Fantasy’. They’re good tracks, but you get that ‘produced on Mac Book’ kind of feel even though Jackson had roped in contemporary jazz performers, the violinist Regina Carter and bassist Christian McBride and to beef it up a bit, rock guitarist Steve Vai and drummer Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson (The Roots); and if you are a long time fan of Jackson you will recognise two of Jackson’s old associates, guitarist Vinnie Zummo and percussionist Sue Hadjopoulos.

Other collaborators on the album include R&B singer Sharon Jones on ‘I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues’, a funky jazz song that will get your toes tapping. Two interesting collaborations are with Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim performing a ‘Caravan’ in Farsi (Persian), and Lilian Vieira, of the Brazilian/Dutch collective Zuco 103, performing a spritely Portuguese version of ‘Perdido’.

The Duke is a good niche album; Maybe deliberately cutting out the brass was a too much of a challenge, as it would for anybody not just Jackson, and in the end The Duke may be a bit too generic or not as unique as one could have hoped for from such a great artist that Jackson often is.

If you like a bit of Jazz, some World music (filtered through a synthesizer) and like where Jackson has been heading for the past thirty years, then give this album a listen.

The Duke – Joe JacksonThe Duke - Joe Jackson

* Search for all articles by Robert Pugsley…