Search - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown :: Timeless

Eclectic octogenarian Brown glides through this personalized and primarily instrumental overview of American music classics in his usual fine fashion. Brown's blues base is never in doubt as he balances his jazz-guitarist and country-fiddler personas in a wide-ranging assortment of songs from the Duke Ellington standard "Satin Doll" to the country ballad "Tennessee Blues." An energetic, horn-powered rendition of Jay McShann's "Jumpin' the Blues" features some of Brown's jazziest guitar work while a creative reconfiguration of "Unchained Melody," complete with flute solos and gear-shifting change of tempo, is the recording's most intriguing idea. Brown contributes three of his own songs, including the vocal numbers "For Now So Long" and "The Drifter," but it's his jazzy renditions of songs like Fletcher Henderson's sublime "Soft Wind" and Joe Zawinul's funk-tinged "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" that best demonstrate his delightfully democratic musical universe. Timeless is by no means a deep blues recording, but it is a "Gatemouth" recording, one that expertly explores all hues of blues and quite a few other stylistic colors as well--a rare and valuable achievement. --Michael Point