New York keyboardist Jack Spann has had a busy career as a session musician, including a gig playing on demos for David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. He’s also enjoyed a recording career under his own name with Milwaukee connections through veteran Cream City producer-engineer Gary Tanin.
In recent years, Tanin worked with Spann on all three of his solo albums and was invited back for his latest project, a CD single, “Jesus of New Orleans.” The track opens like a circa 1980 rock-funk crossover (think the tempo of “Radio Clash”) with a hard-working rhythm (Spann plays bass and guitar along with keyboards). It morphs and morphs again, getting jazzy with the help of trombonist John Covelli and transforming at points into a sort of Zappa-esque mutant pop tune. The lyric? Well, it’s a character study of a character—a bad one in street lingo, a romantic outlaw with a love for good music.
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