Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers
Levitate

Ciumbia! But that's the guy who sang "The Way It Is"!!!...

I really didn't want to, I swear, speak poorly, unfortunately, about Bruce Hornsby's latest album, precisely because of the significant affection that binds me - along with perhaps another 10, more or less, Italian fans - to this extraordinary pianist and singer in love with jazz, folk roots, rock and pop, who boasts countless collaborations with the biggest names (the list is truly endless, from Ornette Coleman to Sting, passing through the Grateful Dead and Elton John), and who has therefore made eclecticism and genre contamination his artistic life.

But let's move to recent history: after the good contaminated pop of "Halcyon Days", a very beautiful bluegrass album with Ricky Skaggs, and an equally remarkable "Camp Meeting" jazz album with Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette, Bruce this time returns with the excellent Noisemakers, his live companions from the late nineties, yet he delivers a work that smells a bit too much of routine... let's be clear, the level is still high, but half the compositions don't convince, they feel a bit too much of - already heard from him -, and of the twelve tracks offered, those that really stand out are only three or four.

Probably the goal was to streamline the songs and make everything more direct and light, but the fact is that what's missing are the excellent improvisations and piano finds that our artist has accustomed us to over the years, and it's a real shame. Even Hunter's lyrics (on "Cyclone"), the historical lyricist of the Grateful Dead, which Hornsby occasionally joined, aren't enough to lift the whole thing. Instead, it's worth highlighting the presence of Eric Clapton on the good "<em>Space Is The Place</em>", but especially the beautiful "<em>Continents Drift</em>" with an excellent guitar solo by his nephew (R.S. Hornsby, who passed away prematurely, a few days later), which pays homage to the great Jerry Garcia - chilling! For a moment, it feels like going back to the (good) times of "A Night On The Town"...

Pretty is "<em>Levitate</em>", "<em>Here We Are Again</em>" (a bit Radiohead, a bit Esbjorn Svensson), "<em>Paperboy</em>" (a bit Macca), very nice, and the first track, "<em>The Black Rats Of London</em>" which smells of Scottish folk, and in the end, it's the one that convinces the most.

In short, it doesn't "levitate", nor does it take off, this work that remains reserved for historical fans and completists. However, the cover is splendid! As often happens with him.

Rating: two and a half... Amen, it happens to the greatest too, doesn't it?