Christopher Cross
The Cafè Carlyle Sessions

LA RECENSIONE

Not entirely satisfied with the recent musings about the radiant Carly Simon of the seventies, I continue, for another round, to ponder the USA-made soft rock, this time involving the Los Angeles-residing Texan Christopher Cross, who was never as attractive as Simon but is just as talented, even more so, in fact, in their common musical genre.

What specifically does this album do? It brings together in one of the many Nashville studios, a group of skilled jazz musicians, with our Cross sitting among them, calmly plucking his acoustic Taylor, singing with his alto voice that has become more normally and pleasantly tenor over the years, reinterpreting a series of his songs, some famous, others less so, in a chamber music style.

Supported by brushed drums, acoustic bass, grand piano, saxophone, flute, and violin, with no amplifiers around, just microphones, the artist reworks, revisits, relaunches fifteen episodes from his already substantial discography at the time, giving them an even more adult, elegant, cultured aura than the already remarkable one they had in their original versions.

The albums involved are all the ones released until then, from 1980 (self-titled debut with a bang, almost album of the year) to 1998 (seventh effort “Walking in Avalon”). The most famous songs, those known even to those who quickly tired of Cross, are all there and for the sake of completeness I mention them: “Sailin’”, “Ride Like the Wind”, “Arthur’s Theme”, “All Right”, and “Never Be the Same”.

A refined, fluid, adult, extremely professional piece of work for sophisticated tastes or moments. It serves as yet another confirmation that good music always works, whether blasted out at 80,000 Watts with a huge sound system in a stadium, or presented in this almost living room-like, reserved, and serene setting, without choirs, without guitar solos, without extravagance. Instead, there's a dry jazz swing that evokes pleasant retreat, serenity, wisdom, perhaps even the desire for a fine glass of aged rum.