Joe Jackson
Body and Soul

Until now I have talked about albums I discovered by myself (where "Eye in the sky" is actually a bit of a mix), this time I want to talk about an album whose discovery I owe to my father.

Let's say I owe all my musical culture to him, but beyond the great classics, I generally always moved independently.

A few years ago, at my paternal grandparents' house, I discovered my father's old vinyl records in a wardrobe, buried under dust, no one had paid attention to them anymore, especially since the old Thorens Td 160 had been sold (mea culpa).

So, in the two years following the discovery of the old vinyl records, we decided to recover an Audiotechnica, also belonging to my father, and start dusting off those records (in the meantime, I had started building my collection by doing odd jobs for the condominium, but mainly I was buying CDs, since with little money, I could get many).

Now, you might think that one of the first listens was indeed "Body And Soul"... but no.

As a big fan, my father tried to make me listen to the 4 Rush vinyls he had bought in his youth. However, halfway through listening to the first one, he realized they weren't for me, so I put it back in its beautiful case and started to look for something entirely different compared to those whose listening had been suggested to me.

I must have listened to 3 or 4, but with none did the spark ignite.

So I decided to retrace my steps and, still discarding Rush (a limit I have yet to overcome), I listened to other things... like the Chameleons, or Breakfast in America (of which I only knew the title track).

Only in the end did I decide to listen to Joe Jackson, kind of as a last resort, precisely because there wasn't much left (in the meantime, almost two years had passed).

Are you familiar with the concept of Epiphany?

I'll quote (not verbatim) how Joyce defined it:

"The epiphany is a sudden spiritual revelation, caused by a gesture, an object, a situation from everyday life, perhaps banal, but which unexpectedly reveals something deeper and more significant. It's an enlightenment, a revelation."

Of course, Joyce said it much better, but this way I can express the concept better myself.

My soul is born Rock, lives in Pop, and discovered with my goddess Amy a (rather large) Soul/Blues appendix.

I discovered that Joe Jackson can be placed in all these sectors (pretty mixed among them) of my soul.

"Body and soul" has no genre... it's pop, but also rock 'n roll, soft jazz, soul, Latin...

It's a bit like when during a sultry August day, at the mercy of the sirocco, a breath of Bora arrives (which is physically improbable but so nice to imagine).

It's that kind of well-being.

Because when I imagine (and physically suffer) the sirocco, I perceive it as something heavy, that burdens on your shoulders and doesn't let go anymore.

The Bora, on the other hand, is pure energy, it stirs minds, it is cheerfulness and lightness.

Referring back to Joyce... think of Trieste, which is one with the Bora: when it arrives, the light becomes crystal-clear, and the slapped sea acquires incredible reflections and shades.

In short, the Bora is something simple and light that intoxicates with life every place where it manifests.

I see no differences with "Body and soul".

Joe Jackson managed to create a light album, very simple and direct.

When I say simple, I don't mean literally in its musical composition, on the contrary, the arrangements are also quite articulated, but they reach the ear with incredible subtlety.

"The Verdict," for example, is very slim as a track, and that's why it hits... just in those very first initial notes.

But what made me perceive the similarity with the Bora was "Cha Cha Loco". Now, I don't know how it was born, I almost don't care, but the Latin influence is definitely perceptible.

Studying Private Law with this song in the background was a metaphysical experience...

It was like reading the manual immersed in the Rio Carnival.

This is the Bora... the mix of piano, percussion, background wood blocks, and trumpet of the chorus. Cha cha looocooooo...

However, Joyce seems to be an integral part of this album, especially with "Not Here, Not Now," melancholic, sad, but above all slow, almost static and redundant, just like Joycean paralysis, after all even the piano track is almost immobile and suspended in a timeless space... it enters your head and never comes out... it stays fixed there.

"Loisaida" lives in the same world, entering somewhat into the sphere of Montecarlo Nights. Of unique refinement and execution, the Sax makes me transcend into the hyperuranium.

5.24 minutes that could easily be 20 hours.

With "You Can't Get What You Want" and "Go For It" the Bora returns: irrepressible energy and an atmosphere of an American 50's pub.

"Happy Ending" brings me back to the end-of-year play in second grade where we did a sort of Grease... not exactly good memories... but every time I hear

"Do I listen to my head, do I listen to my heart?

Do I try to feel the same as I feel when we're apart?

Do I think about the end when it's only just the start?"

It takes me a while to stop moving my shoulders to the rhythm and humming, honestly, I can't explain it, I'm a log, I can't "dance".

However, "Happy Ending" opens up to a descending finale, where Sax and execution remain sublime, but everything flattens a bit.

If Amy had awakened my soul part, "Body and Soul" awakened all 5 senses a bit... I love the arrangements, the stylistic mix, and that call to the 50s, combined with later musical influences... for me, musically speaking, it was the perfect album dropped at the perfect moment: after this gust of old (but very very fresh) air I have increasingly opened up to Jazz and Blues discovering many new worlds previously unexplored.