SOUNDTRACK: LESLIE ODOM, JR.-Tiny Desk Concert #909 (December 2, 2019).
I knew I had heard of Leslie Odom Jr. but I couldn’t remember from what. Apparently I have heard of him from….everything.
A Tony- and Grammy-winning star, Odom has added a slew of achievements to his portfolio since 2016, when he left his role playing Aaron Burr in Broadway’s Hamilton. He’s continued his work in television and film, written a book and released jazz and Christmas albums. He co-wrote most of the songs on his latest project, Mr; out earlier this month, it’s his first album of original material.
Dang.
His singing voice is fantastic and these songs that he wrote are really wonderful.
“Cold” is a hopeful ballad with a beautiful melody and a hint of contemporary musical theater. It opens with a lovely acoustic guitar from Jeremy Ting and piano from Tommy King. Odom’s voice is powerful and strong and he hits some nice falsetto notes. This is all accented by rim shots and cymbal taps from Garrison “G-Beats” Brown.
His backing vocalists, Christine Noel Smit, Nicolette Robinson (Odom’s wife) and Astyn Turr add some nice calla and response and then harmony voices. There’s a pretty acoustic guitar solo as well.
And all the while Odom’s voice and lyrics are fantastic.
When it’s finished he says, “you are the second group of people to hear that song.”
Then he
recalled advice he’d received from a friend: “You have to get used to it — you are part of a cultural phenomenon in New York City,” Odom said, before quipping, “I feel so blessed to be a part of … Law & Order: SVU for three magnificent seasons.”
Up next is “Foggy,” which he says is the most personal song on the album. It’s much more spare, a love song filled with the regret of failed good intentions. It’s almost entirely just he and the piano. Although half way through some xylophone notes add a cool echoing sound. As the song nears its end, Astyn Turr sings along with him.
Introducing the final song, “Hummingbird,” he says “This song is admittedly… I think it’s a bop, but it’s an odd little bop. But it has been tested by my 2 year old and it is her favorite song on the album. For this song Tommy King and Theron “Neff-U” Feemster switch places so “Neff-U” (who worked with him to make the record) is now playing piano.
The song features some wonderful violin from Andrew Joslyn. It’s a fun boppy song and I love that everyone raucously sings the “you’re my hummingbird” line.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this set, but Odom has a fantastic voice and his songs are really very beautiful.
[READ: August 2019] Gods Without Men
I had read a review of this book by Douglas Coupland on two occasions and each time it made me want to read the book. So I decided to read the book. And what a book.
Coupland had warned, in a sense, that there were UFOs and aliens–but not to be put off by them. And he’s right. The book centers around aliens and such, but there are no “little green men.”
Rather, the book looks more at a location and the spiritual power it has had on people throughout history.
The book bounces back and forth between various eras and the present. In most summaries of the book, the present takes prominence–and it is the most often visited timeline in the book. But at times I found the story in the present to be less interesting than those in the past.
The book begin in 1947 with a man named Schmidt. Schmidt drove out to the Pinnacles “three column of rock that shot up like the tentacles of some ancient creature, weathered feelers probing the sky.” He used his diving rods and sensed the power here. He paid $800 to a woman who owned the property and then settled in. Schmidt built an underground structure to live in. He bought an Airstream trailer and set it up as a diner. Then he put in an airstrip and a fuel tank. Soon enough pilots were stopping in for fuel as they sailed across the desert. Schmidt is an interesting character (with a reprehensible past). He also, every night, lit up the lights on top of his property that said WELCOME.
One night a ship descended from the sky. (more…)
