SOUNDTRACK: PJ MORTON-Tiny Desk Concert #120 (December 2, 2020).
PJ Morton did a Tiny Desk Concert back in 2018 and he won me over musically (although I didn’t love his voice).
If we invite artists to return to the Tiny Desk, we ask that they do something completely different from their first show. For PJ Morton, the obvious shift would’ve been to come solo. After all, he defied the laws of space back in 2018 and managed to squeeze 14 bodies behind the Desk. This time around he’s just as generous with the spotlight, but puts a new focus on gospel.
Gathered in a big airy space in his hometown of New Orleans, PJ and his band performed three selections from the now Grammy-nominated The Gospel According To PJ, his very first gospel album. He grew up playing gospel music, but chose secular music as his professional path. The album brings him back full circle, a journey mapped out in conversations on the album with his father, Bishop Paul S. Morton.
I like the sound of gospel, although lyrically I’m not that interested in it. I’m also not that keen on his guest vocalists.
PJ only sings lead on one song but is clearly the maestro for this Tiny Desk (home) concert.
I like that the guests appear on TV screens in the middle of the room.
They open with the reggae-infused “So In Love,” featuring Darrel Walls and Zacardi Cortez.
This song opens with the standard reggae drum fill from Ed Clark before the reggae guitar of Shemaiah Turner and bass of Brian Cockerham join the trumpets from John Perkins and Stephen Lands and saxophones of Tajh Derosier and Brad Walker.
Darrel Walls sings first; Zacardi Cortez has an interesting raspy style of singing. But I am far more interested in the backing singers who sound fantastic: Tiondria Norris, Jarell Bankston and Ashton Fortner Francis.
The song slows way down to just some lovely horns and piano as the song segues into the very religious song “All In His Plan.” Morton sings this one and again, I love the backing singers.
The set closes with “Repay You,” featuring J Moss.
I’ve also never heard of him. He’s got a Stevie Wonder kind of delivery. I really don’t like the grace notes that he uses, but when he tells PJ to “let him be intimate” and he sings quietly it sounds really nice. Morton’s piano is also really good.
[READ: December 30, 2020] “Acting Class”
In 2019, the New Yorker experienced a cartoon takeover issue. The same has happened to end 2020. There are many many cartoons in it, including this excerpt from a Drawn & Quarterly.
I don’t know Nick Drasno’s work. At first I thought it looked a lot like Chris Ware (lots of detail). But Drasno’s people look very different from Ware’s. Drasno’s people are realistic but with very limited line work–he conveys a lot with just a few lines.
This story opens in a car–there’s a neat moment in an early panel where he has light fall on one of the characters to show movement–a simple but elegant touch. They are driving from the city to the middle of nowhere to go to an acting seminar. (more…)
