Jim Duffy: Home
Hello, this is the home base for the musical activities of Jim Duffy.
With "Mood Lit," his second full-length release of moody and bouncy instrumental pop tunes, Jim Duffy moves closer to the front of the stage but remains off-center. Duffy leads a small combo on piano and an early-1960s Wurlitzer electronic piano. Reference points include AM radio pop music, detective dramas, twilight falling on kitchenettes, lounge acts in their third set. But this is no retro affair. "Mood Lit" is sincere to a fault.
The sound is leaner than on Duffy’s first full-length release, "Side One," and the combo may be swinging a little harder. On drums is Dennis Diken of the world-renowned Smithereens. On bass guitar is Paul Page, who records and tours with Ian Hunter. On guitar and lap steel is Lance Doss, who has recorded and toured with John Cale.
Duffy and the combo perform with minimal fuss and a lot of fervor, starting with a head-turning version of Mose Allison's "Look Here," then rolling through eleven original tunes. On "Early Germ," they play in the area where twang meets soul. On "Free Formation," they demonstrate that they came up through the rock basements. "The Night Clerk" offers an eerie audio portrait. Then, on "Our Next Guest," the combo suddenly appears in matching gaudy blazers. What does Duffy think he's up to?
"If you don't notice it's instrumental, so much the better," he says.
The combo convened in a basement studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Sound engineer Greg Duffin (no relation), who is often seen working the console on Regina Spektor's world tours, recorded and mixed "Mood Lit" in tube-warm analog sound. "We made this record very quickly, over a long period of time," Duffy explains.
Kevin Kendrick of A Big Yes and a Small No adds an almost too-intimate vibraphone to "If You Insist." On "Memento Mori," Mac Gollehon's compact, punchy brass arrangement pushes the tune over the goal line. Claire Daly's baritone sax on "Balladeer" supplies a bright moment. On the title tune, "Mood Lit," Duffy makes an obligatory and, as he says, "almost involutary" nod to Burt Bacharach.
Jim Duffy has performed or recorded with rock-and-roll pioneers Wanda Jackson and Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon, as well as the Bottle Rockets, Reid Paley, Tandy, the Fleshtones, Speedball Baby, Bone-Box, the Damnwells, Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, Joe Flood, Will Rigby and many others. Duffy played keyboards in the band Martin's Folly and sometimes still does. Once upon a time, he played bass guitar in the Boston band Rods and Cones, and sometimes he still does that, too.
The Jim Duffy Combo, the core group of Duffy, Diken, Page and Doss, plus the occasional special guest, can sometimes be heard at the Lakeside Lounge on Avenue B in Manhattan and at other venues in the New York area.
"Mood Lit" is available on Three Dots Records. Is it good "make-out" music? Dim the lights and see for yourself.
-- Derek Shackwell-Smith
St. Cleve Chronicle
'Mood Lit' Now Available
(Oct. 5, 2009, Brooklyn, N.Y.) Hello, this is Jim Duffy, and I'm pleased to tell you that as of today, "Mood Lit," my second collection of instrumental pop tunes, is available.
Making music is a privilege, and I'm glad I get to do it as much as I can. And in this day and age, when all kinds of sounds and visions are flying through the ether, ready to be captured on anyone's little gadget, I'm glad to know that someone who may be interested in this music has a decent chance of finding it. If that's you, then I say welcome, with all my heart.
Who knows what a release date is anymore? This CD, which includes artwork by Ben Gibson and photos by my longtime associate C.S. Gray, and a rather elegant, simple package, comes into the world just as the compact disc has become obsolescent. As we all know, recorded sound is becoming disassociated from any physical artifact. Down at J&R Music World, the clerks are looking at their watches, living on borrowed time.
CDs are passe, and yet a radio engineer told me that digital downloads are not yet up to broadcast quality. So we don't yet have something that pleases everybody.
As with anything released these days, "Mood Lit" is available as a download, in the usual places. Or it will be in a matter of days, so I'm told. As convenient as this is -- portable music that weighs literally nothing -- some people will pine for the days of the 12-inch vinyl record, when the physical album was itself a work of art. And of course, by now we all realize -- too late? -- that vinyl sounds better than anything.
There's nothing I'd like more than to see my two albums go under the vinyl mastering lathe at Masterdisk, which is a breathtaking piece of machinery in its own right. Then again, the manufacture of vinyl records has an environmental impact that's worse than that of CDs. You don't hear much about that. So you can't win, can you?
Gee, this isn't a very cheery press release, is it? Get me Derek Shackwell-Smith on the phone, stat!
Oh well, hey, my new record is out. What matters is the music. You can read about the music elsewhere on this site. And I hope you'll have a listen. I didn't do this all alone -- a lot of talented people helped me.
These are exciting times. The media are in a state of rapid transition. And music in general is in a state of flux approaching chaos. Anything can happen -- that's the definition of pop music, right?
As for my own particular music, which I generally describe as "moody and bouncy instrumental pop tunes," it's here for the listening. Thank you for stopping by. And a heads-up to the enthusiastic people at Planetary Group. More soon. -- Jim
