Jens Thomas: Speed of Grace

Rating: ★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Verneri Phojola (t)
Jens Thomas (v, p, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, harm

Label:

ACT

April/2012

Catalogue Number:

9509-2

RecordDate:

28 February and 1 March 2011

With the blues providing the source material for both jazz and classic rock, you might expect this project to work rather well. German pianist, Jens Thomas, here deconstructs a dozen or so three-chord-wonders by Australian rock primitives AC/DC, stripping them of their electrified, testosteronesoused swagger and bravado, and reinterpreting them as hushed, intimate ballads. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite pull it off. Sure, Thomas' piano finds lush spaces within the chords, and his voice smoulders with an earnest intensity but, rather than freeing the songs from the strictures of rock orthodoxy, he mainly succeeds in sucking the energy out and rendering them as morose dirges. And, while he's clearly discerned an opportunity to recast the songs' tall tales of loose women, fast cars and cheap whisky as Nick Cave-style outlaw ballads, in the event, the lyrics – originally snarled out by a band that revelled in its blue-collar roughness – just don't hold up. Add in Thomas' conspicuous ‘Vs-for-Ws’ German accent and the whole thing has the faintly ridiculous air of one of Peter Sellers' mid-1960s comedy records.

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