Jean Mazzei ~ Breathing Under Water
Date: Saturday, March 08, 2008 @ 14:33:46 PST
Topic: Reviews
Artist: Jean Mazzei
CD: Breathing Under Water
Home: San Francisco, California
Style: Rock/Jazz
Quote: "There’s a lot of intelligent music on this disc."
By Dan MacIntosh
Listening to new singers can be a little like meeting strangers at parties. Some people you meet are gregarious and simply bursting with energy. Sometimes this can be a good thing, especially if you’re a little tired and need the aid of a human pick-me-up. Then there are those you might not notice unless first introduced. And while she’s no wallflower, sonically speaking, Jean Mazzei is not an outgoing singer. Instead, she blends in, sometimes a little too much, with her musical surroundings. This is not to say she’s a poor singer; she's not. She just isn't the sort that grabs you by the collar and makes you sit down right then and listen to her.
Breathing Under Water is a curious CD title. The disc itself is nicely illustrated with underwater images from an aquarium. Mainly these are pictures of jellyfish floating freely in the ocean blue. The title track itself, however, is all about survival. Its lyric was inspired by Mazzei’s mother, who was “drowning in grief and anger” as Mazzei puts it, yet somehow found a way to move past her troubles. And that is a story well worth thinking about.
Mazzei wrote and sings all these songs. She also plays acoustic guitar, and is assisted by six other musicians. A few of these sidemen are famous ones, too. Guitarist G.E. Stinson is co-founder of Shadowfax, for example. Bassist Ian Sheridan also plays with Jason Mraz. At times her music is a little jazzy, which may have something to do with all the musical chops represented in Mazzei’s band. Other times, it rocks with big, electric guitar solos. But no matter the sonic character of her surroundings, Mazzei always sounds calm, cool, and collected.
Mazzei’s music sometimes gets compared to the likes of Tori Amos and Radiohead, but I don’t hear it. There’s probably a little too much laid-back California in her approach to match these two un-laid-back influences. Amos is an uppity chick, while Mazzei comes off far more contented. Radiohead, on the other hand, mixes manic depression with alternative rock, but there is no such emotional downer-ism in what Mazzei does at all.
There’s a lot of intelligent music on this disc. I’d like to see a producer push her out in the spotlight a bit more to make the listener take notice. Then we might get a better idea of what she can really do.
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