Voyage of the Troubadour
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley February 18, 2014
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http://www.jackgatesmusic.com
Want to go on a journey but can’t leave home: don’t stress it with this latest album from Jack Gates you can do just that via your armchair, kitchen table or on the journey to work.
Based on the age old method of storytelling via music when troubadours brought the news and all the latest of gossip, let alone changing trends in music , yep, even back then, this album will take you to places you have always wondered about, letting you paint the scene, the place the time by simply going with the flow.
Created to represent his wide and varied taste in music he has composed tracks which are influenced by Latin, calypso, jazz, and indigenous beats to name just a few.
Some of the pieces have been arranged to have vocals join in harmony with the beat, creating, in some instances a world of vibration unique to the space, the mood, the time. Nothing is quite as you expect, which is just the same when you travel. The world of the troubadour must have been very similar when he set out on his voyage, never quite knowing what was just around the next bend in the road.
This is recorded sound in all its purity, as it has remained largely untouched from the original recording allowing that slightly rough texture you get on a first try-out – before the smoothness of engineering removes it, that adds a slightly earthy cadence to the music.
There is no specific direction followed by the music, it is just as it comes, using just a few instruments and vocals where required to give add fullness to the piece. Sparseness changes to full bodied beats as each stop on the journey leads you to another destination, rich, full, clean and occasionally slightly traditional.
Join Jack on his journey: you will go places you never dreamed of enjoying, places far away from your everyday world as the music creates the stops along the road via Spain, Latin America, and so many more places and countries of your mind.