Music Reviews: Paul Jost

Paul Jost, "Simple Life" (PaulJostMusic.com)
Paul Jost, "Simple Life" (PaulJostMusic.com)

Vineland's Paul Jost has been around the block as a session cat-drumming, blowing harmonica-long before he began singing in his late 50s. Jost has leapt into melodic projects such as 2013's "Can't Find My Way Home" and the yet-to-be-recorded "Born to Run Reimagined" live showcase. These gigs found an athletic yet ruminative Jost and his always intuitive crews stretching out the notes and arrangements of Traffic, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and others, and an occasional syrupy, psychedelic edge.

Simple Life continues Jost's soulful vocal rush-and-hush with a klatsch of spirited players (pianist Jim Ridl, bassist Dean Johnson, drummer Tim Horner, vibraphonist Joe Locke) and eclectic song selection. Here, Harold Arlen's "If I Only Had a Brain" and Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" are leisurely pulled from shape and filled with pixie-ish piano lines onto which Jost gently sand dances. And though he covers the waterfront of daring jazz composition (Sonny Rollins' "No Mo" done as a slippery scat number) and Tin Pan Alley allure (Peggy Lee's "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" recorded slow and tender), Jost's own songs are no chopped liver. "Livin' in the Wrong Time" is studied, steady, filled with thoughtful huffs and hollers, and written with an eye toward society's current breakdown. It's a song you could hear John Legend singing as Jost's pensive soulfulness has a similar vibe.

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