Monkey House – Crashbox

For a long time, I found jazz-pop very vulnerable to quaintness. Those days are not over in my mind. But through the plethora of young musicians who don’t know any better and are diving into the genre partly because the word “jazz” alone is scary and impressive, there are still some interesting offerings. Bands like Manhattan Transfer and Spyro Gyra, and soloists like George Benson (sometimes excellent in this genre) and David Sanborn (much less so) have left their mark on the school. Let’s not talk about Kenny G – I don’t want to be on the receiving end of “Hate Mail,” even if he is objectively one of them. In short, there’s something for everyone. And if you do, I heartily recommend this Toronto collective led by Emmy-winning songwriter Don Breithaupt. All original compositions (except one), the songs on this well-turned Crashbox are supported by a large number of regular members of the Toronto scene, as well as visitors such as guitarist Drew Zingg (Boz Scaggs) and trumpeter Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan).

In fact, it’s easy to place their influences within the framework of the album. The funky attitude and groovyness, the occasional rock outburst, the clarity of the instrumental lines, the attractiveness of the melodies and the sunny atmospheres created are all credited to the genre itself, steeped in optimism, but also to Monkey House’s personal palette. And this optimism is not entirely overstated. It’s not as if this commodity is saturating us these days. Monkey House has been around since 1992, and offers a rather pleasant extra soul to the discipline, so much so that it should eventually be as spontaneously identifiable as the other representatives of the genre mentioned above. By the way, I love the cover illustration. It looks like an homage to Miyazaki’ s Ghibli studio animes.Even I, who generally have no patience for this style, enjoyed listening to Crashbox. That’s saying something.