Review: MOSS's Reunion at Joe's Pub Is Radiant

A rolling stone gathers no moss, they say, but several jazz singers who gather together sporadically and are called MOSS merrily roll along and are as strong as stone.  If you’re wondering how many recordings have been released under their group name, the answer is a grand total of ONE.  This eponymous project was back in 2008 and I’d been pleased to procure and play it. The members’ individual reputations preceded them, however, so it was not a risk or random choice, and I was glad to catch them in one of their reunion periods at Joe’s Pub last Sunday, May 26th, performing selections from their one disc and more, featuring mostly material written by the various members. Hooray for harmony and blissful blends! 

When it comes to groups, the history of live and recorded music has many examples of membership overlaps as singers come in and out of groups, with members also having healthy solo careers much of the time.  When there’s a fortuitous combination of adventurous individuals with distinctive and complementary voices, the whole can surely be more than the sum of the parts.  That might be said of the MOSSmates, although each is a formidable soloist. To trace the whole history, we could use one of those Venn Diagrams with intersecting circles.  Let’s start with Peter Eldridge and Lauren Kinhan, who’ve both been members of the longstanding New York Voices — he, a baritone and pianist, was part of them from their start back in 1987, and she joined as a replacement a few years later. She’s also collaborated with two original members of another jazz vocal group with a decades-long career, Manhattan Transfer (who’ve had their own personnel changes), working with Janis Siegel and later with Laurel Massé, with the trio formation taking its moniker from the first two letters of each one’s first name: JaLaLa.  Look at the credits on the terrific Kate McGarry’s albums and you’ll note some contributions from MOSS colleagues; on stage left at Joe’s Pub was talented guitarist Keith Ganz, who happens to be her husband. He joined her on some CDs, as did the MOSS man with the remarkable range, Theo Bleckmann, whose eclectic recording projects sometimes include other singers, such as a collection of songs of Kate Bush and takes on Mother Goose nursery rhymes with Jo Lawry participating.  She, the one non-original member of MOSS, hails from Australia, replacement for the otherwise engaged Brazilian-born Luciana Souza.  It’s cool to have them back together at the historic venue of Joe’s Pub where they have their own history, having played there before they made that recording. On board were Ben Wittman, the drummer from the album, in addition to guitarist Ganz and bassist Matt Aronoff, who has worked in a duo format with Mr. Eldridge and performed with former MOSS chanteuse Miss Souza, who’d also been his professor at the Manhattan School of Music.  Is that enough paths crossing for you?

Unlike most shows, there was no offstage announcement of “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage….” or “And now, we are proud to present….” or even a plea to turn off cell phones. The instrumentalists and vocalists just came onto the dark stage and their shadowy appearances drew anticipatory applause. And they just started to entertain the eager crowd and soon spoke to express their delight in being together again, saying they do so for some gigs every several years, calling that desire their “seven-year itch.”  Affection was clear, but felt casual and relaxed, rather than mushy and sentimental.  

The program wisely allowed the listeners to appreciate each member’s voice in solo sections and to revel in the various combinations, most especially so for the full complement of their teamwork.  Harmonies and arrangements are such that one can be swept away by the beauty of the sound and duly impressed by the deft handling of their complexities. This was a blessing on numbers where the lyrics were not very clear in some sections.  Was it the sound system or the dense atmosphere from the extra layers of electronically manipulated content of additional layers and looping created by the device at Mr. Bleckmann’s side?  The resulting thick, dreamlike echoes and effects are effective, but once you get used to it, a little goes a long way and I wanted something more purely acoustic and simple.  (Your mileage might vary.)  

When one selection began with a heavenly a capella section, I was eager for more of that!  Confidence and polish were apparent, but the group comes off as modest and serene. “I Carry Your Heart with Me (I Carry It In),” Kate McGarry’s setting of a poem by e. e. cummings, was especially sincere and moving.  It’s become a popular choice for weddings, we were told, and that wasn’t surprising.  It’s so sincere and unabashedly devoted.  Contrastingly, Jo Lawry, taking over the piano at one point, offered an example of a tone she claimed was her contrasting comfort zone (“My wheelhouse is mean songs,” she quipped). The Kinhan / Eldridge composition “There Alone Go I" was another strong piece as was a newer creation presented as musicalized correspondence, “Letters to an Old Man,” with an aging fellow also being the matter at hand for a cover of Neil Young’s classic “Old Man” which ended the set with a magnificent, powerful embrace of life.   

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