Anjani Thomas has been playing piano and adding her
vocals to many of Leonard Cohen’s albums dating back to
1984. Before joining the Canadian poet/songwriter/singer, she
worked the jazz clubs in New York and performed with Stanley
Clarke and others. After she wrote the title track based on
some poems she happened across at Cohen’s place one day,
he was quite taken with it and gave her a pile of them to work
with. She indeed went to work and the result is this gorgeous,
melodic, very laid back, smokey collection of ballads showcasing
her very sweet voice and piano playing.
It is not her first album, but it is the first on a major label.
No doubt Cohen had something to do with getting her heard
by the powers to be at Columbia, and no doubt that’s all he
had to do. Having heard some samples of her earlier music, it
is quite obvious she has dropped her voice very low for this
outing, on which she sounds like a bit of a female Leonard
Cohen, and her phrasing and sense of timing is very much
like his. Check out "Half The Perfect World" and the closing
waltz "Thanks For The Dance" for instance. Wonderful.
The entire set is performed with very sparse accompaniment,
in fact she is mostly solo with just her voice and keyboards,
and I presume the bass and the light brushwork on
drums is her as well.
It would be very tempting to start spouting off some lines
from the lyrics on some of these songs, but if you are at all
familiar with Cohen, you’ll know what to expect from his
protegé. Leonard Cohen perhaps sums her up best as he states
"Anjani’s music is exotic, dreamy and hypnotic." To add to
the pleasure, this music was marvelously recorded. Crank it
up a bit, sit in your favorite chair, close your eyes – it sounds
like she’s right in the room with you. Yes, and many will wish.
Do yourself a favor, pick this one up, or at least check her
out at www.anjani-music.com where you can click to the
Amazon link to sample some songs. You can read all the lyrics
at www.BlueAlertMusic.com. Indeed, Hawaiian-born Anjani
might just give you a glimpse of musical paradise. What a
coincidence.
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