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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nI\u2019m tempted to salute Elvis Costello\u2019s new album with The Roots Wise Up Ghost<\/i>\u00a0 as his latest reinvention, but that word\u2019s too associated with Madonna\u2014wrongly, I might add\u2014or a meme<\/i>, except I really don\u2019t know what that word means.<\/p>\n
Rather, Ghost<\/i> is just the latest expansion in what has essentially been a two-pronged Costello career.<\/p>\n
First, of course, is his bread and butter: his rock band side, initially with the Attractions, then after a change in bass players, with the Imposters, that began his recording career in 1977 and was rightly recognized in 2003 by his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Running in and out of it is his sometimes natural, sometimes radical departures from the rock band format, i.e., classical (The Juliet Letters<\/i>, with the Brodsky Quartet), jazz (Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz Radio Broadcast<\/i>), ballet (Il Sogno<\/i>), classic pop (North<\/i>), Burt Bacharach pop (Painted From Memory<\/i>), country (Almost Blue<\/i>) and now Roots music, that is, music created with the hip-hop\/jazz Roots Band, with whom he\u2019s been collaborating since an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon<\/i> (and let\u2019s not forget Costello\u2019s own music\/talk show, Spectacle<\/i>, featuring guests ranging from Tony Bennett, with whom he\u2019s recorded, and opera star Renee Fleming).<\/p>\n
Both paths have yielded varying commercial results, though none of it ever comes across as anything that isn\u2019t a full commitment artistically, no matter the risk. Indeed, Costello is one of the true risk takers that critics so often demand of great artists.<\/p>\n
After touring internationally the last couple years or so with his Imposters-backed \u201cThe Revolver Tour\u201d featuring \u201cThe Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook,\u201d Costello\u2019s creative restlessness was never more evident than at his performances last month in support of Wise Up Ghost<\/i>.<\/p>\n
His one-off show (due to the touring constraints of the Roots, who are the Fallon show\u2019s house band) at the Brooklyn Bowl, followed by two appearances on Fallon, showed him facing an atypical challenge of working with a new band\u2014in particular a highly rhythmic and adaptable, hard bopping 10-piece. So as challenging as writing Ghost<\/i> must have been, playing it live meant Costello really had to be on his toes: As the Bowl\u2019s founder Peter Shapiro keenly observed, the Imposters are able to follow their mercurial leader, whereas Costello had to keep up with the Roots, who really pushed him in a set that Roots drummer\/frontman Questlove reverently called \u201cthe manifestation of a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that Costello couldn\u2019t adjust. New album tunes like the horn-pushed \u201cWake Me Up\u201d and the rapping, jazz-funk \u201cRefuse to Be Saved\u201d demonstrated his facility with incorporating spoken word or minimalist singing into the Roots\u2019 vampy matrix. \u201cWalk Us Uptown,\u201d meanwhile, had a noir-ish feel reminiscent of \u201c(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea,” which he also performed, along with Roots-reworked versions of \u201cPump It Up\u201d (featuring a surprising insert of Georgie Fame\u2019s lively 1965 hit \u201cYeh Yeh\u201d), \u201cWatching The Detectives\u201d (with pulsating horns and a rap at the end) and a super-funky \u201cShabby Doll.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ever generous, Costello brought along his Wise Up Ghost<\/i> guests Diane Birch and Marisol \u201cLa Marisoul\u201d Hernandez to reprise their stellar roles. He also threw in a couple remarkable covers, John Lennon\u2019s caustic solo classic \u201cI Found Out\u201d (evoking his role as Lennon substitute in writing hits with Paul McCartney) and, theme-appropriate \u201cGhost Town,\u201d by English ska band the Specials, whose debut album he produced.<\/p>\n
Costello joked about bowling a few frames after the show, and while he didn\u2019t, it kept with his concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about having fun,\u201d he said in the dressing room. \u201cIsn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
It certainly was, in a dressing room full of friends and associates from both sides of his career.<\/p>\n
Jim Bessman<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ELVIS COSTELLO A True Risk Taker I\u2019m tempted to salute Elvis Costello\u2019s new album with The Roots Wise Up Ghost\u00a0 as his latest reinvention, but that word\u2019s too associated with Madonna\u2014wrongly, I might add\u2014or a meme, except I really don\u2019t know what that word means. Rather, Ghost is just the latest expansion in what has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4976],"tags":[1070],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11016,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11013\/revisions\/11016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}