Nashville City Paper
November 09, 2004
inger/songwriter Jim Biancos new CD Handsome Devil is one of the years most lyrically provocative releases.
Biancos song suites and portraits spotlight the antics and adventures of a character whose approach to romance is anything but smooth, sentimental or caring. Instead, the Handsome Devil personifies the term player, a male who abhors commitment, delights in casual relationships and eschews diplomacy and tact in his regular dealings with the opposite sex.
But Bianco, who performs tonight at 3rd and Lindsley, has crafted in this disc an intriguing and musically sophisticated collection of songs that illuminate not only the characters flaws, but also his charms.
I tend to be an extraordinarily cynical person, but these songs arent cynical; theyre dark, Bianco said. This shows a side of males that they often try to hide, but which can be found to some extent in all of us. The difference with this character is that he doesnt try to suppress or hide any of this. Hes unaware of the consequences of these actions until they happen, but then he has to deal with them. Theres a very lonely side to this, because eventually you alienate everyone around you and you also never really experience satisfaction or fulfillment in any relationship.
However, through the narratives are frequently quite somber, Biancos ability to fuse and blend idioms is consistently thrilling. A onetime session bassist and Berklee-trained pianist, Biancos singing reflects his love of swing jazz and country blues, while the arrangements are harmonically rich and extensive.
Handsome Devils opening melody is light and lush, then it shifts into a flamenco-tinged pace. Goodness Gracious has the fast-paced feel of a hot jazz number with appropriately spicy lyrics, while Bianco evokes memories of traveling blues singers and Southwestern troubadours with his stark, slicing vocal on Southpaw.
While now a West Coast resident, Bianco grew up in New York. He started taking piano lessons as a teen, eventually joining an area rock band before moving on to Berklee upon graduation. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2000, and began gaining a reputation for quirky, zany live shows and a sound that didnt fit any particular category. A national tour with Tim Davies and his 19-piece band in 2002 and a victory in a Los Angeles acoustic music competition in 2003 that included winning some free studio time eventually enabled Bianco to record the material on Handsome Devil with the help of Brad Gordon.
Interestingly, Bianco said that previously published stories linking him with other idiosyncratic singer/songwriter types like Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison arent quite correct.
Ive never listened to Mose Allison, and only heard one Randy Newman song, Bianco said. Tom Waits is an incredible artist, and anyone who writes songs is influenced by him in some fashion, but hes not someone that Ive tried to model myself after. The people that Ive really been influenced by come from jazz. Fats Waller was an incredible pianist and the things he wrote had such humor and insight. Nat King Cole was fantastic, but Thelonious Monk in terms of music is my real hero. That musicality and feel, as well as people like Oscar Peterson, was the structural foundation for everything happening underneath the stories about the Handsome Devil.
Biancos song suites and portraits spotlight the antics and adventures of a character whose approach to romance is anything but smooth, sentimental or caring. Instead, the Handsome Devil personifies the term player, a male who abhors commitment, delights in casual relationships and eschews diplomacy and tact in his regular dealings with the opposite sex.
But Bianco, who performs tonight at 3rd and Lindsley, has crafted in this disc an intriguing and musically sophisticated collection of songs that illuminate not only the characters flaws, but also his charms.
I tend to be an extraordinarily cynical person, but these songs arent cynical; theyre dark, Bianco said. This shows a side of males that they often try to hide, but which can be found to some extent in all of us. The difference with this character is that he doesnt try to suppress or hide any of this. Hes unaware of the consequences of these actions until they happen, but then he has to deal with them. Theres a very lonely side to this, because eventually you alienate everyone around you and you also never really experience satisfaction or fulfillment in any relationship.
However, through the narratives are frequently quite somber, Biancos ability to fuse and blend idioms is consistently thrilling. A onetime session bassist and Berklee-trained pianist, Biancos singing reflects his love of swing jazz and country blues, while the arrangements are harmonically rich and extensive.
Handsome Devils opening melody is light and lush, then it shifts into a flamenco-tinged pace. Goodness Gracious has the fast-paced feel of a hot jazz number with appropriately spicy lyrics, while Bianco evokes memories of traveling blues singers and Southwestern troubadours with his stark, slicing vocal on Southpaw.
While now a West Coast resident, Bianco grew up in New York. He started taking piano lessons as a teen, eventually joining an area rock band before moving on to Berklee upon graduation. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2000, and began gaining a reputation for quirky, zany live shows and a sound that didnt fit any particular category. A national tour with Tim Davies and his 19-piece band in 2002 and a victory in a Los Angeles acoustic music competition in 2003 that included winning some free studio time eventually enabled Bianco to record the material on Handsome Devil with the help of Brad Gordon.
Interestingly, Bianco said that previously published stories linking him with other idiosyncratic singer/songwriter types like Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison arent quite correct.
Ive never listened to Mose Allison, and only heard one Randy Newman song, Bianco said. Tom Waits is an incredible artist, and anyone who writes songs is influenced by him in some fashion, but hes not someone that Ive tried to model myself after. The people that Ive really been influenced by come from jazz. Fats Waller was an incredible pianist and the things he wrote had such humor and insight. Nat King Cole was fantastic, but Thelonious Monk in terms of music is my real hero. That musicality and feel, as well as people like Oscar Peterson, was the structural foundation for everything happening underneath the stories about the Handsome Devil.
by Ron Wynn, Nashville City Paper
