Restless

Restless

How far can a song take you? What corners of a hot and twisty soul can it invade? And where will it leave you, when it inevitably does? This collection is Sylvia Brooks’ answer to those questions.

The album’s genesis began with “Round Midnight.” Recalling an incident several years ago that saw her confined to a hospital bed in New York City, she speaks of the totality of the jangly, dissonant pulse of the city, of ambulances whizzing by, and the clickity-clack of stilettos on the sidewalks below. “I wanted people to feel the complete surrender to that kind of barren loneliness, to use instrumentation to bring around that feel of the streets of the City,” and bring out the steely emptiness of such songs as “Last Tango,” “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams,” and “You’re My Thrill”.

As arranger Kim Richmond began to write, and the two started the process of putting the instrumentation together, each of the 11 tracks on Restless came to represent what Sylvia dubs “Jazz Noir,” a complete experience with a richly satisfying emotional core, tales of decadence and decay, seduction and manipulation, release and ruin and the beautiful victims such devastation leaves in its wake.

So pour yourself into a gimlet state-of-mind, where a raven-haired seductress sinks her hooks in you and the pain is so exquisite, you dare not tear yourself away. Then see just how far a song can take you…