Jo Mama “J is for Jump”

The album cover “jumps” out at you, all right, and that’s because of its peculiar aesthetic—washed-out color and odd sense of humor—it’s about as sickly a picture of “nature” as you’re likely to see—a scraggly desert landscape, with the band, in question, “performing,” including a synchronized “jump!” (Well, three of the five—two are sitting, so it’s kind of hard…) It looks like they drove the minimum distance out of LA to find a vista with no buildings in the background—though, likely it’s a garbage dump—and snapped a roll of film in the midst of a yellow filter of smog—some not very impressive hills in the background threaten to disappear altogether. An almost identical photo on back (no jumping). What’s weird is… no one thought to crop either photo—so the band would be a little larger, and you wouldn’t have annoying tree branches on either side, and you could lose a bit of the featureless sky in back and an ugly dirt road in front. Why they lugged drums and a piano up there, but then have an oil drum, old sink, and trash can standing in for guitar amps, is anybody’s guess. And for all that, this fucked up album cover is why I bought the record. It sure wasn’t because of the worst band name ever. I don’t know if there was originally an insert with some info, but the cover, while providing song titles and writing credits, tells us nothing about who’s in this band. How did they navigate this kind of thing (lack of info) in 1971?

Not much more luck, now, 55 years later, though I’m sure I could figure it all out without leaving my chair. But I am leaving my chair (involuntarily) because this record is making me levitate! That’s all I know, for sure… plus, it’s Abigale Haness (excellent singer) and Danny Kortchmar (AKA Danny Kootch) (best AKA in the history of AKAs) on guitar (and writing half the songs), along with some other fine musicians. The songs (including several covers) are all over the place, from “Wouldn’t kill me if I never heard it again” to sublime. I’ll run through a few. “Keep on Truckin’”—just about as California as a song with that title can be. “Back on the Street Again,” very good, nice groove, and same goes for “If I Had a Billion Dollars,” even better, but eclipsed  by “My Long Time,” maybe my fav on the record. “Love is Blind” is a really nice soul song, as well. The jaunty intro and outro to the sultry, jazzy “3 A.M. in L.A.” is kind of dumb, though it’s partly what makes it feel so cinematic—it sounds like something that should be in an Alan Rudolph movie. I like the originals better than the covers, even though they’re by excellent songwriters like Carole King and Mac Rebennack (who’s got even better AKAs than Kootch). There is one absolute standout, however, an oddball called “Have You Ever Been to Pittsburgh?” (by “D. Simon”) about which I can find absolutely nothing—kind of refreshing—takes me right back to 1971—information-wise—and Pittsburgh—otherwise.

7.10.26