What a life, what a farewell! Made eleven beautiful albums, on which jazz was gently “slaughtered”, kept their feet still for years, remained calm. And then the daisies are suddenly looked at from below: Pat Fish, head of the anti-rock, friendly-sarcastic, independent, brilliant and political indie-pop band The Jazz Butcher, has built his own memorial with “The Highest In The Land”. At the age of 63, Fish died unexpectedly of a heart attack in early October 2021. In some drawer of Southern Mark Smith (that’s the name of one of the hit songs from 1984’s A Scandal In Bohemia) was a plethora of material – the last Jazz Butcher record was released in 2012 after a hiatus.
Fish’s death raises the level of melancholy on the album
The Highest In The Land is a classic jazz butcher album. With exactly that tongue-in-cheek detachment that the band has always possessed, Pat Fish raises his gray eyebrow and rhymes in “Time” with tender consternation: “My hair’s all wrong/ My time ain’t long.” Both true . How sad! Fish’s death increases the melancholy level of the album. Maybe that’s why the chords in pop songs like “Sea Madness” sound so comforting. “I wasn’t ready for you/ How could anyone be ready for you?”, he languishes lovingly in “Never Give Up”, in “Amalfi Coast May 1963” a few violins whisper in the background, bars change, and even that talkative Fish shut up – because there’s nothing to say given the beauty of the coast and the music.
What the young Jazz Butcher only claimed, the older Jazz Butcher practically shakes out of his sleeve
He still has it with the lyrics: “They say that fear’s a man’s best friend and every day it seems that I have more”, a line that Johnny Cash couldn’t have cracked out better, and at the same time a John Cale quote . In general, on “The Highest In The Land” with its British country and blues overtones you can hear the maker’s wisdom of age: what the young jazz butcher only (albeit credibly) claimed, the older jazzman practically shakes out of his sleeve. If anyone missed the band back then, this is a great way to change that.
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