Reviews
Artist:Jayson Norris
Album:A Basket Full...
Label:Rangiputa Records
Tracks: 12
Rating: ***
Website: www.jaysonnorris.com
"A Basket Full..." is named after a Maori tradition that there are three baskets of knowledge. This album, resplendent in basket weave
effect sleeve includes that knowledge within a dozen carefully written songs
Jayson Norris is a Kiwi that is a frequent and long serving visitor to these shores and like a lot of travellers that head this way
from the Southern Ocean his songs reflect travel, though not just in a physical sense. The album comes across as a voyage through
both the emotions and the soul.
Norris, accompanies his words with some good uptempo rhythms that drift in and out of funk and to a lesser extent reggae, touches on the edge of acoustic soft rock
and dallies with gosple and blues. If that sounds like a mish mash with no clearly defined edge, then don't be fooled it's not. Jayson keeps
the whole thing in check, fuzzy around the edges yes, but absolutely focsed in the middle.
"A Basket Full..." is a very uplifting album, you get the feeling Norris was smiling all the way through the recording. Some of the credit for
this must go to the band that Jayson has assembled, but they've got some pretty good material to work with. Lyrics, music mesh together to make
some really enjoyable tracks that encourage you to sway and dance along with them.
It's an album of the spring and summer, light in sound, full of hope and vitility. It refreshes like a stroll on the beach on a summers day. A slight
sea breeze keeps it cool when it's in danger of over heating.
It's not an album without flaws. One of them is that you can get drawn into the music at the expense of the lyric. You get just that little too laid back
and suddenly find you're not listening to the words anymore. The music can swamp your desire to listen to the song, which is a shame as Jayson Norris writes
a pretty good collection of words.
The upside of this is that it gives you a different song for your moods. It would seem that you could either dance or go on a journey, it's not really
practical to do both at the same time. In effect you get two albums for the price of one. "A Basket Full.." is bang on where it's at