{"id":10697,"date":"2018-12-07T16:11:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T16:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=10697"},"modified":"2018-12-07T20:32:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T20:32:03","slug":"mrs-funs-truth-entertains-and-strives-to-stand-the-test-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=10697","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. Fun’s “Truth” entertains and strives to stand the test of time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mrs. Fun \u2013 <\/b><\/strong>Truth<\/i><\/b><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Fun Time Records)<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Mrs. Fun, with guest bassist-vocalist Ethan Bender [from Streetlife], will perform from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday December 7, at Metro Market, 4075 N. Oakland Ave, in Shorewood. Mrs. Fun also performs with song stylist Liv Mueller at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Shorewood Legion Post, on Wilson Blvd.)\u00a0<\/strong>To keep up with Mrs. Fun, visit their website:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/mrsfun.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Mrs. Fun is a 30-year marriage of musical mirth and mutual creativity. On Truth<\/i><\/em>, The Milwaukee jazz-pop duo documents\u00a0its characteristically vast expressive range and stylistic diversity. The\u00a0title, and the\u00a0album cover\u2019s darkly eloquent\u00a0pyramid silhouette, suggest intent to stand the test of time. You could pop this CD in\u00a0for a party backdrop, yet it rewards mindful, even reflective, listening.<\/p>\n

To the latter point, the original \u201cZawinul\u201d\u00a0tributes\u00a0the dominant figure behind the incomparable fusion group Weather Report. It evokes Joe Zawinul\u2019s orchestral exotic scene-painting via synthesizer,\u00a0yet retains the grounding of walking bass and crackling drums. Similarly “Orange Grove” bears sweet fragrance and rhythmic strum of the Latin guitar (synthesized). Keyboardist-vocalist Connie Grauer might be the most resourceful synthesizer player\u00a0on the Milwaukee scene. This keys\u00a0the group’s brilliance,\u00a0along with drummer Kim Zick\u2019s\u00a0endless array of\u00a0rhythmic accents and propulsive grooves and dynamics.<\/p>\n

Grauer imaginatively reinvents two jazz classics. She prefaces Antonio Carlos Jobim\u2019s \u201cHow Insensitive,\u201d with her and title\u201cSilent Mist\u201d and graces the exquisite Jobim melody with her own poetic lyrics. And Wayne Shorter \u201cPinocchio\u201d goes sci-fi as \u201cSpace Port\/Pinocchio,\u201d befitting Shorter’s own sci-fi sensibility. This is Mrs. Fun in their exuberantly edgy acid-jazz mode. However, I wanted the great jazz composer’s full melodic theme stated, and explored more — the theme’s\u00a0closing phrases, suggest both involution and a curious outward force, akin to more-complex-than-he-appears Pinocchio, and his mythical nose<\/span>. Several more minutes of development and this might’ve been a minor masterpiece of re-imagining. If any sensibility is expansive, its sci-fi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSoulful Strut\u201d covers a hit R&B instrumental from 1969 and, while not quite as exhilarating as the horn-driven original, it captures the funky tune\u2019s infectious insouciance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Drummer Kim Zick (left) and keyboardist-vocalist Connie Grauer are Mrs. Fun. Courtesy Patch<\/em><\/p>\n

Less successful is their cover of \u201cLight My Fire\u201d which here is a fairly straight recitation of the melody, which isn\u2019t strong enough for such instrumental scrutiny, even if it and the song\u2019s lyrics could launch the dark power and dynamics of The Doors\u2019 original and Jose Feliciano\u2019s soulful hit re-make.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re smarter when Grauer does a vocal she can handle, or they add guest singers here, like rapper Klassik or vocal stylist Liv Mueller on the closing \u201cCalm before the Storm,\u201d which includes a fine Grauer keyboard solo with deftly spacious phrasing. Despite her gifts on electric keyboards, I\u2019d love to hear her record more acoustic piano, which she also excels at.<\/p>\n

One hopes this group does more recording, of what they exactly want to do. They’re natural musical entertainers, and deft collaborators, but they have room to grow as musical artists.<\/p>\n

As for now, in such often-dire and depressing times, the Truth<\/i><\/em>\u00a0never felt so good. Plus, as top-rate as the album is overall, it can’t do justice to the bright,\u00a0vibrant personality of this consistently engaging duo in live performance. So I recommend you search them out in person (they gig frequently), and buy the CD directly from the artists.<\/p>\n

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This review was first published in shorter form in The Shepherd Express<\/em>:\u00a0Mrs Fun review<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mrs. Fun \u2013 Truth\u00a0(Fun Time Records) (Mrs. Fun, with guest bassist-vocalist Ethan Bender [from Streetlife], will perform from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday December 7, at Metro Market, 4075 N. Oakland Ave, in Shorewood. Mrs. Fun also performs with song … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-2Mx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10697"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10726,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697\/revisions\/10726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}