I do feel for the poor record company; there must have been some quiet sobbing going on when their budding star told them he was going jazz/vocal for his breakout moment. But what do they care? They have national health care, they don’t need profits. And they couldn’t argue with the quality. The Duper Sessions finds Lerche in the company of the Faces Down Quartet, (Erik, Morten, Ole, and Kato, the last three superb names for your next pets) all of them having some swinging fun in the studio.
It’s straight-up, elegant jazz/vocal, Chet Baker style. Sondre’s got a sly, one-hand-on-a-cocktail delivery that makes the whole album breeze right by; if you’re not careful, you won’t realize how good it is. At first I assumed Lerche had dug up a sparkling set of obscure tin pan alley songs, but they’re almost all his compositions, which is even more impressive.
The quartet behind him is loose and swinging; they’re so clearly comfortable I feel I have to reach for my first NBA simile and liken Lerche to Steve Nash – who he actually resembles physically – in that he seems to effortlessly bring genius out of his team.
The plodding, understated “Dead End Mystery” is a standout; Lerche likes to do swooping little vocal runs, so Elvis Costello’s lyrically crowded “Human Hands” is a perfect choice; even the bizarre, backward English he favors fits right into what is essentially an homage to old school songwriting: “Heaven is from where you have come,” or “There is romance/and there is love/that seems to be the only system that they know of/but why be satisfied with only love/when there are games you should know of.”
This is still discernibly a Sondre Lerche record, not a jazz odyssey. His vocals are right out front and his songwriting is the key. There is one actual standard, Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” but Sondre Lerche turns in a set of originals that in his hands sound like instant standards.
– Tom Vale
Sondre Lerche (Astralwerks)