Kai Hoffman
Do It While You Can
Broad Reach Records ***1/2
Seize the day is the motto of the Kai Hoffman quartet’s first album Do It While You Can and not one but three versions of the smiling face of this livewire jump jive enthusiast extraordinaire and exponent of all things vintage on the cover is a sure indication of the singer’s preferred upbeat and positive approach. With arrangements by Twentysomething-period Jamie Cullum bassist Geoff Gascoyne, and plenty of zip provided along the way by his old Cullum rhythm section partner Seb de Krom on drums, as well as pianist Gunther Kurmayr in finger-snapping tow, Do it While You Can is a collection of predominantly feelgood swing-based songs.
The familiar ones: ‘Pure Imagination’, ‘Make Someone Happy’, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ (maybe done too much these days), ‘People Will Say We’re In Love’, ‘What A Little Moonlight Can Do’, and ‘The Masquerade Is Over’, jostle with the less familiar ones: Fran Landesman and Simon Wallace’s wryly in-the-know ‘Some Boys’, which promisingly opens the album, and ‘History Repeating’ by Alex Gifford of 1990s big beat outfit Propellerheads complete with what sounds like a take on the opening riff of Mingus’ ‘Boogie Stop Shuffle’. Hoffman has written the title track with Simon Whiteside, and there’s a fun Dave Frishberg song, ‘Long Daddy Green’, plus another Whiteside number ‘I’ve Never Met a Guy Who’s Perfect’ (think a variant on Edwyn Collins’ ‘A Girl Like You’), and a very hip choice in Jim Croce’s ‘Time in a Bottle’ from the singer/songwriter’s 1972 album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim issued posthumously as a single after Croce’s death in a plane crash the following year. There are plenty of double meanings, quite a few nudges and winks along the way from the Keely Smith and Peggy Lee-influenced Hoffman, and an insatiable joie de vivre rare in these cynical times. It’s an effective approach overall although not everything quite comes off (‘Moonlight’ drags a bit, but that’s but a small blemish). Precious time may be slipping away, but this album deserves to be heard for more than a day. Stephen Graham
Retro resurgence: Kai Hoffman top. Released in March