They don't fit. The tags, that is. The tags listing what kind of style you should designate to Howe Gelb. It is fifteen or more. Probably more, and the number of albums Gelb has put out so far, since he first came to the scene somewhere in the first half of the Eighties, under a number of monikers, is definitely over double that number. Judging by the sound of this one, again, under his own name, I guess you could list this one under jazz. Mostly.
When Gelb started out under the recently retired moniker of Giant Sand, it was mostly what was called then "No Depression" alt-country, with obvious inspiration in the raunchier side of Neil Young, but as the monikers started changing, including recordings under his own name, so the music gained new directions, from pure country, to alt. rock, folk, flamenco, gospel, you name it. But jazz was always somewhere there, as early as the "Long Stem Rant" from 1989, including a full blown piano jazz album "Lull Some Piano" from 2001.
"Future Standards" is also a piano jazz album, but with a backup band, and Gelb's vocals. And some other vocals. If you are a bit familiar with Gelb's oeuvre, and the 1997 album under the moniker OP8, and the song "Devil Loves LA", you might guess the direction Gelb is taking here. Devil Loves LA was just one of the idea shots on an album full of other, more or less psychedelic ideas, done in collaboration with Lisa Germano and his then Giant Sand rythm section, later the core of Calexico, Joey Burns and John Convertino.
On this album, the idea is developed into a full blown musical plan, executed almost to perfection, combining impeccable musicianship combined with Gelb's drawn-out, scratchy vocals that you have the feeling will instantly fall out of tune, but never do. It isomething you can expect you would hear from your local jazz bar band at three thirty in the morning on a busy weekend night. The jazz band that plays great, that is.
That is the kind of a sound Gelb is trying to recreate here. It is the sound of the "American Songbook" standards, just a bit twisted. He makes it. At some point, some of these tunes just might maki it to that songbook. It could be "Shiver Revisited", a known Gelb song to his fans, as is usual when he includes a song he has done before, completely redone, but still recognizable.
Even the cover of the album recreates the sound: a young cowboy inspired first by Kris Kristopherson jumping into Frank Sinatra's shoes. Judging by this album, the shoes fit.
