Chantal Acda & The Atlantic Drifters: Silently Held
Challenge Records
Silently Held might well be the most perfect coupling of singer and musicians to date from Chantal Acda, and in that regard it's telling that it's credited to her and The Atlantic Drifters rather than her alone. Electric guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Jozef Dumoulin, double bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Eric Thielemans are the core, with clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, euphoniumist Niels van Heertum, saxophonists Colin Stetson and Kurt van Herck, and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily completing the line-up. If there's one musician, however, whose connection with Acda is particularly critical, it's Frisell. He's ever-responsive to her lead, and his playing registers throughout as a natural extension of her vocalizing. Her voice and his guitar are so connected here, it's as if they've always been together. Consistent with that, the two earlier co-released Live at Jazz Middelheim, and Frisell also contributed to Acda's Saturday Moon (2021) and Bounce Back (2017).
Recorded in New York last year with producer Philip Weinrobe, most of the songs were captured in one take, and it shows in the naturalness with which each performance unfolds. In place of the glossy artifice of contemporary pop, each song on Silently Held is a live space inhabited by vocal and instrumental textures that advance in tandem. Listening to it is like watching a time-lapse video of garden elements blossoming. That's apparent the moment “One Day, One Life” introduces the album with the musicians patiently establishing a stirring ground for her to emote over. No one, of course, sings like Acda, whose fragile vocal quiver makes her instantly identifiable. As she sings with disarming vulnerability and the song gloriously builds, Frisell imaginatively complements her every gesture. Morgan also shows himself to be an invaluable contributor when his incisive double bass animates the material; Thielemans, too, deserves commendation for enhancing the songs with solid yet tastefully restrained drumming.
Written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin and famously associated with Bonnie Raitt (even if it's been covered by countless others), “I Can't Make You Love Me” receives an arresting, late-night makeover by Acda that's wholly emblematic of her vocal delivery. In fact, her phrasing is so totally unlike Raitt's, you could almost be convinced Acda was unfamiliar with the version before recording her own. Again the sensitivity shown by her accompanists—Frisell, but also Morgan, Thielemans, and Dumoulin—does much to elevate the performance, as does the ethereal flutter of the saxophones. It's the only non-Acda original, but it complements her eight splendidly.
In what follows, we encounter authentic music of grace, humility, and wonder, songs of depth and genuine feeling. The listener feels like a guest privileged to share in the special gift of witnessing real music being born. Acda's mood pieces often exude a stream-of-consciousness-like quality, but don't be deceived: as compositions, they're mapped out, but as performances they're informed by the kind of spontaneity you'd expect when musicians of such high calibre are involved. Instrumental touches distinguish specific tracks, clarinets in “Hear It Out” and saxophones in “The Friends Parade.” The latter (“Seafoam” too) is quintessential Acda, a poignant expression of gratitude whose impact's bolstered by the multi-tracking of her voice and the relaxed lilt of the accompaniment. Her music's never more affecting, however, than when her voice is presented at its most naked, with the slow-building title song a good illustration. Think of Silently Held as real music by real people, something that shouldn't be a rarity in today's popular music field but often seems to be.May 2024