Published on Feb 10, 1998
Danny Federici has nothing to prove… and everything to
prove.
Having spent over a decade as the keyboardist for Bruce
Springsteen’s celebrated E-Street Band, there’s no questioning his
talent behind the ivories. Just listen to songs like “Born To Run”
or “Born In The USA” and hear the voice that Federici added to
those numbers.
But just as much as his background speaks for itself, Federici
also has to face the challenging question: is he capable of making
quality music without Springsteen? The answer lies on
Flemington, his first solo album… and the answer is yes,
but don’t look for an E-Street repeat here.
Federici does invite two of his old bandmates to help him
establish his own musical voice – Nils Lofgren contributes guitar
to two tracks, and Garry Tallent to a pair as well (though both do
not appear together on any track – smart move). The cast of
musicians varies throughout the album, but the most common players
are guitarist John DeFuria (who is underutilized in my opinion),
bassist Shem Schroeck (who can lay down quite a funky groove),
percussionist Charles Slone and drummer Tony Braunagel.
Federici seems content to be a voice of the band more often than
a featured instrument. There are times when his piano work stands
out among the performances, and his accordion work often takes the
voice of a singer. But Federici isn’t stupid – he realizes his
bandmates are as intregal a part of the music as his keyboard
work.
For a good half of the album, Federici and crew craft some fine
music that borders on new-age and light pop rather than the
arena-rock that made his occasional-still employer famous. The
title track adds only bass (here provided by Jim Hanson) and drums
to create a peppy opener to the album – and occasionally reminds me
not only of his E-Street Band work, but also keyboard-driven
television theme songs. (This is not necessarily a bad thing – I
happened to like the theme music from “St. Elsewhere” – so there!)
“Pennsylvania Avenue” also has the same magic, though here the
piano line is especially highlighted – and for good reason.
There are many solid performances on
Flemington. “In The Next Five Minutes” has Federici getting
both funky and bluesy (is that a word?) on the piano, something I
wish he had done more often. His piano’s trading off with the sax
work of Joe Sublett is especially interesting. “Egg Beater” is also
a fun track to listen to, one that doesn’t seem to last as long as
the time sheet says. Also creating interesting moods are “Mr.
Continental” and “My Little Cow”.
But the problem with
Flemington is that Federici doesn’t seem to want to
constantly challenge himself. While he successfully breaks out of
the “Bruce” mode, he seems content to just play light jazz with not
much frills, thank you very much. Because of this, by the middle of
the album things tend to stagnate a bit. “A Doorman’s Life,” a song
which is supposed to be a loving tribute to Federici’s father,
fails to do much for me. Likewise, “Carousel Breeze” and “Round
& Round” don’t connect after a while – one almost wishes that
Federici would turn up the intensity on these tracks just a
little.
And it’s not that
Flemington is a bad album; it is, in fact, better than many
smooth jazz albums I’ve listened to over the years. But its
weakness is that it fails to break new ground – maybe this was due
to Federici’s wanting to escape from Springsteen’s shadow. Well,
this has been accomplished – now what? I’ve listened to this disc
three times just before writing this review, and still I find
myself waiting for the real fireworks to begin. (Fortunately,
there’s a small taste of this on “Pennsylvania Avenue”, but not
enough to whet my appetite.)
I have no doubts that Federici will continue to thrive as a solo
musician, and
Flemington is a great portrait of his talents as a
songwriter and keyboardist. But going for the vanilla is okay the
first time around – here’s hoping he’ll throw a little pepper sauce
into the mix the next time.