Eclectic celloist Gideon Freudmann has produced what appears to be at least in part a children’s album. Ukrainian Pajama Party is a whimsical take on Freudmann’s trademark blend of bluesy, jazzy pop and light classical-style music. Freudmann plays both an acoustic and an electric cello on Pajama Party, in contrast to his previous outing, 1999’s all-electric Hologram Crackers. Here, he also has a number of guest musicians on everything from clarinets to steel drums.
Many of the titles of the tunes on this album are jokes or wordplays like “Camel Sutra,” “Fellini’s Martini,” “Melodious Thunk,” “Natasha’s Galoshes,” “Drunken Bugs” and “bugsondrugs.” (No bugs were actually harmed in the making of the CD, I trust.) The tunes themselves often mirror their titles somehow: “Drunken Bugs” features all kinds of funny noises made by the cello, guitar and bass that indeed bring to mind inebriated insects. “Camel Sutra” is a short, driving tune with Middle Eastern overtones. “Fellini’s Martini” is a quickstep waltz with a cinematic melody that could be the third cousin of “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.”
The “Sybil Overture” has a multiple personality, an ever-shifting blend of blues, jazz and classical themes and techniques. “Old Jalopy” is a great little old-timey tune featuring banjo, mandolin and guitar, with Freudmann playing the bass line on his cello and lovely fiddle work by Ruthie Dornfeld.
Not every track works quite as well, particularly the handful on which Freudmann sings. His thin, reedy tenor isn’t a very effective instrument, and the lyrics generally are pretty lightweight too, particularly on “Japanese Car” and the swampy “Bad News Cafe.” The cheesy keyboard with its clattering and thumping drum effects ruin whatever might have been worthwhile about “Betty’s Blues.”
Still, Freudmann is a mighty entertaining musician with an apparently endless store of amusing musical ideas. And you never know from one song to the next whether he’ll be strumming his cello like a guitar, plucking it like a bass or wringing all kinds of odd sounds out of it with a bow. This is the kind of album that the parents of very young children could play to amuse the little ones, and enjoy listening to themselves.
Ukrainian Pajama Party contains a CD-ROM feature, an animated video set to the title track. But I wasn’t able to view it on my Macintosh, even though the liner notes say I should be, so I can’t report on that.
(Gadfly, 2001)
