On its face, this smoldering debut from NYC-based jazz chanteuse Eliana Glass seems like quite an inspired outlier for the historically avant garde-minded Shelter Press, as the smoky, sensuous minimalism of these depressive torch songs resembles absolutely nothing else previously released on the label. I certainly cannot fault their instincts, however, as the allure of E is immediately obvious from the first notes. To my ears, these darkly beautiful piano and voice performances evoke the chills-down-my-spine intensity of the late, great Patty Waters (minus the more harrowing and extreme bits), but Glass’s vision was more explicitly inspired by Carla Bley, Annette Peacock, and Ethiopian nun Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (all of whom are covered here).
There are also some unexpectedly leftfield details revealed in the album’s description, such as a fondness for vintage analog effects, subtly hallucinatory contributions from her brother (sound artist Costa Colachis Glass), a piece inspired by conceptual artist Agnes Denes, and the involvement of Francis Harris (one half of deep house duo Frank & Tony). Notably, the Agnes Denes piece (“Human Dust”) is one of the album’s two stone-cold masterpieces, as Glass’s languorous reading of a matter-of-fact post-mortem accounting of an artist’s life is a powerfully haunting and darkly funny meditation on mortality (“achieved 1/10,000 of his dreams,” “was misunderstand 3800 times when it mattered,” “was loved by 17 people including his parents,” etc.).
The album’s other stunner is one of Glass’s own songs (“Good Friends Call Me E”) and it is an absolute supernova, as she soulfully tosses off one perfect line after another (“I get over you like the last one”) over a gorgeously simmering and swinging backdrop from drummer Mike Gebhart and bassist Mike Rinne. The remainder of the album is compelling as well, unsurprisingly, but “Good Friends Call Me E” is the sort of piece that makes me want to run out into the streets to tackle random pedestrians and demand to know why they are not listening to it right now.
