JP Jones - Back to Jerusalem

Most of the tracks on Back to Jerusalem started out as MIDI files. You work with what you've got. "Red Hot Blue," for instance, was originally composed with a computer. Working alone has its advantages. But in the end, other players were way called for. I'm not sure why this CD along with it's follow- up, Salvation Street, should make such strong references to the Middle East. Something in the air.

At times it feels almost that I sensed 911 coming, but I wouldn't put much weight behind that.

Recorded and mixed by Lloyd Salisbury with JP Jones at Flat Rock Studios in Moosup, CT.

There's been talk around here lately about the wall
how thin it's getting
polished nearly to transparency by the limbs
of pilgrims passing by on their way to the holy city...
everything is in motion and it's accelerating
what's real? what's the dream?
every once in a while we catch a glimpse of
what appears to be shades, familiar shapes
walking with us on the other side--
we are celebrating redemption, of
the years of labor without reward, of
constant and numbing neglect, of our past,
of all the aimless walks through city streets
under night skies, of a romance
that couldn't or wouldn't come through, of
that nameless yearning we were born for....

Never for control, not for mastery over our lives,
not at all for advantage over others
-- the profoundest sadness in nature called us to this path
back to the ache of solitude, back to simplicity, back to
humility with those huge forces it is not our business to understand,
back to that wall worn so thin by the force of our longing, back to the threshold between the world as it seems and the world of our dreams,
back to Jerusalem.

--JP 2000

Mastered by David Correia at Celebration Sound.

photo: Kerstin Zettmar

Barb Schloff-Arietta: vocals/Back to Jerusalem, Aint that Love?, In My Own Sweet Time, Fancy Guy
Mike Barrette: electric guitar/Back to Jerusalem, Aint that Love, Baoboab Tree
Ed LaPerle: bass/Back to Jerusalem
Kurt Meyer: fretless bass/Getting your Way, Aint that Love?
Vinnie Pasternak: viola/Getting Your Way, As If; vocal arrangement/Fancy Guy; tambourine/It Works for Me
Tom Ratelle: tenor sax/Already Been Thru It, Sweet Time
Lloyd Salisbury: electric guitar/Fancy Guy, Red Hot Blue, It Works for Me; nylon string guitar/Already Been Thru It; trumpet/Red Hot Blue, Already Been Thru It
Maria Sangiolo: vocals/Red Hot Blue
Swami Shivananda Sarasvati:vocals, tablas/Baoboab
Adele Tarkowski: vocals/Fancy Guy
Steve Tavares: snare drum/Jerusalem; congas, bongos, tambourine, gong, claves, gourd, wind chimes/all others
LeRoy White: hand drum/Works for Me(Courtesy Just Him Productions)
JP Jones/all other tracks

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For JP Jones the true lover is an incendiary radical and the faithful artist is a prophet standing against whoever or whatever enslaves the human spirit. Like Leonard Cohen's "The Future," "Back to Jerusalem" has an epic sweep both musically and lyrically, shot through with a satirical wit and unexpected tenderness. And though the poet's voice sometimes cracks, sometimes wavers, his vision never does. --Hugh Blumenfeld