Interpretation adds personal touch to sax covers

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

It takes less than 30 seconds to determine that Dougie Gurthrie intends to do it exactly his way on The Melody Maker CD. After the familiar music of I Shot the Sherriff begins and the harmony singers deliver the refrain, the alto saxophonist starts the verse at a higher pitch than expected, based on his introductory notes with the refrain.

Then, on the second verse ("Sheriff John Brown always hated me ..."), the piercing approach of the first verse becomes a near throaty warble. Plus there is a slew of notes which the Gong did not include, much less put words to.

So we get the point very early, that as The Melody Maker, Dougie Gurthrie is going to take liberties with melodies - time honoured and beloved ones, to boot, as only three of the 14 tracks are original. And his approach works quite well.

However, while his obvious talent allows Gurthrie to get away with some melody bending, it does not give him leeway to mutilate Marley titles. There is absolutely no excuse for Three Little Birds to be renamed Don't Worry, and Could You be Loved to be titled Is This Love. That borders on the musically sacrilegious.

noticeable fall

There is no end to Gurthrie's musical exploration on The Melody Maker. On Three Little Birds, by the second line there is a very noticeable fall in volume and he is delicate in his approach to the song of hope - until he goes high and strong on the line "this is my message to you".

He really gets going on the uptempo Spanish Serenade, notes rippling like small waves breaking in quick succession; Isle of Love gets that extremely light, deft touch.

On the CD's first original, Love and Peace, Gurthrie goes for an initially piercing approach over a roots rock rhythm. Hope and Mercy is generally more restrained, although there are some high points.

He chooses a good mix of songs, the R&B version of Killing Me Softly, one of the forays outside the roots reggae, which dominates The Melody Maker, and it is one of the songs where his approach to interpretation works very, very well.

So Dougie Gurthrie makes amends and bends melodies on his excellent debut solo CD, The Melody Maker, while staying true to not only his passion for, but the standards of music.

It leads to a listening experience where boredom is not a factor - you will hear something you did not fully appreciate before - certainly for the first few times that you play The Melody Maker.

Ooops! Close to the end there is another wrong song title, Wind Beneath My Wings mystifyingly renamed Hero Wings. It is close enough to suggest that some creative liberty has been taken, but the track record of wrong titles does not inspire confidence.

Track listing

1. I Shot the Sheriff

2. Don't Worry

3. Is This Love

4. Spanish Serenade

5. Isle of Love

6. No Woman No Cry

7. Love and Peace

8. Hope and Mercy

9. Falling in Love

10. Breakfast in Bed

11. Unbreak My Heart

12. Killing Me Softly

13. Hero Wings

14. First Time