Jez Hellard and the Djukella Orchestra – The Fruitful Fells
Djukella Records (JDHCD004) – 16 July 2021
The arrival in the post of a new album from Jez Hellard is a lot like receiving a letter from an old friend you’ve not seen in ages. Not that I can count him as a friend, though after enthusing over his last album, Heavy Wood (reviewed here), it almost feels that way. And The Fruitful Fells is literally a letter with attached music; Jez’s notes on the inner three sides of the trifold sleeve start with “Dear friends, near and far” and end with “Jez”. As with any long-overdue letter from a friend, there’s a lot of catching up to do, why it’s taken so long (five years) to come up with a new studio album, how it came to be recorded in Machynlleth, in the far reaches of mid-Wales, the hassles to be overcome trying to get the Djukella Orchestra even virtually together. And eventually, how it may not be the album that many fans were expecting. Now, that’s a brave statement for any artist to make, but Jez has never been one to shy away from telling it like it is. So, to paraphrase his letter, rip-roaring dance tunes are for the next album, this one, coming after a period of longing, loss and introspection, is to warm you through the dark times.
Keeping that aim firmly in mind, Jez has assembled fourteen songs, only one of which he’s written himself. The others are from singers and songwriters. Sometimes they’re the same person often not, whose songs, when Jez has heard them over the years, have encouraged, enlightened, educated, angered, aroused, astounded. The list goes on, but I needn’t explain much more. In addition to the sleeve text, there is a 24-page, beautifully illustrated booklet including lyrics and a lot of the reasoning as to why these songs are important to Jez and why they should be important, and maybe a little helpful, to us.
Membership of The Djukella Orchestra has always been a bit variable, and recording during the pandemic added obvious difficulties. But all of the band that made Heavy Wood have contributed to some extent to The Fruitful Fells. Jez, naturally, is on all tracks, mainly on vocals and guitar, adding harmonicas to several. Nye Parsons on double bass is almost as ubiquitous on all tracks except the acapella Big Steamers. In contrast, the violins of Alistair Caplin and James Patrick Gavin are heard just three times each, while Dominic Henderson’s low whistle and Tommie Black-Roff’s accordion each make only one appearance (together, the latter three artists make up the trio Teyr). With Alastair and James playing reduced roles, the rest of the fiddling comes from London-based Polish jazz violinist Piotr Jordan, who also plays the viola on two tracks. Also involved are Ewan Bleach on clarinet and the percussion of Mathew Pharoah.
The Fruitful Fells opens with a song that immediately chimes with the album’s title. Gonna Rise Again has lyrics linking the cyclic pattern of life on farms, planting, growing, harvesting, dying, and the husbandry of the land passing from generation to generation. But, of course, that traditional pattern is increasingly under threat from the industrialisation of food production and the rapacious acquisition of land for other purposes. Thus, in the one song, we find two of the topics that, throughout his career, have inspired Jez to communicate through music. On the one hand, his deep appreciation of, and desire to protect, the natural world. On the other, a commitment to socialist principles in the widest sense of the term. Gonna Rise Again was written by Si Kahn, but Jez’s connection to it arises from hearing it sung by the late Roy Bailey, and its inclusion is, in part, a tribute to the inspiration he has taken from Roy. The track opens with Jez’s guitar and some deliberately edgy violin from Piotr that gives way to Jez’s breathy vocal accompanied by guitar and bass. This subdued accompaniment is punctuated throughout by plaintive phrases from the violin. As with this opener, several of the album’s arrangements are pared back when compared to the Djukella Orchestra norm. There’s no doubt this approach makes potent music, especially for three of the tracks when there’s really no Orchestra at all, just Jez on vocal, guitar and harmonica alongside Nye’s bass. Outstanding among these is their treatment of Home by Christmas, the song written by Robb Johnson to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Passchendaele. Long celebrated as a writer of passionately political songs, in Home by Christmas, Robb obliquely links the posturing of the generals that led to such horrendous loss of life with the attitudes of today’s ruling elites, perpetuating a grossly unequal society. Jez’s voice has never lacked passion when needed, but here he uses a soft, almost flat, approach, allowing the lyrics to do their job. Behind the vocal, Jez’s guitar is all gentle chords and arpeggios, while his wailing harmonica adds the emotion. And, alongside all this, Nye lays down the most wonderful, bowed bass line. Rabblerousing? Certainly not. Deeply effective? Without a doubt.
Another side to the album leaves behind the pared-back approach, heading toward a full Djukella Orchestra. The inclusion of Piotr, though, with his jazz violin background means the arrangements are more likely to have a whiff of Grappelli about them rather than a Celtic fiddle. Falling somewhere between those two, the liveliest pace is found on the treatment they’ve given to Richard Thompson’s The Sights and Sounds of London Town. With the tempo set by Mat’s percussion, it only takes the addition of Jez, Nye and Piotr to give the track a big sound, an instrumental break having the flavour of a Western hoe-down. The sound may be uplifting, but if you’re familiar with the Thompson lyrics, you’ll realise this is far from the whole story.
The largest assembly of musicians is found on Foodbanks & Ferraris, a song Jez borrowed from Medway-based duo Sally Ironmonger and Barry Carter. Jez, Nye and Piotr are joined by Ewan’s clarinet and Tommie’s accordion, with recording engineer Mike West sneaking in to add harmony vocals to the chorus. It’s a belter of a song, contrasting hopes of the past, in this case, the euphoria of the post-WWII birth of the Welfare State, with present realities, neatly illustrated by the coincident rise in the use of food banks and the ownership of Ferraris. There’s no forgetting the strength of the song with its superbly apt tagline. Still, it’s even more likely you’ll remember the clarinet, as Ewan weaves his melodic line around Jez’s vocal and then, in the instrumental break, spars with Piotr’s violin to magical effect.
Jez certainly uses this album to push his view of the parlous state of today’s world, but his choice of songs doesn’t neglect the gentler, more romantic side of his nature. There’s a version of Ewan MacColl’s The Joy of Living, a song that could bring a tear to the eye of the hardest of political animals. While the inclusion of his version of Dick Gaughan’s arrangement of the Burns poem Now Westlin Winds brought a large smile to the lips of this reviewer. Jez sums up the song as “one of the most perfectly seductive love songs, and an invaluable guide to the birds and bushes of the British countryside”. Surely an irresistible combination.
I could write a paragraph about every song; there are another eight I haven’t yet mentioned. But I won’t, this is, after all, a review and not a monograph, and it’s surely kinder to leave some surprises for when you acquire the album. As with his previous album, Heavy Wood, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the combination of excellent music with text that is both instructive and entertaining. The Fruitful Fells also comes with the bonus of hearing new takes on some familiar songs. For music created with the intention “to warm you through the dark times”, you may feel that some of the subject matter is itself rather on the dark side. But Jez is ahead of you and offers this insight “I trust it will go to some lengths to remind you that it’s the world rather than you that’s been going mad”. Mad the world may be, but it’s immeasurably improved by having music such as this brought into it, imaginative, thought-provoking and, above all, entertaining.
Fruiful Fells comes in a beautiful gatefold case, with a 24 page booklet filled with musings, lyrics and some glorious photos by Yasmine Zarrouk and various others.
Pre-order via Bandcamp: https://jezhellardthedjukellaorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/the-fruitful-fells