When first album, ‘The Capitol Studios Sessions’ debuted at the top spot on the UK Official Jazz and Blues Albums Chart last year, many might have thought it a mere fluke. But when the second album from Jeff Goldblum And The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, ‘I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This’, released on 1 November, repeated the same path as the first, people are sitting up and taking notice.
On hearing the news, Goldblum, never one to be lost for words, released the following statement:
“Number 1 again?? The band and I set out to make a record with music that we love and singers we adore. I’m absolutely gobsmacked about all this and I couldn’t be more ecstatic that people seem to like it. Infinite gratitude and congratulations to everybody involved!”
‘I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This’ picks up where ‘The Capitol Studios Sessions’ left off, and brings with it even more unexpected collaborations than the first, including Miley Cyrus, Sharon Van Etten, Anna Calvi, and the sublime Gina Saputo, who we described in our review as using her voice as an instrument indistinguishable from those in the orchestra. Saputo is the only unsigned artist on the record – it’s our hope that the success of this album will mean a change in fortune for her, if that’s what she wants.
The album also features Goldblum’s friend and label-mate, Gregory Porter, to whom Goldblum and crew owe a great debt, given it was due to him asking Jeff to accompany his performance on The Graham Norton Show in 2017. A Decca exec saw the show, and immediately signed Goldblum up – the rest, as they say in the classics, is history.
Another break from the previous album sees Jeff himself sing as well, on the gorgeous lullaby, ‘Little Man, You’ve Had A Busy Day’. Goldblum has two young sons, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to imagine him singing them to sleep with the song.
Speaking of the repeat number 1, Vice President of Decca Records, Tom Lewis said,
“Jeff has worked his jazz magic again! He and his wonderful band bring such happiness to the world. His album is a jazz Trojan Horse – he has smuggled his amazing array of guests right into the inner sanctum of the jazz world.”
2019 has been magnificent for Goldblum. He announced the second album during his set at this year’s Glastonbury, hailed as one of the festival’s iconic moments. He will surely surpass that experience by performing for Her Majesty The Queen, at London’s Royal Albert Hall, for this year’s Festival Of Remembrance, which will be screened tomorrow on BBC1 at 9pm. Clearly it’s onward and upward for Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, and we can only trust 2020 will hold even more surprises and incredible moments.
‘I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This’, by Jeff Goldblum And The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra’, is out this Friday, November 1, through Decca Records. You can stream and download it here.
