Back in 2021, Baltimore-based pianist and vocalist David Anthony Zee stepped away from the singer-songwriter movement to gaze back on the origins of jazz pop, in an album titled, AfterTime. Now, for its fifth anniversary, we’re here to revive the hype for this album of reminiscence, produced in collaboration with Noel Paul Stookey, a name who fans might recall from his own band, Peter Paul and Mary.
This isn’t your standard jazz pop record, or even the collection of old-school covers you’re likely anticipating. As David Anthony Zee tells us himself:
“The songs of AfterTime come from the 1920s through the 1950s. All-but-forgotten artists like The Boswell Sisters and the Four Freshmen, plus more well-known personalities, were the original recording artists. But AfterTime arrangements are not like the original versions…”
Ten flashback tracks with a vibrant twist – some would argue music could hardly get better than that.
From the blues standard, ‘Everybody Loves My Baby’ to the newly Latin-infused ‘50s piece, ‘Time After Time,’ this album even features a Noel Paul Stookey original titled, ‘Whatserhame’ – a song initially debuted on Noel’s own Peter, Paul and Mary project, now reinvented by David Anthony Zee’s retro-pop-jazz band.
Performed by frontman David Anthony Zee, bassist Mike Burd and drummer Josh Fournier, under the direction of producer Noel Paul Stookey, it’s not just the songs which come flooded with rich meaning, but the story behind the album itself. David Anthony Zee tells us…
“Around 2008, Noel suggested a new project: he wanted to produce me in a collection of updated jazz songs from the 1920s through 50s that had been all but forgotten over the years.”
David jumped on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, revealing:
“The resulting collection, AfterTime, brought me from my acoustic guitar explorations back to the piano-bass-drums format I had started with, except this time the bass was an upright and not electric, resulting in more organic, lowkey, jazzy textures. Noel dubbed the mixed genre project ‘Retro/Pop/Jazz,’ and I thought that description sounded just right.”
So, if you’re ready for a time-travelling extravaganza of sound, where the very roots of pop music merge with the light of hindsight in our contemporary age, AfterTime is the record for you. Our final verdict? Recommended.
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