It's OK B U is the fourth long-player from L.A.-based keyboardist, composer, and producer
Kiefer. While 2021's
When There's Love Around showcased him along with a jazz band for the first time, this 16-track set is a return to solo playing, beatmaking, and production. The album's selections range from just under five seconds to five-and-a-half minutes. The music is tenderly introspective, lushly melodic, and clean with inventive rhythm tracks framing stellar piano skills. While his last outing registered firmly on the modern side of contemporary jazz (in spiritual and aesthetic kinship with
John Carroll Kirby), this one claims a space on its bleeding edge.
Kiefer is a key part of the current generation of L.A.-area musicians erasing boundaries between jazz, hip-hop, neo-soul, funk, electronic, and pop, calling into question more traditional notions of composition, production, and performance.
Opener "I Could Cry" is just 1:40, but inside that brief span exists a sparkling, midtempo ballad that weds circular beats (breaking out every 25 seconds or so) and a staggered bassline with syncopated keyboards. The piano's chord progression recalls the intro vamp in
Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out." "My Disorder"'s kick drum and snare loop frame a loopy piano melody combining intro, interlude, and outro in a staggered syncopation exchange with striated beats. By contrast, "Dreamer," with its slowly bubbling
Kraftwerkian drum loop, frames a gentle, plodding disco bassline and lilting piano balladry that recalls
Joe Sample's influential phrasing. "Falling" is another laid-back groover with piano chords in a vamp sequence that gets unmade every other measure as pillowy organs and analog synths wash through the backdrop. Multi-instrumentalist/producer
Luke Titus assists on "Head Trip"; it wonderfully and strangely combines junglist beats, a simulated harpsichord progression, hovering woodwinds, and a pulse supplied by an electric bass, creating a reverie adorned by the piano's harmonic through-line and skittering beats. "Hips" is a crystalline nocturnal jazz ballad with a serpentine melody framed in hypnotic beats and handclaps. The bouncy "Doomed" is a peppery piano composition with jagged rhythms and off-kilter piano vamps underscoring a short, propulsive solo. "August Again" is a melancholy summertime groover with a bumping Rhodes piano line and
Mick Fleetwood-esque snare cracking atop a lithe synth pulse that sounds anything but sad. "Glowing Feat" features guest bassist
Pera Krstajic. It's a spectral exercise in layered keyboards with a modal chord framework inside streamlined sexy beats and skittering synths. While the title cut rumbles with spidery Rhodes-driven funk, set-closer "I Mean That" is a bouncy, summertime jazz-funk anthem.
Kiefer hums
Keith Jarrett style atop his buoyant Rhodes groove.
It's OK B U may not break the same creative ground
When There's Love Around did, but it does extend the earlier album's creative discovery in hip compositions, excellent playing, and imaginative production. ~ Thom Jurek
