It's late at night. Rain is pouring onto the streets as you park your car and walk inside a dingy bar. Neon lights glare both outside the building and within, posters placed throughout advertising some free poetry jam. It even has a jazz band accompanying it! You walk inside, sit down, drenched in rain, as you get you drink and the lights dim. A woman comes upfront on the tiny stage. She's talking about some "squire for hire", telling people to run on down to see him if he's in their town. You’re not exactly sure what this girl is talking about, but you start to feel funny. From then on, you feel hypnotized. You're not sure if that's just drowsiness from your long day at work finally settling in, or something else entirely. In that moment, you aren't so much concerned with how and when you started feeling they way you did, but just the simple fact that you are feeling this way wraps up your thoughts alongside the soothing melodies being performed. Looking up at the dimly lit stage, it transforms into a revolving door of different acts, strolling on and off the set as the night wears on. The guests come from all walks of life, and you could even swear that one of those guests was some blue haired cartoon character. You chalk that sight up to the drowsiness, of course. No matter what you think you’re seeing, that doesn’t matter as much in your head as the wondrous sounds you’re hearing as they slowly drown out your thoughts. Then, as soon as you realize it, it’s over. You snap back to reality and leave the bar, having a much clearer head as you notice the rain has stopped.
This is the setting I had in mind while listening to the 2003 jazz album Squire for Hire by Nathan Haines. Nathan teams up with Phil Asher on production to bring with them on this musical journey an absolute smorgasbord of acts, hopping from Rich Medina to Vanessa Freeman. 2D shows up on this album on track six, FM. It’s not too surprising that 2D made it onto this record, as this album focuses heavily on collaborations just like his own project does. In addition to jazz, the album also dabbles into electronic beats and many a spoken word piece. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS. I am two albums into my project and I may have found one of my favorite albums ever. That’s pretty amazing by my standards! After a really fun intro, the album dives into several long easy listening pieces with multiple different guests, all of which pull out solid jobs here. The variety certainly works in the album’s favor here. My favorite performer on here was surprisingly not from everybody’s favorite animated singer (as good as FM is), but Rich Medina. He plays a part on two tracks, Springtime Rain and Let it Go, knocking it out of the park on both of them. On Springtime Rain, Medina plays as a narrator describing the seasons outside. The portraits he paints through his words are incredible, describing winter “like a jaded party girl, cold, short on trust and jaded for attention.” He then comes back later in the last fourth of the album in Let it Go, but transforms from narrator to almost father figure, giving tough love to the listener (maybe this so-called squire for hire?), asking if they “really got the brass between [their] legs to stand up and be counted as relevant..” Another favorite of mine is Doot Dude, as I love how the song comes to a gentle halt (can I live this day again?) before picking back up for its second half. Lyric L has a very nice performance here and the beat kinda reminds me of Garage palace some! The 2D feature, FM, covers a Steely Dan song and mixes things up by adding a more guitar focused track to the mix. I adore 2D’s performance here, hitting his falsetto heard before on tracks such as Man Research and Sound Check. If it’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s for a Damon Albarn falsetto.
This album really made me want to look in deeper into Nathan’s other albums, which I’ve heard also lean towards collaborations with a whirlwind of different artists. Every track felt smooth and cool, and I didn’t even notice the length thanks to the longer tracks of the bunch changing things up to keep the track interesting, such as the instrumental Folk Rock. So next time a squire for hire comes to your town, run and meet him! Be taken away by the music in the process.
I give Squire for Hire a 9/10.
Favorite tracks: Doot Dude, Springtime Rain, Let it Go
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