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Pop musicians contemplating a long career would do well to consider the never-stand-still strategy laid down by Elvis Costello.
Costello, an angry New Wave-era power-pop and punk rocker in his youth, has kept both himself and his listeners intrigued through radical phase shifts as a country singer, art-pop composer, bluesy torch singer, operatic song-cycle composer, jazz collaborator and ballet scorer.
On his new concert album, My Flame Burns Blue (Deutsche Grammophon; A-minus), we meet Elvis the big-band belter, fronting a huge orchestra on freshened versions of past pop-noir glories (like "Episode of Blonde," "Watching the Detectives" and "God Give Me Strength"), a few newbies, plus Costello-ized versions of jazz classics by the likes of Charles Mingus (the challenging "Hora Decubitus") and Billy Strayhorn ("Blood Count").
Hey, why should Michael Buble, Rod Stewart and Harry Connick Jr. enjoy a monopoly on big-band cool?
You can detect some of the influences at play here. Pulled from the deep, catalog of Dave Bartholomew (best known for his work with Fats Domino), Elvis stomps through "That's How You Got Killed Before" like Van Morrison on a very good night.
Holland's huge Metropole Orkest is the group of the hour, recorded with Elvis at the North Sea Jazz Festival. But it's the hip and artful arrangements — by the likes of Orkest leader Vince Mendoza (who also richly orchestrated Joni Mitchell classics for her Both Sides Now album and tour), Bill Frisell and Willem Friede and the legendary Sy Johnson — who really get this party swinging and swaying — and will make the show portable.
Costello is about to embark on a short series of U.S. concerts, guesting with local pop orchestras.
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