I've also got to mention Hoop's strange and sensual word play on the likes of "Feast of the Heart" and "Murder of Birds," the one that opens with an exotic Malian guitar and declares, "I've got demons when I need 'ems."
And I love (as if you couldn't guess) the gear-shifting in "Bed Across the Sea," wherein Jesca begs a faraway lover to "drop me in your virtual garden."
No surprise, the woman had an unusual upbringing, raised on Mormon hymns, rebelling as a runaway Deadhead, later given career guidance by Tom Waits and wife Kathleen Brennen while serving as nanny for their kids.
Hoop dunks 'em on Friday at the WXPN "Free at Noon" concert series at World Cafe Live. Sign up for free admission at www.xpn.org.
INSTANT CLASSICS: Fresh, horn-blasted soul music has gotten harder to come by on this side of the big pond. But U.K. funkmasters Incognito, led by Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick, are keeping the sound alive and well on "Transatlantic R.P.M." (Shanachie, B+) with a kick that could rouse even Philly groovemasters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff from their semiretirement.
There are almost too many riches among the 16 tracks on Incognito's 30th anniversary celebration. Chaka Khan helps jump start the set with a terrific cover of Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown." And equal to that mission are Bluey's good-time original "Your Sun My Sky" (with vocal by Maysa), the string-bedecked dance floor come-on "Let's Fall in Love Again" (vocal by John-Christian Urich, aka Tortured Soul), Philly poet Ursula Rucker's half sung/half spoken "Gotta" and Bluey's name-dropping trip down memory lane, "1975."
