Review: bird - 2000+1 Live!

Released: May 23, 2001

Artist: bird

On her 1999 self titled debut, bird introduced Japan to her smooth mix of jazz and R&B. Though she wasn’t the biggest breakout star of the year, she left her mark, and it showed on her sophomore effort, 2000’s MINDTRAVEL. The second time around she boasted a jazzier sound, and the album turned out to be her most popular yet.

Given all of this, it’s no surprise that her first live concert, 2000+1 Live!, would forego the upbeat R&B tunes and replace them with jazz arrangements. In fact, it’s something that worked in the Kyoto native’s favor. Not only is the music better and more engaging, she proved she has the chops to back it up.

The concert opens up with Oashisu, (Oasis) one of the more popular singles from Mindtravel. At first listen it’s a bit hard to recognize the song. The opening acoustic guitar sounds slightly familiar, but it’s hard to place. As the song progresses and all of the parts start to come in, the song is easy to recognize. String arrangements are replaced with an excellent horn section, and a newly added guitar helps to spice things up behind all the other familiar instruments in the song. bird, who may not have one of the most powerful voices, performs beautifully. Her deep tones provide a blissful contrast to the backing jazz tunes, and soulful background singers add an excellent touch to the mix.

Almost all of the songs are redone in this fashion, and some to the point where they’re totally unrecognizable. The powerful, upbeat sounds of her first single, Souls, have been replaced with jazzier beats that continue the mood set by Oashisu. So much so, in fact, that until she begins to sing the beginning to the first verse you have no idea which song she’s about to do. That element of surprise combined with the rock guitar added as a bridge after the third verse makes this a smooth, bittersweet song to listen to. If you could turn this nice rendition into a cup of coffee that you could buy at your local café, your taste buds would be caressed with a warm, rich, creamy yet slightly bitter latte.

Some familiarities do lie among these amazing live renditions. 4PM’s melody is immediately recognizable when the song starts even though it’s accompanied by some bongos before going into the familiar drumbeats and keys.

As great as this album is, it has one shortcoming. One of bird’s more creative singles, Sakura, (Cherry Blossom) originally boasted traditional Asian influences, keys, and a house style beat. The live version has just a piano behind bird. Although it’s still a very nice arrangement, it would have been nice to see all of the traditional elements incorporated into the live version.

Acoustic, intimate, live sets have always had a special place with me, and this one is no exception. Any bird fan will love this amazing concert. Even though Sakura could have been a little more creatively put together, it still doesn’t overshadow the sheer greatness of this concert. A must buy for ANY jazz fan.