Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - Between My Head & The Sky

An instant karmic cacophony

Musical director Sean Lennon has described his mum’s new album as “a tornado of inspiration”, revealing that the 15 songs were written and recorded in less than a week – six in a single afternoon, at one stage. Naysayers may be tempted to use such information as a stick with which to beat Ono, suggesting there was little time for quality control, but the immediacy and spontaneity of the project reaps dividends.

Several of these songs were showcased at Ono’s spellbinding show at London’s Royal Festival Hall as part of the Ornette Coleman-curated Meltdown festival, and there’s a clear jazz musician’s bent to the freeform experimentation of the music, not least the disjointed rhythms of Hashire Hashire and Waiting For The D Train. Elsewhere, Sean opts for minimalist backing to the abstract poetry of Feel The Sand and the gentle farewell I’m Going Away Smiling, the latter performed at Meltdown by Antony Hegarty.

Ono will always be dismissed as pretentious by some, but she’s often genuinely witty and never shy of sending herself up, as on Ask The Elephant (“Why is he soooo big? That’s because you’re so small, honey!”). Few 76-year-olds approach their work with such courage and unquenchable curiosity.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Chimera Music | CHIM 01 CD

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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