Jim White – Inner Day (Drag City) (13th Floor Album Review)
Jim White, a (drumming) force within the experimental music community, has, though his expansive musical endeavors have reached wide and afar, touching such groups as Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Beth Orton and Ed Kuepper.
But perhaps it is as one of the three members of The Dirty Three, whence White most captured attention in Aotearoa, as, throughout 1990s and beyond, they released an unfathomable number of succulent melancholic albums. Their most recent album, 2024’s Love Changes Everything, was a glorious narrative, after a 12 year silence.
Inner Day is Jim White’s second only solo album, his first, All Hits, appeared in 2024, and like its predecessor, Inner Day again sees White displaying his exploration of jazz, free jazz, experimental jazz, synthesising his take on jazz. But Inner Day is not just a mere continuation of All Hits , it sees White venturing to the vocals mic, debuting as the wordsmith. And bringing alongside, Tennessee free jazz musician and composer Zoh Amba, who duets, and plays guitar on one the album’s singles I Don’t Do / Grand Central.
Through the 13 chapters on Inner Day, White’s drumming and keyboard composition, blend his finessed drumming manner with much expressive jazz experimentalism. There are elements of the indie world he so prestigiously dwells in. But truly Inner World is a cathartic body of constructs, engineered by fellow drummer (extraordinaire) Guy Picciotto (of Fugazi fame), producing an album for the reflective time in one’s life, a safe haven from the dire complexities of human foibles.
Simon Coffey
JIM WHITE‘S INNER DAYis out October 24 on Drag City
Drag City: https://www.dragcity.
Bandcamp: https://
Pre-order / Stream “Inner Day“: https://jimwhite.lnk.to/
