GOOD MUSIC: BENJAMIN JAFFE | Oh Wild Ocean of Love
I first heard Benjamin Jaffe many years ago in a band called Honey Honey. I was competing against them in a radio station competition. I gave them a listen and thought they sounded great! They ended up winning that competition and getting a record deal with Jude Cole and Keifer Sutherland’s record label, which I think was very well deserved. I didn’t keep contact with their music though. I forgot about them. There’s a lot of really great music going on around us; it wasn’t intentional by any means… it just sort of happened.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I’m at Hotel Cafe for one of the Hootenanny nights they do on the last Monday of every month. It was a fantastic night of music. Everyone was excellent—but for whatever reason, this dude stood out to me in a way that was unforgettable. His songs were mesmerizing… and interesting—unique—I think that’s the right word. He has a beautiful voice. He’s an excellent guitar player—a studied guitar player. I’m watching him play chord inversions and utilizing a lot of the chord vocabulary that I’ve been studying myself for years, so I can see it. I can hear it. On these Hootenanny nights, the artists only play three songs, but that was all it took for me to dig what he was doing. I was hooked. I talked to him afterwards, we exchanged numbers and email. I joined his email list. He told me he was working on a new album. He sent a free download from that album to everyone on his mailing list. It was a song called “Dominator”. This one:
I listened to the hell out of that song. This was all probably in the later portion of 2017. “Dominator” kept me satiated while I waited for that full length. At any rate, he finally released said album. It’s called “Oh Wild Ocean of Love.” It was my favorite album of 2018. Heads and tails above the rest. It’s curious, and fun, and serious, and deep—like a Kurt Vonnegut novel. He’ll make me laugh in the middle of a serious song. I can relate to him. Did I mention he’s an excellent lyricist as well? He is.
I could sit here a wax poetic about his music—but instead I just urge you to pop this album on while you’re driving your car by yourself. I sat in traffic for hours on end listening to this beautiful piece of work. My desire is that you will get nearly as much joy from it as I did. It’s an album. It’s not a single. It’s not two tracks you love—and skip, skip, skip. It’s good art. It’s good music.
You can find WILD OCEAN OF LOVE everywhere where streaming music is available. You can also purchase his album if you fancy.
