August 18, 2023
Since 2017, Cautious Clay has been steadily building a devoted fanbase with his heartfelt songwriting and a unique sound that moves fluidly between pop, alternative R&B, and indie rock. On his deeply personal Blue Note debut KARPEH, the New York based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer also known as Joshua Karpeh takes a giant artistic leap forward with an ambitious yet introspective album about growth, conceptions of intimacy, and lineage that reveals a new side of his artistry by delving deeper than ever into his jazz roots.
Across the album’s 15 tracks Cautious can be heard on vocals, flute, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, guitar, synthesizer, and bass. He also invites a wide range of collaborators into the fold including leading lights of the modern jazz world such as guitarist Julian Lage, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, keyboardist Julius Rodriguez, bassist Joshua Crumbly, and drummer Sean Rickman. Other guests on the album include his uncle, bassist Kai Eckhardt, and the acclaimed Pakistani vocalist Arooj Aftab.
For all of Cautious’ dexterity around multiple instruments, it’s always in service of the music’s narratives. “I wanted it to be musical for the sake of telling a story,” he explains. “Throughout this album, I am equating my life’s journey to an amalgamation of my family’s past life experiences, an exploration of my present, and how those pieces will influence by future.”
Cautious sequenced the album thematically in three sections with interludes throughout containing audio recordings of his family members recounting bits of family history. The first six tracks he calls “The Past Explained” with songs that touch upon his early experiences growing up in Cleveland including the album’s lead single “Ohio.” The song struts to a buoyant fat bassline reminiscent of 1970s-era Isley Brothers as Cautious’ emotive tenor voice floats through a dreamy soundscape with lyrics depicting a young Joshua exploring his options in a vast heartland. The first section also features “Karpehs Don’t Flinch,” a mostly instrumental number that showcases Cautious’ blustery tenor saxophone melodicism. His distinctive saxophone sound is also heard on “The Tide Is My Witness,” a propulsive track featuring Rickman’s invigorating drums.
The middle section of the album is what Cautious calls “The Honeymoon of Exploration.” These five songs depict some of his experiences with psychedelics, which inspired self-reflection and the desire for deeper forms of intimacy with others. The moving ballad “Another Half” expresses this yearning for togetherness and features extraordinary guitar work from Lage; the trippy, reverb soaked, “Glass Face,” which features haunting vocals from Aftab and virtuosic bass work from his uncle Kai; and the poignant “Unfinished House” on which Cautious sings about a house that his paternal grandfather worked on in Washington state but never completed during his lifetime. He explains that the unfinished house became a metaphor for the fraught relationships his grandfather had with his grandmother and their seven children.
The concluding four songs constitute the third thematic section, which Cautious calls “A Bitter & Sweet Solitude.” Cautious posits that when we allow ourselves to spend quality time in solitude it enables us to forge better relationships with ourselves and others, therefore sparking deeper intimacy. This portion contains some of the most unbridled moments of jazz improvisation on the album, including the Lage showcase “Blue Lips,” “Tears of Fate” featuring Cautious’ alluring flute, and the fiery “Yesterday’s Price” on which Cautious’ dynamic tenor saxophone solo leads into a flaring solo by Akinmusire before concluding with an explosive statement by Wilkins. “‘Yesterday’s Price’ is probably the heaviest song on the album,” Cautious states. “The song is about speaking one’s truth and expressing it in the most intimate and rawest form.”
The album closes with the ethereal ballad “Moments Stolen” – a reimagining of Cautious’ song “Stolen Moments” which appeared on his acclaimed 2018 EP Blood Type. The song reiterates the theme of solitude with vulnerable revelations about the fear of intimacy.
