Kevin West

All music is some kind of fusion. It's the entropic nature of the art form. The blending of influences. If the album in question is stylistically congruent with its genre, the sources of the influence will be pretty similar. If a wholly new genre is being formed then wildly disparate styles are made to coalesce, picking up tricks from each influence and peppering them in to create a new nebulous entity. However, sometimes a “fusion” album will be the result of the player simply being deeply into two very different kinds of music and having each song adhere to a specific style and just making drastic left turns every now and again.

Jazz and Americana are two styles that are quintessentially American. Both have roots in the rural south but made their way to the metropolitan north and yet they don't naturally go together. Jazz has its syncopated swing while country roots music keeps it four on the floor. Jazz jumps all over the melodic map with all manner of chord changes and modal meddling, Americana is happy to stay in one key with four chords making it “unnecessarily complicated”. On Story of My Life, Kevin West displays his love for both styles with the first part of the album entrenched in classic Americana storytelling while the second half shows off his jazz chops. It's hard to call this a fusion album, rather a Part A and Part B.

Opener 'Best of Mine' has a classic 'cruising down the highway' shuffle, highlighted by a mood-setting organ. 'One Too Many' tells a Randy Newman style first-person account of the all too familiar alcoholic night cycle. The shuffle returns for 'My Only Sunshine' which is given light by the sunny slide guitar.

The title track is the only true “fusion” track which makes it the album's most intriguing. West's swaying end of the night at the local bar vibe is half country, half city thanks to the addition of bare backroom trumpets and a noodling jazz guitar that shows a much more impressive talent than the rest of the album leads on. 'Story of My Life' is where West really comes into his own, creating something refreshing and new, despite its familiar markers. The album concludes with a full-on jazz number, leaving the final lyrical statement to the title track.

Although it's just a six-song EP, Story of My Life feels like two pieces. The Americana album and the jazz album. There is plenty of room for interesting work in that space in-between. This album seems like a precursor to the crucible of sounds to come.