Singer/Songwriter Frank Jurgens Releases EP

Frank Jurgens learned much of his musical education in piano bars and clubs, teaching himself music along the way and deepening his skill set. He attended the Berklee School of Music, as well, and studied performance during his time as a Hartford Conservatory of Music student. These varied influences, coupled with life experiences, helped transform the New Jersey native into the songwriter and singer we hear today. His Recording Den Sessions EP isn’t an especially lengthy work clocking in with three songs, but the release accomplishes more with those tunes than many others achieve with full length collections. It reflects the results that artistic dedication and innate talent are still capable of reaching.

URL: https://www.frankjurgens.com/

It achieves those results with the first song. “Suppose” is a rollicking and highly intelligent number benefitting from an all-around superb presentation. The arrangement strikes you first – it’s robust and fully realized. Jurgens doesn’t take any short cuts attempting to satisfy listeners and checks every box. There is a distinct retro vibe powering the recording, but it doesn’t sound mired in the past. It’s full of energy and much of it comes from the horns and vocals. Jurgens doesn’t overreach, he doesn’t have to, his singing casts an urgent presence over the track that holds your attention from first line to last.

“What Veronica Wants” has a similar effect. He has a near painterly skill as a lyricist allowing him to fully realize a character for listeners with just the right amount of detail. There’s no overkill. The three songs on Recording Den Sessions have a distinct design relying on piano and brass to drive much of the arrangement, but the drumming sets a tone here as it does in the other two performances. In the end, however, it’s Jurgens’ presence as a vocalist that figures in as the song’s defining element. He has an obvious skill for getting under the skin of a song and inhabiting it as if it were meant for him alone to sing.

The combination of piano and saxophone reaches new heights, however, with the last song “You Could Be the Change”. It differs a little from the previous two in the way that the saxophone takes on the role of accompaniment for much of its first half, but it bursts out of Jurgens’ self-imposed chains in the second part of the song. The soloing near the track’s conclusion is especially inspiring. It’s easy to hear, as well, that Jurgens is having the proverbial time of his life with the material, and it makes for an invigorating listening experience.

Recording Den Sessions announces the arrival of something much more than an excellent interpreter of tradition. Frank Jurgens takes this style and makes it his own, giving lie to any idea that such music cannot prosper in our modern musical world. Three songs may seem like a paltry offering on the surface but delve into these compositions and you’ll be exposed to a musical world you will not soon forget. It’ll leave you wanting more. 

Nicole Killian