June 2010Issue 326

now in our 36th year

www.jazz-blues.com

rep

ort

&bluesjazz

2010

Summer

Festivals

Part One

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE TWO

Editor & Founder Bill Wahl

Layout & Design Bill Wahl

Operations Jim MartinPilar Martin

Contributors

Michael Braxton, Mark Cole, KellyFerjutz, Nancy Ann Lee, Peanuts,Matt Simpson, Wanda Simpson,Mark Smith, Dave Sunde, JoergUnger, Duane Verh, Emily Wahland Ron Weinstock.

Comments...billwahl@ jazz-blues.com

Web .................. www.jazz-blues.com

Copyright © 2010 Jazz & Blues Report

No portion of this publication may bereproduced without written permissionfrom the publisher. All rights Reserved.

Founded in Buffalo New York in March of1974; began in Cleveland edition in April of1978. Now this global e-zine edition isposted online monthlyat www.jazz-blues.com

Check out our constantly updatedwebsite. Now you can search for CD

Reviews by artists, titles, recordlabels, keyword or JBR Writers. 15

years of reviews are up and we’ll begoing all the way back to 1974.

"Buffalonious"

Our original mascotfrom the very earlyBuffalo Jazz Report

days – mid '70s.He is older now,

but global &still very cool!

www.jazz-blues.com

2010

Summer

Festivals

Part One

James Moody Photos by Ron Weinstock

There are frankly too many jazz and blues festivals to preview all ofthem, but it would seem appropriate to highlight ‘some’ of the more sig-nificant ones taking place in the US and Canada this summer.

June 3 to 6, the Western Maryland Blues Festival returns toHagerstown with Hamilton Loomis and Bernard Allison on Friday June 4;Kenny Neal, Eric Lindell, Trombone Shorty, Michael Burks and TommyCastro on Saturday June 5; and a family Picnic with Eden Brent and CoreyHarris & Phil Wiggins on Sunday June 6. The shows take place downtownHagerstown, Maryland except the Sunday picnic at City Hall Park. Formore information, check out http://www.blues-fest.org.

The DC Jazz Festival (formerly the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival) re-turns to the Nation’s capital with events taking place between June 1 andJune 13. The Festival will have concerts through the city as well as part-ner with clubs and museums for various events. There will be a stellarline-up of talent from around the globe including such celebrated artistsas Paquito D’Rivera; Dianne Reeves; the Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band;

By Ron Weinstock

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE THREE

Roy Hargrove

Roberta Gambarini

the Roy Hargrove Big Band; James Moody; ClaudioRoditi; Edmar Castaneda; Michael Philip Mossman;Akua Dixon and Quartette Indigo; the Berklee WorldJazz Nonet; Roberta Gambarini; the Marshall KeysQuartet; the Marian Petrescu Quartet featuring AndreasOberg; Tony Madruga, Uri Gurvich; and many others.

Among signature performances will be Janine Gillat the Phillips Collection on June 3 for a special PhillipsCollection After 5. June 4, as part of the Jazz in theHoods will feature Trumpeter Thad Wilson at the Madi-son Hotel; the Felicia Carter Quartet at the MandarinOriental; and Stanley Clarke with Hiromi at Blues Alley.

June 6 and 7 will be Jazz’n’Families Fun Day at thePhillips Collection with featured performers includingthe Berklee World Jazz Nonet, Brad Lind, George V.Johnson, Janelle Gill, Reginald Cyntje, the DC JazzCollaborative, Susan Priester, and Victor Provost, asone can listen to jazz and view Renoir, Pablo Picasso,Georgia O’Keefe, Marc Rothko, and many others.

Tuesday, June 8, the Festival presents A Tribute toOscar Peterson at the 6th and I Historic Synagogue byMarian Petrescu Quartet w/ Special Guest AndreasOberg.†

Thursday, June 10th will be one of the signatureevents at the Lincoln Theater, NEA Jazz Masters LiveConcert with All-Star tribute to James Moody featuringthe Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars,†and special guests ReginaCarter, Roy Hargrove, Roberta Gambarini & NEA JazzMasters Kenny Barron and Paquito D’Rivera.

Friday, June 11 will feature Jazz Under the Stars atthe Carter Barron Amphitheatre with some great Latinjazz including the world - renowned Poncho SanchezLatin Jazz Band and Colombian Jazz harpist EdmarCastaneda, with special guest Paquito D’ Rivera.

Saturday June 12, they highlight will be two showsat George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium:a free afternoon show with Claudio Roditi Quartet (Bra-zil) & the Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band and an tick-eted evening show with Dianne Reeves and the RoyHargrove Big Band, with special guest RobertaGambarini. On Sunday, the signature Festival event willbe two performances at the Kennedy Center, PaquitoD’Rivera Presents The Jelly Roll Morton Latin TingeProject with Paquito D’Rivera, Michael Philip Mossman,Akua Dixon & Quartette Indigo and Pernell Santurino.Pat Martino is at Blues Alley and the Dizzy Gillespie AllStars with Cryus Chestnutt, are at Bohemian Gardensthis weekend part of the many shows under the Jazz inthe Hoods umbrella For more information, contact theFestival’s website, http://www.dcjazzfest.org.

That same weekend, the Washington area hosts theTinner Hill Blues Festival in Falls Church, Virginia.

Thursday night, June 10, at the State Theatre in FallsChurch the Festival opens with Chuck Brown Sings TheBlues, where the King of Go Go will join the stage withDC’s Blues Legend Bobby Parker. Nadine Rae willopen.

Other vents include a panel on Saturday Morning,June 12, at City Hall Park, near the Cherry Hill Farm-house, Red, Black and Blues: Native Americans, Afri-can Americans and their shared blues musical tradi-

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE FOUR

tions with Dr. Ron Welburn, Elaine Bomberry, Pura Fe.Lee Gates, Murray Porter and Corey Harris. Starting at1:00PM will be a free festival in the Park with PattyReese; M.S.G. The Acoustic Trio; Murray Porter; CoreyHarris & Phil Wiggins; Big Daddy Stallings, Pura Feand Clarence ‘Bluesman‘ Turner. There will be show-ings of the film “John Jackson: A Blues Treasure” anda cd release party for the Smithsonian-Folkways releaseof John Jackson’s Rappahannock Blues, culled fromhundreds of performances. Sunday, June 13 will be aBlues Brunch and Jam at Bangkok Blues. For more in-formation, visit http://www.tinnerhill.org/blues.

The Chicago Blues Festival takes place June 11to 13th in Grant Park, put on by the Mayor’s Office ofSpecial Events and this year will celebrate the cente-naries of Howlin’ Wolf and Sunnyland Slim. The freefestival will have performers on June 11 that includeHenry Gray, Jimmy Dawkins with Tail Dragger, BigGeorge Brock, Grady Champion, Sam Lay, Howlin’ WolfAlumni, Otis Taylor, James Cotton with special guestMatt Murphy. Saturday June 12 the acts include, NoraJean, Andre Williams, Sugar Blue, Sonny Rhodes,Honeyboy Edwards, Nellie ‘Tiger’ Travis, Bobby Parker,and Chicago Blues a Living history with Billy Boy Arnold,Billy Branch, John primer, Lurrie Bell and special guestCarlos Johnson. Sunday, June 13 the performers in-clude: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Guitar Shorty, Roy Rob-erts with Barbara Carr, Jimmy Duck Holmes & Terry‘Harmonica’ Bean, Bobby Rush, Homemade Jamz,Elwin Helfer ’s Chicago Boogie Woogie Ensemble,Vivian and Vance Kelly and the Chicago Blues Reunionwith Barry Goldberg, Corky Siegel, Nick Gravenites,Harvey Mandel, Sam Lay and Charlie Musselwhite. Formore information on the world’s biggest Blues Festivalsee http://www.chicagofestivals.net/category/city-of-chicago-festivals/blues-festival.

CareFusion New York Jazz Festival takes placeat venues throughout New York City between June 17and June 26. Highlights include June 17 Keith Jarrett,Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette at Carnegie Hall; SunRa Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen at The StudioMuseum in Harlem and Craig Taborn at the Jazz Gal-lery.

Friday June 18 has The Jazz Gallery All-Stars withRoy Hargrove, Claudia Acuna, Ambrose Akinmusire,Lage Lund, Gerald Clayton, Ben Williams and PedroMartinez Peter Norton Symphony Space and BitchesBrew Revisited, part of Celebrate Brooklyn! Perform-ing Arts Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell. Saturday,

June 19 highlights include Howard Alden, AnatCohen, Marion Felder, David Ostwald, Randy Sandkeat the Louis Armstrong House Museum and The Drum-heads with Ben Monder, Jaime Affoumado, DiegoVoglino Victor Bailey Group Alex Blake Quartet Pup-pets Jazz Bar.

Sunday, June 20 includes Father’s Day Celebra-tion with Winard Harper Group at The Schomburg Cen-ter for Research in Black Culture.

On Monday, June 20, the John Tchicai Group willbe at Zebulon while on Tuesday June 21, Jon Faddis

with Howard Alden, Gene Bertoncini, Romero Lubambo,Russell Malone at Peter Norton Symphony Space,Eddie Palmier i Y La Perfecta I I at Ci ty ParksFoundation’s Soundview Park and The Genius of JoaoGilberto at Carnegie Hall.

Wednesday June 23 will have McCoy Tyner Quar-tet featuring Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding andFrancisco Mela / Stanley Clarke Band featuring HiromiCity Parks Foundation’s Central Park SummerStage,Sidney Bechet Society Presents An Evening in NewOrleans with Evan Christopher, John Allred, Ari Rolandand Eli Yamin and Leonard Nimoy Thalia @ PeterNorton Symphony Space and Charles Gayle Trio atZebulon.

Thursday June 24 highlight is the Carnegie HallHerbie Hancock, Seven Decades: The Birthday Cel-ebration Herbie Hancock with special guests TerenceBlanchard / Bill Cosby / Joe Lovano / Wayne Shorter.

Friday June 25 the festival will present HarlemStride: Henry Butler Osmany Paredes at the HarlemStage Gatehouse.

Saturday June 26 Anat Cohen is at the Jazz Stan-dard. More informat ion can be found at ht tp: / /www.carefusionjazz.com/ which also has information onthe August 6-8 Carefusion Newport Jazz Festival.

In Canada

Many of Canada’s major cities have concurrent jazzfestivals between late June and early July. Many per-formers will travel to several of these events.

TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival (June 24-July 4) will Remember Rob McConnell and have per-formances by Maceo Parker, Herbie Hancock, HarryConnick, Jr., Taj Mahal Trio, Allen Toussaint, KeithJarrett, Gary Peacock & Jack DeJohnette, NikkiYanofsky and Roy Hargrove Big Band. For more infor-mation check http://torontojazz.com.

The Calgary Jazz Festival is from June 21-27 andperformers include Cedar Walton, Terry Clarke Trio,Poncho Sanchez, JP Carter, Andre Leroux, ChickCorea, the Budos Band with Toshi Reagon. For moreinformation check http://www.calgaryjazz.com/sched-ule.

The Edmonton International Jazz Festival runsJune 25 through July 4 and performers include ChickCorea, Nicky Yanofsky, John Pizzarel l i , JoshuaRedman, Bill Frissell, Andre, Edmonton Jazz Orches-tra and Leroux, and Tomasz Stanko. For more informa-tion see http://www.edmontonjazz.com/cms/Home/tabid/1757/language/en-US/Default.aspx.

TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival fromJune 25 through July 4 with performers includingSonny Rollins (a prelude concert on June 23), RaulMidon & Toshi Reagon, Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials;Roy Hargrove Quintet with guest Christian Scott, MarcoBenevento Trio; Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes,Terence Blanchard & the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra,

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE FIVE

Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm, and NikkiYanofsky. For more informat ion see ht tp: / /www.jazzwinnipeg.com/home.

TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Fes-tival from June 25 through July 4 featuring TromboneShorty, Etiene Charles and Folklore, Bill Frisell, HerbieHancock, Dick Hyman -Peter Appleyard Duo, DaveSanborn Trio featuring Joey DeFrancesco, ChristineJensen Jazz Orchestra Featuring Ingrid Jensen, KennyGarrett, Robert Glasper, John Scofeld and the PietyBand, Modeski Martin & Wood, Globe Unity Orchestra,Jo Lovano UsFive, Roy Hargrove Big Band, GeorgeBenson, Javon Jackson with Les McCann, Fred Hersch,Dave Brubeck, Christian Scott and Richard Bona. Formore Information see http://ottawajazzfestival.com.

TD Vancouver Jazz Festival from June 25 to July4 with featured acts including Barry Guy/ Michel Gagne- Fixed Fragmented Fluid, Susanna & The Magical Or-chestra and Samuel Hallkvist Center, Karin Plato Trio,Van Django, George Benson, Alex van SchlippenbachTrio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens, Chick Corea,Terry Clarke Trio, Globe Unity Orchestra, Bill Frisell,Toshi Reagon, Acoustic Trio with Kenny ‘Blues Boss’Wayne, Dawn Pembertown, Nicole Mitchell/ Lisa KayMiller/ Peggy Lee, Tomas Stanko, Tord Gustavsen,Stanley Clarke with Hiromi, Scott Hamilton, MeshellNdegeocello, Nikki Yanofsky, John Pizzarelli, and GeoffMuldaur & Jim Kweskin. For more information see http://www.coastaljazz.ca.

TD Victoria International JazzFest from June 25to July 4 with such acts as George Benson, KellyleeEvans, Maureen Washington, Joshua Redman, BillCharlap/Renee Rosnes, Susanna and the Magical Or-chestra, Cuica Nova, Franca Masu, Raul Midon, JohnScofeld, Barry Guy Maya Homburger Duo, Bill Frissell,Toshi Reagon, Stanley Clarke with Hiromi, Mike Stern,Bria Skonberg, Andre Leroux, Nikki Yanofsky, and JohnPizzarelli. For more information check out http://jazzvictoria.ca.

Festival International de Jazz de Montreal(Montreal Jazz Festival) will mark its 31st Editionfrom June 25 to July 6. Performers include Gil ScottHeron, Lionel Ritchie & Cassandra Wilson (as part ofthe Gala), Vija Iver, Bitches Brew Revisited, DavidSanborn Trio featuring Joey DeFrancesco, Paulo Fresu& Ralph Towner, Manhattan Transfer, David Sanchez,Nikki Yanofsky, Houston Person featur ing Jul ieLamontagne Trio, An Evening with Sonny Rollins, MikeStern Band, Herbie Hancock, Harry Manx, MarcoBenevento, Smokey Robinson, Viv Vogel, The Fabu-lous Thunderbirds, Taj Mahal, Roy Hargrove Big Bandwith Roberta Gambarini, Wallace Roney, ChristineJensen Jazz Orchestra Featuring Ingrid Jensen,FranÁois Bourassa, Geoffrey Keezer, Gypsy Planet,John Zorn, Terence Blanchard, Corky Siegel’s Cham-ber Blues, George Benson, Robert Glasper withTerence Blanchard, David Reinhardt, Laurie Anderson,Lou Reed and John Zorn, Jack DeJohnette, Ahmad

Jamal, John Scofeld, Robert Glasper Quartet with Bilal,Keith Jarrett Gary Peacock & Jack DeJohnette, TordGustavsen, Allen Toussaint (solo), Gipsy Kings, SteveMiller Band, Dave Brubeck, Allen Toussaint, Bright Mis-sissippi with Nicholas Payton, Don Byron and others.At the time this was written the outdoor blues, jazz andother concerts had not been announced which includesworld legendary acts. Also, an exhibition, We WantMiles, Miles Davis vs Jazz will be in a middle of a runat the Musee du Beaux-Arts de Montreal (It runs throughAugust 8). This is the first major North American multi-media retrospective devoted to the jazz legend andicon. For more informat ion, ht tp: / /www.montrealjazzfest.com/default-en.aspx.

17th Festival International du Blues deTremblant (Tremblant International Blues Festival)takes place July 9 to 18, in Mont Tremblant, Que-bec, about an hour and half drive north of Montreal.Performers for the featured shows include AnthonyGomes, Bernard Adamus, Bobby Bazini, JanivaMagness, Mark Hummell & Mike Morgan, Ronnie BakerBrooks, Roy Rogers & the Delta Rhythm Kings, TommyCastro and Zachary Richard. This multi-stage event hasyet to announce the full line-up. For more informationcheck http://www.tremblantblues.com/home.

Back in the USA...

The 26th Mississippi Valley Blues Festival takes

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE SIX

Mavis Staples

Chick Willis

place July 2 to 4 at the Davenport, Iowa riverfront.One of the oldest continuous blues festivals it is put onby the Mississippi Valley Blues Society. This year’s fes-tival will feature 28 acts over three days. Performersscheduled include Li’l Ed and the Blues Imperials, AnaPopovic, Zac Harmon, Vasti Jackson, Rosie Ledet,Ruthie Foster, Billy Branch and the Sons of the Blues,Shawn Kellerman, Lucky Peterson, The LegendaryBlues Cruise Revue featuring Tommy Castro andDebbie Davies, Dave Riley and Bob Corritore, and TheNighthawks with Hubert Sumlin. It opens Friday July 2,will be a tribute to descendants of blues legends, fea-turing Mud Morganfield, Bernard Allison, Little PinkAnderson, Caroline Shines, Lurrie Bell, and ShirleyKing. For more information check out http://mvbs.org/and the festival site, http://mvbs.org/fest.

Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival takes placeJuly 2 through July 5 in Portland, Oregon. The Festi-val is the Oregon Food Bank’s major fundraiser andover the course of the Four Days will feature a widerange of performers including Taj mahal, John Mayall,Booker T, Bobby Rush, Galactic with Cyril Neville, JJGrey & Mofro, Chris Thomas King, Commander Cody,Curtis Salgado, trombone Shorty, Michael Burks Bandwith Lucky Peterson, Walter Trout, Cedric Burnside &Lightnin’ Malcolm, Moreland & Arbuckle, Super Chikan,Janiva Magness, Paul Cebar Curely Taylor & ZydecoTrouble, Corey Ledet, Andre Thierry and much muchmore. There are also Delta Music Experience Cruisesassociated with the Festival and much more. For moreinformation, see http://www.waterfrontbluesfest.com.

The 19th Pocono Blues Festival takes place atBig Boulder Resort in Lake Harmony PA, July 23-25. One of the premier blues events it presents 20 realdeal blues acts including World Class Headliners, actsthat rarely come to the Middle Atlantic and Northeastand other lesser known acts on two mountain stagesand a tent stage. Friday evening July 23 will presentJimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes, Johnny Rawls and Lady Bianca.Saturday July 24 will present Wanda Johnson, MarquiseKnox, Veronika Jackson, Roy Roberts Barbara Carr &

AJ Diggs, Chick Willis, Johnny Bassett, Theodis Ealey,CJ Chenier, and the Chicago Blues Legends (PinetopPerkins, Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith, Bob Stroger, HubertSumlin and Bob Margolin). On Sunday, July 25 one willsee The Campbell Brothers, Diana Braitwaite with ChrisWhit ley Band, Alabama Mike, The FabulousThunderbirds, Joe Krown Trio (Walter ‘Wolfman’ Wash-ington and Russell Batiste), Homemade Jamz, andMavis Staples. WIth the ski slopes serving as the back-drop, this is my favorite blues festival with its mix ofblues and a wonderful setting. For more informationcheck www.poconoblues.com.

We will have information on more festivals in thenext issue of Jazz & Blues Report.

Read The Review

LIVE BLUES ON

THE HIGH SEAS

www.jazz-blues.comclick the Notable’ button

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE SEVEN

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE EIGHT

This photo of Gary Bartz captured by

Ron Weinstock at the 2008 Duke Ellington Jazz

Festival is just one of hundreds of Ron’s photos

you can view online

at www.flickr.com/photos/novaron

LIKE JAZZ & BLUES PHOTOS?

BY MARK SMITH We only bring you

the Cream of the Crop!New Release blues.... Magic Slim & the Tear-drops- Raising the Bar; Robert Cray- Authorized Boot-leg: Austin, Tx 5/25/87; Jon Spencer Blues Explo-sion- Dirty Shirt Rock’ N Roll: The First Ten Years;Shakura S’Aida- Brown Sugar; Jason Elmore &Hoodoo Witch- Upside Your Head; Jeff Healey- LastCall; Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King- Have BluesWill Travel; John Mayall- Blues Express; JohnNemeth- Name the Day!; Elvin Bishop- Red DogSpeaks; Mick Taylor- Live In Leverkusen; MississippiHeat- Lets Live It Up!; Rick Derringer- The ThreeKings of the Blues; Mark Hummel- Retroactive; TadRobinson- Back In Style; Mel Waiters- Live in En-gland; Watermelon Slim- Ringers; Buddy Guy- DJPlay My Blues; Peter Parcek- Mathmatics of Love;James Blood Ulmer- inandout; Karen Carroll- Talkto the Hand; Steve Freund- Lonesome Flight; JeffTurmes- Five Horses, Four Riders; Harper- Stand To-gether; Jason King Band- Blue Skies & Black Shoes;The Bluesmasters featuring Mickey Thomas;Jimmy Warren Band- No More Promises; Phil Gates-Addicted to the Blues; Julius Pittman and the Re-vival- Bucket List; Rocky Jackson- Testify!

SHAKURA S’AIDABrown SugarRUF RECORDS

Born in Brooklyn, raised in Switzerland and long aresident in Toronto, Ontario, Shakura S’Aida, is an inter-national artist whose involvement in the Canadian musicscene has been ongoing for the past 30 years, enrichingthe jazz, blues and classic R&B communities with her soul-ful voice, enthusiastic personality and commitment tomusic as an art form. Recently signed to Ruf Records,she has a new disc, “Brown Sugar,” that certainly will es-tablish her as a significant vocalist.

Her strengths as a singer are immediately evident on“Mr Right,” as she sings about her man “Can’t be my Mr.Right, cause you doing me wrong.” Her voice and phras-ing is spot on, soulful with a somewhat dry delivery andlittle vibrato. More can be heard on the next track, “WalkOut That Door,” where her jazzy background is evident inher seemingly off-the cuff approach which serves to high-light when she belts out a line. And she is backed on thisby a terrific band of guitarist Donna Grantis (what a first-rate player she is), Lance Anderson on organ, Rick Steffon keyboards, Steve Potts on drums, and Dave Smith onbass. Grantis, like S’Aida, is a revelation, who has a won-derful tone and who’s playing works off S’Aida’s vocals,like on the brooding ”Gonna Tell My Baby.”

Most of this CD are originals from the pens of S’Aidaand Grantis and maybe its because the performances areso good, but when she tears into the soulful ballad “BreakYour Heart,” one knows things are special. With so manymusical peaks here, the highpoint may be “Angels onHigh,” as she sings about needs to find faith and find anew start as she asks them to help her stop and cry andknow when it is all right again.” She is donating proceedsof downloads of this track to benefit Haitian earthquakerelief.

This is among the best recordings this writer has heard

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE NINE

so far in 2010. I have already mentioned the superb musi-cians here and the fine material. Kudos also need to beextended to Jim Gaines for his overseeing this terrific re-cording that display what a fabulous singer Shakura S’Aidais and a voice that fans of the blues and related musicalgenres will becoming familiar with soon.

Ron Weinstock

BLUESLANDA Portrait in

American MusicMasters of American Music

EUROARTS DVDEuro-Arts has reissued on

CD the 1993 documentary,Bluesland that was part of theAmerican Masters series. Amix of performances (some inshort clips), interviews andcommentary from punditsRober t Palmer and Alber tMurray, was an exploration of

blues music as both a musical idiom and it’s transforma-tion as a way of coping with the things in everyday lifethat give one the blues.

The mixing of quotes from Willie Dixon and OtisSpann, clips of performances and recordings and thepundits interpretations (and Murray and Palmer have verydistinct perspectives). Palmer terms W.C. Handy the fa-ther of the blues industry while Murray refers to him asfather who helped the music spread and regards it as partof jazz. This perspective can be discerned by their writ-ings on blues as well as their comments here. Palmer dealswith the facts of the people playing blues while Murray ismore about the allegorical aspects of blues.

The ideology is tied together by a narration from ac-tor Avery Brooks and has bits and performances fromBessie Smith, Lonnie Johnson (great blues ballad fromTV) and recordings from Charlie Patton and LouisArmstrong. The classic recording of the latter’s “West EndBlues,” precedes Murray distinguishing folk art and fineart in the blues idiom, which leads to minimizing theachievement of the “folk” bluesman. So Basie epitomizesthe blues as fine art, as a video of “One O’Clock Jump,”is shown, but at the same time the Basie Band and vocal-ist Jimmy Rushing (seen singing) had a definite impacton B.B. King.

The perspectives of Murray and Palmer have pointsof agreement as opposed to those of disagreement, bothmaking cogent observations. Palmer, noting some bluesis described as primitive suggests that Mozart, with itsvery simple rhythm, might be called primitive, seguesinto Murray’s discussion of African talking drums. Re-gardless of whether one is more sympathetic to Murrayor Palmer, “Bluesland,” provides an enlightening over-view of blues music and it’s expression within jazz. It re-mains fresh and educating over a decade and a half afterit’s initial broadcast. Recommended. Ron Weinstock

jazz-blues.com

COUNT BASIESwingin the Blues

Masters of American MusicEUROARTS DVD

Among the recent reissues from the Masters of Ameri-can Music video series is one “Swingin’ the Blues,” devotedto Count Basie, the great big band leader and pianist. Issuedby EuroArts on the Lower 5th imprint, it presents the nearhour appreciation of Count Basie with some choice videoclips and interview recollections by Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison,Al Grey, Illinois Jacquet, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, EarleWarren, Claude Williams, Joe Williams and Albert Murray(who co-authored Basie’s autobiography), along with a num-ber of interview clips of the Count himself.

Additionally, there are a number of performance clipsfrom Basie himself from several periods of his career whichfeature Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis,and Lester Young. The sources range from the soundies (anamusing Rushing performance of “Take Me Bake Baby,” afilm short (the clip of Young is from the classic film “TheBlues”), and television (Basie with Judy Garland).

The mix of recollections and oral history with the clipshelps us understand the development of the Basie sound asBasie remembers how he came to Kansas City and gradu-ally put together his own band and Jay MCShann remem-bers Basie and his band and the impact they had. Earle War-ren, Edison, Williams and Tate recall there time with the band(Williams ironically recalling that John Hammond had himlet go from Basie at a time when Claude was highly regardedas a guitarist) and the personalities including Lester Young,and Buck Clayton as well as how Basie could set the tenor ofa number with just one note, the use of the two tenors, andthe All American rhythm section. Murray adds his own per-spective on Basie’s place in the music.

This documentary then traces how Basie had to disbandthe big band for a sextet before gradually bringing back thebig band and the new personnel and sounds with arrange-ments from the likes of Neal Hefti, Frank Wess and FrankFoster and numerous new legendary soloists like LockjawDavis and Al Grey.

Joe Williams recalls how Basie asked him to join theband, which he agreed to so long as he did not to do any ofJimmy Rushing’s material. And he brought Basie an oldMemphis Slim tune, “Everyday I Have the Blues,” that helpedreignite Basie’s profile. And that led to more commercialsuccesses as well as partnerships with Frank Sinatra, SammyDavis, Jr., and others.

Like others in the Masters of Modern American Musicseries, “Count Basie; Swingin’ the Blues,” fleshes out a mu-sical icon in a most entertaining and informative manner.

Ron Weinstock

Issues, Special Issues, Back Issues and

Thousands of CD & DVD Reviews

& More Cool Stuff In The Works!

www.jazz-blues.com

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE TEN

KIRK ELI FLETCHERMy Turn

ELECTRO GROOVEAt the relatively young age of 35, Kirk Fletcher cer-

tainly has established himself as a blues guitarist. He maybe familiar to some from his recent stint with The Fabu-lous Thunderbirds, or perhaps some know him from hiswork with Janiva Magness, Charlie Musselwhite or LynwoodSlim, or as a member of The Manish Boys. Originallymentored by Al Blake of the Hollywood Fats Band he alsowas taken under the wing by veteran guitarist JuniorWatson. He debuted on CD on a JSP album, followed by a2003 release, “Shades of Blue” that Delta Groove reissuedin 2004. Now in 2010, he has a new recording “My Turn,”on Delta Groove’s “Electro Groove,” subsidiary that showshis growth as a guitarist who continues to display a crisp,dazzling attack but who has matured and incorporated moreelements into his playing, but the foundation is a bluescore.

From the opening rocking “El Medio Stomp” he andhis studio band kick things off and his twangy, twistinglines ride the groove. He sings some here, such as the veryamiable take on Jimmy Reed’s “Found Love,” but alsosaxophonist Paulie Cerra takes the vocal on JimmieJohnson’s rousing shuffle “Ain’t No Way,” sounding some-what like Finis Tasby. Travis Carlton, son of guitarist LarryCarlton, plays bass on three tracks, including the funkytitle track that he penned with Cerra and keyboardist LukeMiller, with Cerra getting things going with some greasysax before Fletcher takes flight with his guitar. Cerra takesthe vocal on Sonny Landreth’s “Congo Square,” which iscredited as traditional with Fletcher as arranger. Fletcherdoes take the tempo down slightly from other renditions,and this again gives him a chance to stretch out. TaylorCarlton joins again on bass for The Crusaders’ “Way BackHome” (Larry Carlton played on the original), which openswith a terrific bit of soul-jazz sax from Cerra, before Fletchertakes his thoughtful solo that fits in with the relaxed grooveof the performance. “Blues For Antone,” starts acousti-cally before Kirk plugs in and is some hot blues guitar inthe vein of Stevie Ray Vaughan and others. Kirk takes aturn at Sly Stone’s “Let Me Have It All,” singing as well asplaying tough guitar with a smoldering backing that wouldhave done the Family Stone proud. The Hendrix inspired,somewhat spacey “Continent’s End,” closes this album.Fletcher describes this as “my idea of Hendrix meets SonicYouth.” It’s an intriguing sonic exploration that concludesthis latest, impressive sampling of Kirk Fletcher consider-able talents. Ron Weinstock

GREGORY PORTERWater

MOTEMA MUSICVocalist Gergory Porter makes his solo recording de-

but with this Motema disc that Porter says is “an album oflove and protest.” All but three of the tunes are Porter origi-nals and he surely writes the stuff of standards!

Adding excitement and peak musicianship in varioussettings are pianist Chip Crawford, bassist Aaron Jamesand drummer Emanuel Harold or Chuck McPherson, aug-mented on assorted tracks by Melvin Vines (trumpet),Curtis Taylor (trumpet) Yoske Sato (alto sax), JamesSpaulding (alto sax), Kafele Bandele (trumpet) and Rob-ert Stringer (trombone).

Porter’s influences—Nat King Cole, Joe Williams andDonnie Hathaway—come through in his phrasing and hesounds a little like singer Kurt Elling in his tonalities andhow he bends and shapes a tune. His originals are richand varied and his soulful style infuses jazz with funk, R&B,blues and gospel. Porter injects plenty of passion into twostandards. He refreshes “Skylark” to the max and deliversa sizzling uptempo version of Wayne Shorter’s “Black Nile.”His most political numbers is his original “1960 What?”which tells the story of riots in Detroit following MartinLuther King’s assassination—“The Motor City is burningy’all.” With riffing pulsing bass lines, fiery drumming andperfected horn solos, the 12-plus minute exhilarating tuneis the lengthiest and best of Porter’s originals on the disc.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Bakersfield, Califor-nia, Porter now makes his home in the Bedford-Stuyvesantarea of Brooklyn. When he’s not touring or performing onBroadway, Porter’s frequently a guest performer with theJazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and holds a long-standing gig at S. Nick’s Pub in Harlem. He’s recordedwith Hubert Laws and appeared on national televisionshows. Porter has a penchant for ballads but is equally atease on uptempo numbers and scat singing. This is animpressive debut. Nancy Ann Lee

LIL’ BAND O’ GOLDThe Promised Land

DUST DEVIL MUSIC“I won’t leave Louisiana, Louisiana my home sweet

home” echoes a line in David Egan’s “Spoonbread,” theopening song on “The Promised Land” (Dust Devil Mu-sic) – the new album by Lil’ Band O’ Gold.

Lil’ Band O’ Gold is a group formed by some verynotable Louisiana musicians, including guitarist and roots

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE ELEVEN

Even the most arid landscapes are home to Earth’s amazing species. The Nature

Conservancy is dedicated to protecting the variety of plant and animal life on Earth—

even when found in the most unlikely places. The Nature Conservancy has protected

117 million acres in 28 countries. With your support, that number will keep growing.

Visit nature.org or call 1-888-2 JOIN TNC.

To a visitor, it’s barren desert. To our supporters, it’s bustling with life.

San Rafael Desert, Utah © David Muench

This message is made possible by the generous support of this publication.

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE TWELVE

rocker CC Adcock; Cajun accordionist Steve Riley;swamp-pop legend and drummer Warren Storm; and pia-nist and songwriter David Egan. Add steel guitar, andsaxophones (with occasional fiddle) and one has a groupthat can touch on the blue-eyed soul that is at SwampPop’s heart mixed with some Fats Domino piano tripletsand some swamp country seasoning. The album accom-panies the film of the same title about the distinctive Loui-siana musical genre, swamp pop which I haven’t seen,but it also provides fans of Lil’ Band O’ Gold with a newrecording that showcases their versatile repertoire andcompelling sources. With a band that includes steel gui-tar and saxophones, the performances provide a definitemusical stew of influences that make for a wonderfulmusical blend.

I would not be surprised if in a blindfold test, an aver-age listener might identify the opening “Spoonful,” as anumber by the Band, but its such a terrific performancewith vocals being traded and great backing that it standson its own. Next up is a great number by the late BobbyCharles “I Don’t Want to Know,” with Warren Storm’s vo-cal almost matching the Late Johnny Adams as Riley addsa terrific accordion solo with Richard Comeaux contrib-uting some piercing steel guitar. C.C. Adcock revives aGene Terry & the Boogie Ramblers rockabilly-tinged“Teardrops,” while Riley, accordion at the fore handlesthe vocal on a rocker with Adcock adding some hot gui-tar riffs with the saxophones wailing in support.

“Dreamer” is another Egan original with the steelguitar, the rhythm and the saxophones injecting some Tex-Mex flavor to Egan’s reflective vocals. Warren Storm’svocal shines on the country flavored “Sunshine,” that waspenned by the great Mickey Newbury. Adcock pennedthe hard rock and rolling “Runaway’s Life,” that evokesclassic 50s music with an insistent driving beat followedby Warren’s wonderful haunting rendition of David Kitt’sballad “Faster and Faster.” “Hold on Tight” “to yourdreams,” Steve Riley sings (including the verse in French)as his accordion and Kenny Bill Stinson’s organ suggestthe Sir Douglas Quintet in this imaginative reworking ofan Electric Light Orchestra single. “Hard Enough,” an-other Egan original is a superb old-fashioned piece ofcountry soul with Storm’s vocal complemented byComeaux’s weeping steel guitar. Swamp pop legendTommy McClain guests on the tear-in-the-throat vocalon the low-key “Memories,” while Riley revives LawrenceWalker’s Cajun rock and roll, “Evangeline Rock. There ismore country-folk flavor from Adcock on “The Last Hay-ride” before the closing “So Long,” a nice rendering of anAllen Toussaint composition, with Storm leading the wayon the vocal with the braying saxophones and the back-ing chorus adding to the mood. It is a terrific closer to asuperb recording. It has been a decade since Lil’ Band ‘OGold’s debut recording, which has been frankly ten yearstoo long. They are truly one of the great rock and rollbands today and “The Promised Land” is a superb diskthat continues their loving embrace of the musical legacyof their home, Louisiana, which never gets mired in nos-talgia but keeps pushing the music forward.

This is available in the United States from the Louisi-ana Music Factory in New Orleans (website iswww.louisianamusicfactory.com). I am not certain about

availability outside the US, but it may be on iTunes inAustralia. Ron Weinstock

ALPER YILMAZOver the Clouds

KAYIQUEIt’s not until the third track that electric bassist Alper

Yilmaz steps out in front on his second release. But by thetime his solo virtuosity is on display here, the Turkish-born, NYC-based Yilmaz has already made a notable markas composer. Themes mostly run either urgent or elegantand, in their execution by very “game” lineups, all are anengaging mix of intellect and fire.

Alto saxophonist David Binney and guitarist Nir Felderare Yilmaz’s primary voices of choice on terrain wellmapped for each. A fluid, frenetic Binney is featured onthe leadoff track “Yet”. Felder rises to a classic fusion oc-casion on “Flughafen” and brings McLaughlin-esque flour-ishes to the previously-alluded-to Yilmaz feature “Misir withGrandma”. Alternating drummers Bodek Janke and VolkanOktem share equally in the highly-charged dialogue thatprevails on this excellent set. Duane Verh

JOHNNY MOELLERBlooGaLoo

SEVERNJohnny Moeller may be best known as guitarist with

The Fabulous Thunderbirds, but this Dallas Texas areanative has been turning heads with his raw, soul-funk bluesguitar playing that comes across as a wild blend of FreddieKing, Jimmy Nolan, John Lee Hooker and Frankie LeeSims. Having an eclectic taste (the title of one of his earlyrecordings was an homage to an Ohio Players recording“Funky Worm), he has shown this on his prior record-ings. Now Severn Records has issued his latest recording

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE THIRTEEN

as a leader album, BlooGaLoo (Severn has used his gui-tar playing on many of recent recordings by DarrellNulisch, Lou pride and Steve Guyger.

“BlooGaLoo” was recorded over four years and in-cludes some originals along with covers. The backingband is Matt Farrell’s keyboards, Steve Gomes on bassand Rob Stupka on drums with appearances by ShawnPittman, Kim Wilson and Lou Ann Barton on vocals (Wil-son on harp too), along with horns, background vocals,hollering and percussion.

The opening track begins with a Jimmy Nolan-ish riffbefore turning into an instrumental that could have beenan unreleased Freddie King instrumental with plenty offunky, nasty guitar. Pittman handles the vocal for the funky“I’m Movin’ On Up” with a chugging rhythm before Pittmanencourages the number one guitar player in the land withsome searing playing. Moeller may not be a great singer,but he certainly puts plenty into his vocal on Earl King’s“Trick Bag,” with a hyper kinetic rhythm section andimagination use of a tape loop of a baby and taking ahot, brief break. Matt Farrell’s organ is really strong hereas well as lends it a greasy flavor. Kim Wilson handlesthe vocal on the racing shuffle rendition of JesseAnderson’s “I Got a Feelin’,” with Wilson playing someSonny Boy Williamson-ish harp and Moeller rocks out onhis break.

Lou Ann Barton adds her voice behind Moeller on anice funky duet, “I’m Stuck on you,” and takes the leadon the slow blue ballad “Everybody’s Got to Cry Some-time,’ where Moeller rips off single note runs that createstension with the emphatic slow-drag rhythm here. “ThemeFrom the One-Armed Swordsman” is a moody instrumen-tal with plenty of hard chords mixed with single note burstsagainst a walking tempo.

Wilson takes a nice vocal telling his woman he is leav-ing her on the uptempo the shuffle “Well Goodbye Baby,”with another hot solo. “Shufflin’ Along” is a mediumtempo-ed guitar rocker followed by the surprising clos-ing performance, a strong cover of an early John LeeHooker recording, “Teasin’ Baby,” where he certainlyevokes the great, early solo boogies recorded by the lategreat bluesman six decades ago.

Fans of raunchy blues guitar mixed with heavy dosesof funk and rock n’ roll will certainly find this latest effortby Johnny Moeller much to their taste. He certainly hasshown himself as a distinctive and strong guitarist as asideman, and this release will certainly enhance that repu-tation and add to the fact he is a credible vocalist.

Ron Weinstock

Issues, Special Issues, Back Issues and

Thousands of CD & DVD Reviews

& More Cool Stuff In The Works!

www.jazz-blues.com

ORGANISSIMOAlive & Kickin’

BIG OFor their four th recording, the three-man

Organissimo—featuring Jim Alfredson on HammondSuzuki XK3/XK System and synths, Joe Gloss on guitarand Randy Marsh on drums—is captured in live perfor-mances for WKAR-TV at Michigan State University andat Founders Brewing Company. At the same time the CDwas recently released, the television performance DVD,Backstage Pass, was also released.

Together for a decade, the musicians work tightly to-gether and excel at any tempo. The nine-tune CD projectshowcases this talented crew that infuses their music withvaried influences that set them apart from most organgroups. All tunes are by Organissimo except FrankZappa’s “Blessed Relief.” The five-plus minute foray,“Smokin’ Section,” is the shortest tune on the disc.“Jimmy Smith Goes to Washington” is one of the albumhighlights, swinging like mad for 7:19 minutes and build-ing to a crescendo midway through. The enjoyable 18:20-minute finale, “Pumpkin Pie,” changes moods and tem-pos and builds to a churchy soul summit.

All three musicians are Michigan-born and Marsh (b.1951) is the senior member of the group. Big O Records,which has issued all four of Organissimo’s recordings,was formed by organist and Root Doctor guitarist GregNagy.

With their unique sound, their musicality and inter-esting originals (some that groove and some that don’t),Organissimo should continue to challenge and satisfy theears of their fans. Nancy Ann Lee

DWAYNE DOPSIE ANDTHE ZYDECO HELLRAISERS

Up In FlamesSELF-PRODUCED

One of the sons of the late Rocking Dopsie (AltonRubin), Dwayne ‘Dopsie’ Rubin is one of several sons thatfollowed their legendary father into zydeco music and inthe years since his father’s passing has established him-self as one of zydeco’s relative young guns. This writerhad the pleasure of seeing him at a Blues Festival someyears ago in Maryland and was impressed then. He hascontinued to grow and stylistically his brand of zydecostrikes this listener as more in the vein of Clifton Chenier,Buckwheat Zydeco and Nathan Williams with his heavy

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE FOURTEEN

rocking blues and R&B styled sound in contrast to themusic of the late Beau Jocque or Boozoo Chavis, withmore focus on vamping on a chord or two, although num-bers like “Better Go Get It” on his new Sounds of NewOrleans release “Up in Flames,” show he and his bandhit a groove and really rock it hard.

Ben Sandmel, in his liner notes, compares Dopsie’ssinging to Howlin’ Wolf as well as Beau Jocque. There isa raspiness in his voice that evokes their vocal styles,but Dopsie is a striking singer on his own. His band con-sists of Alex McDonald on rubboard; Shelton Sonnier; DionPierre on bass on bass; Calvin Sam on drums; and CarlLandry on saxophone and with Dopsie’s strong accor-dion and vocals they kick butt. Rhythmically they are tightand in addition to Dopsie’s accordion playing, Landry maybe as good as sax player in an zydeco band I have heardsince Blind John Hart was with Clifton Chenier and Rockin’Dopsie.

“Up in Flames” has a wonderfully diverse set of tunesstarting with the opening “I’m Gonna Walk,” with its hintof “Don’t Mess With My Tu Tu.” It is followed by anotherhard rocking number, “Feel So Good,” with a melody simi-lar to the classic R&B number “You Can’t Sit Down.” On“I’m a Fool For You” the band comes off like the Red HotLouisiana Band on a blues that conjures up classic CliftonChenier from three decades ago. This is simply great stuffand continues with the hot “Don’t Listen,” taken at a fi-ery tempo, yet the band is so tight and the performancesdon’t become frenzied and uncontrolled. “Back in the

Woods,” is a more traditionally oriented zydeco numberakin to Clifton doing “Zydeco De Pas Sale” with just hisbrother and drummer.

These recordings certainly make this writer wish hewould have the opportunity to see Dwayne Dopsie again.I will miss him at JazzFest this year (he plays the firstweekend, then will be in Europe the next weekend). Thisis avai lable from his website http://www.dwaynedopsie.com. He has some CDs available oncdbaby.com, but this one is not available. It should beavailable from the Louisiana Music Factory. DwayneDopsie has a regular French Quarter gig and you cancheck his performance schedule on his website.

Ron Weinstock

BIG DADDY STALLINGSBlues Party

TAI JERIA RECORD COMPANY“I’m Charles’ Big Daddy’ Stallings and I approve these

blues,” the gentleman from Baltimore proclaims on theintroductory track of his third CD, “Blues Party” (Tai JeriaRecord Company). Stallings, who became prominent inthe Baltimore-Washington scene about five years ago,brings a down home blues style with a band that mixestraditionally oriented Chicago blues with classic sixties andseventies rhythm and blues. There is a variety of folk han-dling the backing here including Gail Parrish or RonaldBland on bass; Russell Hayward II or Bill Pratt on drums;Joe “E Flat” Thomas on saxophone, Clarence Ward III ontrumpet, and Steve Levine on harmonica. Mark Wenner ofthe Nighthawks adds the down home harp for the “Intro,”and “Down on the Farm.” There is plenty of music here,with 16 original songs book ended by his intro and thankyou tracks

The title track is a nice good times cut, followed bythe somewhat salacious “”Horny Bee,” with a Jimmy Reedgroove and some biting lead guitar from Leroy Flowers Jrwith Stallings grittily delivering the vocal. Riffing hornsembellish the simple groove of “Fine Lady” that displaysStallings’ simple lyrics and rustic vocal with him taking astinging solo. “Down on the Farm,” a lazy, rustic piece ofblues story-telling, is perhaps the most memorable trackhere, as he recalls growing up on the farm and the hardlife down there with Mark Wenner contributing the har-monica here. “Swing 2010,” is an instrumental (perfectfor dancing) with Washington keyboard legend JackieHairston on organ, a hot trumpet solo from Ward and saxsolo by Carlos Johnson, while “She’s Gone” is a lamentabout Big Daddy’s baby having gone and left him all alone

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE FIFTEEN

because he did her wrong, while “Knocked Up” has himwondering about why there’s so much teenage pregnancy.“In Love With Yourself” is a nice soul ballad about one’smarriage ending and no fun to be in love by yourself. Aftera brief spoken introduction, organist Hairston and saxo-phonist Johnson are featured on the jazzy “The Lucky Num-ber,” while Clarence Ward’s trumpet blasts off “James,” afunk tribute to the Godfather of Soul” with tough hornsand a strong groove, followed by a couple of nods to disco-life, “I Wanna Dance,” followed by his salute to “Latin Girls,”another number with a dance groove and a percussionbreakdown with Big Daddy closing as he asks us to putsome “Blues in Your Funk,” with nice harmonica (I pre-sume Steve Levine since it is not credited in the booklet)as well as brassy horns.

On “Old Folks,” a slow blues with nice guitar, Stallingssings, “Keep those bloomers on Granny, Grandpa ain’t giv-ing up no love tonight.” While it has some catching lineslike most of the record, the lyrics sometimes come off assimply strung together by some common theme. In sense,it’s perhaps best to enjoy the music and songs and notanalyze the words too much. Big Daddy brings plenty ofheart to his music and the band is tight behind him. Thereis plenty of music hear (nearly 80 minutes), if one justgets into the spirit, then one will have a “Blues Party.” Thisis available from Amazon, cdbaby or on itunes. Big DaddyStallings website is http://www.bigdaddystallings.com.

Ron Weinstock

JACKIE RYANBest Of Love Songs

OPENART PRODUCTIONSFeaturing vocalist Jackie Ryan, this disc compiles 15

romantic tracks from her recordings made from 2002-2006with stellar sidemen such as Ernie Watts, Red Holloway, JonMayer, Larry Vuckovich, Jeff Hamilton and others.

Included are warhorse gems such as “When I Grow TooOld to Dream,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” “WhileWe’re Young,” “Besame Mucho,” “The Very Thought of You,”and others. From ballads, to bossas, to swingers, the musi-cal fare provides about an hour’s worth of wooing. Fromduos to quintets, musicianship behind Ryan is flawless, andinstrumental solos are sublime. Red Holloway’s saxophonesolo on the up-tempo, bluesy remake of “Let There Be Love”ranks among the album highlights.

Ryan’s lovely mid-range voice, lush with the hint of vi-brato, is perfect for these love songs. John Ballard, co-pro-ducer with Ryan and president of OpenArt Productions LLC,claims 100% of this CD’s 2010 profits will go to OXFAM forHaiti Relief Fund. Nancy Ann Lee

PINETOP PERKINS &WILLIE “BIG EYES” SMITH

Joined at the HipTELARC

If you are reading this on or after June 8, then youare eligible to buy a copy of the 13 song JOINED AT THEHIP collaboration between 97 year old pianist PinetopPerkins and his 74 year old junior partner-in-crime/harp-ist Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. A former drummer for MuddyWaters, Smith actually years before started out on harpand teamed up with Perkins in 1980 to form the Legend-ary Blues Band, whose first version was basically MuddyWaters Band without the headliner.

Although a lot of the disc is Smith and Perkins trad-ing shots on their respective instruments, there is an abun-dance of guitar here also, thanks to John Primer and LittleFrank Krakowski, with “Lord, Lord, Lord” as one quickexample.† Since Smith is doing the Mississippi saxophonehere, the drum kit was handed over to Kenny Smith’s,Willie’s son, and it was a good move to say the least, beit the shuffle beat of “I Feel So Good” or the groove dur-ing “You’d Better Slow Down.”

Yet Perkins and the elder Smith are the spotlights,basically duking it out via their respective instrumentson “Cut That Out,” “I Would Like To Have A Girl LikeYou” or “Grindin’ Man,” as three rounds of their fight foryour attention.

While JOINED AT THE HIP is a soundtrack for theblues they play in Chicago, thanks to this team up, themusic of the Windy City can come to you for a muchcheaper price than a one-way ticket. Peanuts

VARIOUS ARTISTSPreservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation

Hall & The Preservation HallMusic Outreach Program

PRESERVATION HALL RECORDINGSSince 1961, Preservation Hall in New Orleans has

showcased traditional jazz to the delight of fans from aroundthe world. While part of its charm has always been its stark,decrepit warehouse feel (six benches, no running water,no A/C), the post Katrina era found the venerable hall fall-ing into further disrepair and out of the limelight as a “mustsee” stop in New Orleans. Worse yet, the musical traditionrepresented by the Hall faced extinction as displaced mu-sicians followed the receding flood waters to other loca-

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE SIXTEEN

tions. This benefit disc is intended to reverse both trendsby pairing the well oiled blend of upbeat, toe-tapping rootsjazz featured night after night at Preservation Hall withvocals from a wide cast of characters from the pop, coun-try, folk, rock, gospel and blues worlds. With a generous19 tracks, featuring everyone from My Morning Jacket’sJim James (appearing as his alter ego Yim Yames) to LouisArmstrong and Angelique Kidjo, the disc is not only a plea-surable listen but at times a revelation. Who knew that AniDiFranco had the playful side evidenced on Freight Trainor that Tom Waits could sing around his gravelly vocalswith such flourish and enthusiasm as on Tootie Ma Was ABig Fine Thing? Steve Earle even lightens up from his re-cent soapboxing for the classic T’ain’t Nobody’s Business.Other standout tracks includes Pete Seeger’s buoyant takeon Blue Skies, Angelique Kidjo’s torchy jazz on La Vie EnRose and the Blind Boys of Alabama’s gospel scorcher,There Is a Light.

While the guests add commercial appeal, they neverget in the way of the classic charts laid down by the band.I dare you to sit still while this disc is spinning.

Mark Smith

COCO MONTOYAI Want It All Back

RUFA member of the infinite John Mayall alumni associa-

tion, west coast guitarist Coco Montoya has returned withhis latest effort “I Want It All Back.”

Not known as a prolific songwriter (he only contributes“Don’t Go Makin’ Plans”), Montoya, though, has an ear forbringing back some gems from days gone by. By far the bestis the old Smokey Robinson-penned Mary Wells ’62 classic“The One Who Really Loves You,” which has airplay writtenall over it with the help of Stephen Ferrone’s percussion.

With keyboardist Jeff Paris opening and Montoya’s gui-tar coming in right behind, Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’sBaby” gets a good revival (trivia: the song was Browne’s big-gest hit yet never appeared on any of his albums).

While Montoya picks his way through a jazzy, Tex-Mexversion of the Penguins’ “Hey Senorita,” also of note is theMarvellettes ’63 warhorse “Forever,” plus Rod Piazza’s harphelps classic gem “Fannie Mae” become a powerful bluestune. Bassist Reggie McBride puts a steady groove into “CryLonely,” as Montoya drills some major picking into the endof the song.

Another seed that blossomed from the Albert Collins’tree, Montoya has put together a package that smartly leans

on some major songwriters from the past for one creativepresentation.

The title “I Want It All Back” is misleading because itappears Coco Montoya never gave it away to begin with.

Peanuts

LAUREN KINHANAvalon

E1 MUSICVocalist Lauren Kinhan is best known as a member

of the vocal group, The NY Voices, as well as two othervocal ensembles, Moss, and JaLaLa. With JaLaLa, shewas part of the memorable tribute to Johnny Mercer, “ThatOld Mercer Magic.” She has just issued her second solorecording, “Avalon,” (E1 Music), which displays her tal-ents as a songwriter, and not simply a singer.

She has done this with some of her closest friendswho happen to be some of New York’s finest musicians,including drummer and percussionist Ben Wittman, whoco-produced this with Lauren, and bassist Peter Nowinskiwho is on most of this. Peter Eldridge, fellow New YorkVoices band mate, plays piano and co-pens some songs.Jonatha Brooke joins her on “Here After” while RomeroLubambo guests on “Until You’re Mine” and “Here’s MyAvalon” and Donny McAslin and Joel Frahm add theirsignature horn handiwork. Andy Ezrin is also featured onpiano and B3 organ.

There are plenty of Brazilian accents heard through-out this as on the opening “Until You’re Mine,” with itslight rhythms, and the marvelous song “Here’s MyAvalon,” with a bit more fervent rhythm and some terrifichorns (Joel Frahm’s alto sax is very impressive through-out as is Romero Lubambo’s guitar) on a love song shewrote for her daughter while away from home, and herscatting dances along with the band as the song ridesout. “Here After” is a dreamy pop number wonderfullysung with Jonatha Brook’s duet vocal, while “Move OverSunshine” has an uptown, bluesy flavor with brassy hornsas she belts out the lyric in a most graceful manner. Anentrancing rhythm drives “Hide the Moon and Stars,” withlovely flute from Aaron Heick and a hint of flamenco inthis romantic song. “Screaming Savoir Faire,” co-writtenwith Andy Ezrin who plays piano as she sings, somewhatdisconsolately, about her lover leaving and not keepingthe promises he made. On a song like this, one appreci-ates how she avoids coming off as maudlin, with her tim-ing and phrasing of the lyric being enchanting. A bit offunk in the groove with some slide guitar accents on “Writ-ing on the Wall,” as she effortlessly glides from whisper-

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE SEVENTEEN

ing to trumpeting the lyric with vocal chorus support andEzrin soloing on Fender Rhodes. “Savor the Wine” is arock styled number with Ben Butler setting the tone withhis guitar against Eldridge’s piano, while the rhythm on“Dory and a Single Oar” struts with Denny McCaslin add-ing some atmospheric tenor sax. The next two perfor-mances, “As If” and “There Alone Go I,” have a bit moreintimate backing and more lovely singing.

As she has shown over the past two decades, LaurenKinham is a marvelous singer, able to handle pop androck flavored material as effortlessly and heartfully asBrazilian sambas and Johnny Mercer standards. With theseamless backing and wonderful playing by the musi-cians behind her, she delights and enchants throughoutwith her songs and vocals on “Avalon.” Ron Weinstock

PHIL GATESAddicted to the Blues

SETAG MUSICGuitarist-vocalist Phil Gates is currently based in

Southern California, but was born and raised in Chicago.After time in the Air Force, he moved to Los Angeles andover the years has developed a very tasty style with aslightly lazy, grainy vocal style and a deft guitar style thatconstantly swings and shows considerable imaginationin his solos. His most recent recording (and first to theseears) is “Addicted to the Blues,” which, with his low-keydelivery, is a refreshing change of pace from the many‘house-rocking’ releases that are issued. A reference pointmight be Doug MacLeod’s earlier recordings when he wasplaying with a band. Gates actually plays most of the in-struments here through the recording process.

“The opening “Get Around To Me” is a lively numberwith tasteful, crisp jazzy-styled guitar and laconic vocalas well as some accordion that is overdubbed here. “SexyLittle Cool,” where he notes his girl has a way to movehim and put a spell on him, sports effectively whiningslide guitar as the tempo stays nice and relaxed. On“Evening Train,” about a lonely town where no one knowsPhil’s name, has an insistent train-like rhythm and a nicetwangy solo with imaginative single note runs, while “MyBabe” isn’t the Willie Dixon song, but rather a song witha similar sentiment set with a driving funk groove, as hecelebrates how she treats him right. Another easy funkgroove underlies “Everyday,” a song with a message aswe’ve got to everyday keep making it better and not letthings slow us down. “I’m Addicted” is the track refer-enced by the CD’s title as he sings about Jonesin’ to play

a tune. He takes the tempo down for “You Should’ve Lis-tened,” about a woman too busy yapping and not enoughlistening. “I Never Knew” is another light shuffle as hesings about things being better after his woman has gone.“Road Shufflin’” is an instrumental taken at a relaxedtempo, if a little leadenly played. “The closing “The Wis-dom,” has a spiritual tinge as he remembers those dearto him and the words they said as he still has them in hisheart, with his drumming being a bit livelier here.

There are few surprises in the nature of material, andthe performances have a charm, but the overdubbing (in-cluding bass and drums) lends some of the material toposses a sameness that takes away from some of theappeal here. This is a shame because he is a thoughtfulplayer and vocalist with plenty to intrigue a listener. Onesenses that with proper production, Phil Gates can pro-duce a superb, not simply a good, recording. This shouldbe available from cdbaby. Ron Weinstock

Issues, Special Issues, Back Issues andThousands of CD & DVD Reviews

www.jazz-blues.com

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE EIGHTEEN

RALPH TOWNER, PAOLO FRESUChiaroscuro

ECMThe term that’s used for this disc’s title speaks to con-

trasts; of literally working artistically with both darknessand light. But rather than each player assuming a polarposition, acoustic guitarist Towner and trumpeter Fresumutually explore brighter and duskier terrain and offerup a both unique and bountiful duet performance.

On a set of eight Towner originals, one collaboration,and the Miles Davis/Bill Evans co-penned “Blue In Green”,this duo shares an exquisite acoustical space; each seemsparticularly mindful of the other’s path as he articulateshis own evocative course.

The intimacy of the format is well served by thesetwo masterful players. Duane Verh

JOHN NEMETHName the Day!

BLIND PIGWhen observing great athletes, talent is invariably synced

up with “intangibles”, those qualities impossible to measurebut detectable in their result. On this new disc John Nemethtakes the classic soul/r&b genre on with the sort of verveand authority that speaks to more than chops alone. TheBoise-bred vocalist/harmonica player and his band here de-liver top-shelf goods that can hold their own alongside thefinest journeyman work of the mid-Sixties soul era they em-brace. Nemeth’s vocals on the leadoff track, “Breakin’ Free”channels the fire of James Brown disciples such as RodgerCollins. If time travel were possible, the infectious “Tuff Girl”would rotate heavily on urban radio about four and a halfdecades ago.

Highlighted by guitarist Bobby Welsh’s Memphisminimalism, the backup is spot-on track after track. To deemtheir craft mere “retro” is to short- sell it; Nemeth & crew arebona fide throwbacks in the most flattering sense of the term.And the cat up front might be the best white r&b singer onthe planet. Duane Verh

JOHN NEMETH“NAME THE DAY”/”WHY NOT ME”

BLIND PIG 45RPM VINYLBack in the ‘60’s the r&b world was populated by in-

dependent labels such as Chess, King and Stax, and smallerimprints like Double Shot, Phil-LA of Soul and Calla. Thisgolden era enjoys a rebirth in the sounds of Sharon Jones,Eli Reed and John Nemeth. The feisty houses that “grew”that sound are celebrated themselves with Blind Pig’s vi-nyl 45 release of Nemeth’s “Name The Day” from his CDof the same name (see elsewhere in this issue).

Other than the obvious collectable factor, the platterfeatures killer “jukebox” mixes of analog recordings of“Day” and the B-side ballad, “Why Not Me”. Available ona direct basis, the label states that retail stores will havethe single this month. Duane Verh

THE STRYKER/SLAGLE BANDKeeper

PANORAMA RECORDSCo-leaders Dave Stryker (guitar) and Steve Slagle

(alto sax) enlist bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Vic-tor Lewis for their fifth recording, a 10-tune set of mostlyoriginals.

The band opens the set with Stryker’s title composi-tion that maintains their spacious sound and customaryblend of strings and reeds. Stryker contributes four addi-tional tunes and Slagle serves up four originals.

The lone standard is their mellow ballad built onThelonious Monk’s “Ruby My Dear,” featuring Slagle’ssmooth alto sax melody head. Stryker’s drawling “BlueState” ranks among the catchiest tunes and gives him achance for some bluesy guitar improvisations. Slagleswitches to soprano sax on “Convergence,” a lively origi-nal by Stryker.

With 20 years experience together, the two leadershave developed an empathetic approach so that theirmusical outpourings seem effortless.

Their combined talents, both composing and perform-ing, make this another engaging straight-ahead delightfor their fans.

Nancy Ann Lee

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE NINETEEN

TAD ROBINSONBack on Style

SEVERNI have long been a fan of Tad Robinson, and in fact I

wrote the liner notes for one of his earlier albums. Morerecently, he has recorded for Severn Records who hasjust issued his latest release, “Back on Style.” As usual,Severn has brought together a full studio band to evokethe classic Memphis soul sound (perhaps more Hi Recordsthan Stax). In addition to the usual rhythm of drummerRobb Stupka and bassist Steve Gomes, he has KevinAnker and Benjie Porecki on keyboards with Dan Hoveyand Alex Schultz handling most of the guitar with WayneJackson of the Memphis Horns leading the brass on sev-eral tracks.

“Rained All Night” is a nice dish of Memphis Soul Stew,and the smoldering rhythm groove is present on a terrificslow blues, “Full Attention Blues,” with Robinson sport-ing some Junior Parker-styled harp, and a terrific guitarsolo from Baltimore’s Harold Flood, one the Baltimore-Washington area’s most unheralded guitarists. VocallyRobinson continues to impress with a delivery that sug-gest Al Green crossed with Junior Parker. He may not beon their level, but is an extremely fine singer. WhileRobinson contributed most of the material here, he cer-tainly tears into Clarence Shields’ “You Name It I’ve HadIt,” with some stinging guitar fills from Schultz. “On andOn” is another smoldering ballad in the Hi Records style,while he ably handles the southern soul of Sam Dees’“Just Out Of My Reach.”

The rest of this recording is on a similar level and it isanother first-rate collection of southern soul and blueson Severn. Ron Weinstock

VINCE GUARALDIPeanuts Portraits: The Classic Character Themes

CONCORDCalifornia-born pianist-composer Vince Guaraldi has

been long gone (died February 6, 1976), yet his musiccontinues to sell on compact discs such as this compila-tion that defines the Peanuts comic strip characters fromanimated TV specials in the 1960s.

In addition to nine tracks performed by Guaraldi, thedisc features two tracks by pianist George Winston whorecorded some of Guaraldi’s Peanuts compositions in the1990s. Probably the most familiar tune is the “Linus and

Lucy” theme, first heard on A Charlie Brown Christmas(1965). The set opens with Guaraldi playing the gem andends with Winston reprising it as the finale.

“Blue Charlie Brown” was written by Guaraldi for thehalf-hour documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown, pro-duced in 1963 and never televised until it was heard on aPeanuts TV special He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown in 1968.Other tunes include “Sally’s Blues,” “Peppermint Patty,”“Joe Cool,” “Schroeder,” “Charlie’s Blues,” “Frieda (Withthe Naturally Curly Hair)” and (one of my favorites forthe Snoopy character) “The Masked Marvel.”

Although Guaraldi may not be considered a majorpianist, his part in the West Coast cool jazz movement inthe 1950s and his penchant for joyful swing, add to hispopularity gained from the jazz-influenced scores for theCharlie Brown TV specials. His command of the keyboardand knowledge of classical music as well as jazz are evi-dent on this disc.

This enjoyable compilation was produced by BillBelmont and mastered by Joe Tarantino. A 16-page, four-color liner booklet accompanies, with extensive notes byDerrick Bang who co-hosts the Charles Schulz/Peanutsrepository website FiveCentsPlease.org. Each characteris given a liner page that details the tune as well as thecharacter’s origins. A must-have disc for Guaraldi (andPeanuts) fans! Nancy Ann Lee

PETER PARCEKThe Mathematics of Love

VizzTonePeter Parcek’s website describes his guitar style as

weaving “rock, gypsy-jazz, country, folk, and blues— es-pecially blues— into a tapestry of melody, harmony anddaredevil solos that push those styles to their limits with-out sacrificing the warmth of his own personality.” He hasa release to showcase this musical blend and his virtuos-ity, “The Mathematics of Love” (VizzTone). As for this al-bum he states the influence of Django Reinhardt, “Django’sperformances are breathtakingly beautifully and techni-cally demanding. I’ve really been taken with the purity ofhis acoustic guitar sound, and he played electric with suchabandon. His music is very much alive and creative, so Ialso tried to bring those qualities to†‘The Mathematic ofLove.’” He is backed here by drummer Steve Scully andbassist Marc Hickox with appearances by Mandolin vir-tuoso Jimmy Ryan, violinist Dan Kellar and upright bassMarty Ballou.

The recording opens with a rendition of Peter Green’s“Showbiz Blues,” with the mood incorporating ElmoreJames licks, a driving hill country groove with blisteringslide. While not a great singer, Parcek convincingly asks,“Do you give a damn about me.” The title track followswith a hesitant slow tempo, as he hauntingly sings “don’tlie to me, don’t erase me, you know the Mathematics ofLove are plain and simple as A B C,” with nice acousticslide contrasted with his use of electronic effects. “Rollin’With Zah,” is a dazzling instrumental tour de force as Parceksnaps, crackles, chicken scratches and lays down someheavy runs. A surprising, but striking cover is from thepen of the late Jessie Mae Hemphill’s “Lord Help the Poor

June 2010 • Issue 326PAGE TWENTY

and Needy,” which he sings and plays at a dirge tempowith vibrato and echo prevalent and a synthesized drone,before he takes an impressive, carefully developed soloagainst this thudding rhythm. “Get Right With God” is arocking instrumental take of a Lucinda Williams song withmore guitar pyrotechnics. He takes a softer approach on“Tears Like Diamonds,” with his vocal being a bit moreeffective here. “Kokomo Me Baby” takes a number asso-ciated with Mississippi Fred McDowell, and takes it intowarp drive with an able vocal and dazzling guitar. The clean-ness of his picking as well as his use of sonic texturesagain stands out. “New Year’s Eve” again takes a morecountry blues feel with some tasty harp by Mike Fritz andRonnie Earl adds his guitar to the performance. This isfollowed by an instrumental interpretation of “Busted” withAl Kooper guesting on organ. Parcek employs a heavy,nasty tone at the beginning as his guitar sings the lyricsbefore taking off on his sonic explorations.

“The Mathematics of Love,” is a first-rate recording ofblues roots and guitar explorations that mixes tradition witha heavy dose of the contemporary. While his vocals mayvary in convincingness, (he shines when he is in an acous-tic-oriented vein), he always is listenable. However, hisguitar playing will unquestionably be the recording’s stron-gest appeal; and fans of the legendary Danny Gatton andRoy Buchanan should enjoy Parcek’s impressive fretwork.

Ron Weinstock

ROBIN MCKELLEMess Around

E1Robin McKelle’s new recording “Mess Around” (E1

Music) represents a change from the 2 Big Band CDs shepreviously recorded. Spanning soul, blues and jazz shesays she was inspired by the 60s albums by Ray Charlesand Nina Simone (she also references Etta James) whichenables to her investigate somewhat different musical tex-tures than in the larger settings of her earlier discs asmany of these sides use what might be called a little bigband setting, rhythm section and 3 to 5 horns with a stronggroup of material including 4 McKelle penned originalsand seven imaginative covers of material from such no-table sources as Bee Gees, Leonard Cohen, Doc Pomusand Willie Dixon. Fred Wesley contributed a pair of ar-rangements and Houston Person adds tenor sax solos toa couple of tracks. Interestingly, only a couple selectionshave guitar. The core of the band here is bassist TimLefevbre and drummer Mark McLean, with Adam Klipple,

Xavier Davis and Alain Maillet sharing the keyboards.

She certainly belts out her vocals throughout rightfrom the title track, a striking original where she tells herlover she ain’t messing around with his hurt, cause shewants to hold him in her arms and squeeze him tight.Fred Wesley contributed the striking, original and funkyarrangement for her heartfelt rendition of The Bee Gees’“I Can’t See Nobody,” followed by a rocking, shuffle ren-dition of the Hooper-Jennings “Never Make a Move TooSoon,” (a hit for B.B. King) which sports wonderful tenorsaxophone by the great Houston Person and a terrific ar-rangement by Alain Maillet. Leonard Cohen’s “EverybodyKnows,” was not a familiar to these ears but McKelle cer-tainly delivers the lyrics in a convincing fashion as AlexHarding blasts away on baritone sax on a strong bluesyperformance. “Angel,” another McKelle original, takes thetempo and volume down, and shows a bit more reflectiveside here on this gloomy performance with a lovely hornarrangement. Marvin Sewell, Cassandra Wilson’s guitar-ist, is added to the hornless “Until the Day I Die,” andcrafts a nice solo. Klipple’s organ and Fender Rhodes addto the atmosphere behind the yearning mood she ex-presses here.

On the standard “Cry Me a River,” McKelle soundslike a grittier Julie London, nicely sung with more mar-velous support from the horns, while Fred Wesley con-tributes the new arrangement of the old Ray Charles hit,Doc Pomus’ “Lonely Avenue,” which McKelle really poursher heart into. McKelle herself contributed the latin-funkarrangement for “Eleanor Rigby,” which comes off as ifshe was singing for Willie Bobo or the like. Mark Tuckerenlivens the fresh interpretation with some fine tenor sax.Houston Person returns to solo on a sultry, swinging takeby McKee on Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love toYou,” before she closes the disc with the hornless groupagain on her original “Since I Looked In Your Eyes,” withMarvin Sewell adding some bluesy slide guitar.

An impressive album that is beautifully played andMcKelle certainly places her stamp on the performances.She perhaps has a tad bit more vibrato than my own tastewould prefer, but that is my own preference. She certainlyhas produced an outstanding album that should appealacross genre boundaries, and to fans of blues and tradi-tional R&B as well her fans from her prior releases.

Ron Weinstock

OTIS REDDINGLive on the Sunset Strip

STAXIt’s been over forty years since Otis Redding perished in

a tragic plane crash. One of the stars of the R&B circuit, hewas starting to become a major cross-over artist at the timeof his death. He had toured Europe and been a major sensa-tion at the Monterey Pop Festival. The future was lookingbright when tragedy struck. After his death, besides the re-lease of his biggest recording, “Sitting on the Dock of theBay,” Atlantic issued “In Person At the Whiskey Au Go Go,”which presented ten performances from a 1966 stint at thefamed Hollywood Club (Taj Mahal and the Rising Sonsopened). Another dish of Otis from this engagement appearedon LP and then CD. Now Concord has issued a double CD of

June 2010 • Issue 326 PAGE TWENTY ONE

PROJECT TRIOProject Trio

HARMONYVILLE RECORDSOn their third studio recording, Project Trio releases

a self-titled album that showcases their unique musicalexplorations. This disc follows their first two CDs, Winterin June and Brooklyn.

The classically-trained, Brooklyn, New York-based triofeaturing Greg Pattillo (flute), Eric Stephenson (cello) and

the last three sets from Otis’ Whiskey appearance, “Live onthe Sunset Strip” (Stax). Liner notes by Ashley Kahn providethe context for Otis and his band (that included Katie Websteron keyboards).

With respect to Otis Redding, the music is terrific. Whatcan I say? There are any number of staples of his repertoireincluding “These Arms of Mine,” I’ve Been Loving you TooLong,” the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” “I Can’t Turn You Loose,”“Respect,” and “Mr. Pitiful.” Some of these songs are heardin several renditions like “Satisfaction,” and “Chained &Bound,” but with his strong band behind him, he tears thingsup. I presume that much of this was issued on the prior twolive recordings, but there are some previously unissued tracks,and this first-class reissue presents this fine music in the or-der in was heard by the audience. Over four decades, OtisRedding’s music remains as compelling as when he per-formed it on the Whiskey’s stage. Obviously those havingthe earlier reissues may not need this, but others who love“Sweet Soul Music,” will want this. Ron Weinstock

Peter Seymour (bass)delivers 10 appealingtunes, all originals ex-cept for Dave Brubeck’s“Blue Rondo a la Turk”and Guns n’ Roses“Sweet Child O’ Mine.”Their style melds Hip-hop, Rock, Bluegrass,Jazz, Americana andClassical music to cre-ate a distinctive soundthat sort of fits into the niche occupied by similar-sound-ing classical-crossover groups such as Turtle Island StringQuartet, Bela Fleck, and Kronos Quartet. Catchiestamong their originals are “Dr. Nick” and “Dup Dup.” Thelengthiest tune is the eight-minute Classical piece, “Arco/Pizz,” with its pretty Japanese-flavored melody thatsegues into a livelier tempo about halfway through.

The three musicians met at the Cleveland Institute ofMusic 13 years ago. Subsequently, they worked withfamed orchestras. Their big break came in 2006 throughPattillo’s beatbox flute videos on YouTube, which acquiredmore than 40 million views and yielded their YouTubechannel, “Freedomworksfilms,” which has more than50,000 subscribers.

Enjoyable from start to finish, Project Trio should sat-isfy a wide base of fans with their virtuosic and energeticmusical creations. Nancy Ann Lee