Bloodest Saxophone Texas Queens 5

Bloodest Saxophone
Texas Queens 5
Dialtone/Vizztone

I am familiar with the Japanese jump blues band, Bloodest Saxophone from a terrific Jewel Brown recording on which they backed her. I understand that they also did a disk with the late Big Jay McNeely. Eddie Stout brought them for one of his East Side Kings Festivals in Austin, Texas and then got them in the studio to back five blues queens, Diunna Greenleaf, Lauren Cervantes, Angela Miller, Jai Malano, and Crystal Thomas. Diunna and Angela both sing one song, Crystal and Lauren each sing two, and Jai sings three with all five on one song. Bloodest Saxophone's members include Koda "Young Corn" Shintaro on tenor saxophone, Coh "Colonel Sanders" on trombone, Osikawa Yukimasa on baritone saxophone, Shuji "Apple Juice" on guitar, The Takeo "Little Toyko" on upright bass, and Kiminori "Dog Boy" on drums and congas. Nick Connolly is on keyboards throughout, while Kaz Kazanoff and Johnny Moeller are added to two instrumental tracks by the band.

The disc opens with Diunna Greenleaf's superb, passionate cover of Big Maybelle's cover of "I've Got a Strange Feeling," with a first-rate booting tenor sax solo from Shintaro. All five are heard trading the lead and backing each other on a funky, Muddy Waters hit "I Just Want to Make Love to You," with another excellent tenor sax solo with Apple Juice's subtle comping on guitar. Crystal Thomas ably covers one of my favorite Johnny Adams recordings, "A Losing Battle," as well as Roscoe Gordon's "Don't Move Me," with the Bloodest Saxophone providing the funky mambo-inflected groove behind her vocal. Apple Juice displays his strong guitar skills on this as the horns riff behind him. Thomas, who played trombone behind the late Johnny Taylor, has also recorded a 45 and hopefully a full album by her on DialTone will be coming forth soon.

Jai Milano shows her vigorous singing on a cover of Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog," with blistering tenor sax and guitar solos. With "Colonel Sanders" baritone providing an anchor for the performance, Milano belts out the Charles Sheffield number, "Is Your Voodoo Working," with imaginative twisting guitar followed by more hard-edged tenor sax. Her final number is a take of an Amos Milburn recording, "I Done Done It." This track is a bit frantically performed, and her vocal comes off a tad shrill. Another number where the tempo is too fast is Lauren Cervantes cover of Louis Jordan's calypso classic "Run Joe." There is a terrific sax solo here. Her other song is a credible version of "The Grape Vine," an old Lucky Millinder recording. Angela Miller's recording of Mabel John's "Don't Hit Me No More," is a superb Memphis deep soul performance.

Shintaro composed the rousing "Pork Drop Chick," with the band reciting the title. All members get showcased, and there are torrid guitar and sax solos (refreshing to hear Yukimasa's gutbucket baritone and then listen to the baritione trading fours with the tenor sax). A down-in-the-alley rendition of Lafayette Thomas' "Cockroach Run" (with Johnny Moeller adding his guitar) closes this sampling of five Texas blues queens along with the Japanese Jump Blues Band, Bloodest Saxophone. Overall, this is an excellent set of blues and soul.

I received my review copy from VizzTone. Here Bloodest Saxophone is heard backing Jewel Brown whose album with them is fabulous.