Alberta Adams - Say Baby Say

While we are still recovering from the news Johnnie Bassett just passed away at the age of 76, the remarkable Alberta Adams wis turning 95 and will be celebrated by the folks in Detroit. The following review is of her second album for the Cannonball label. This review appeared in July/August 2000 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 246), and her performance at the Pocono Blues Festival, referenced in this review was outstanding. I received a review copy from Cannonball or a publicist. This may be harder to find but her recent recordings are available on Eastlawn Records. Happy Birthday, Alberta Adams. Cannonball has just issued a second album, Say Baby Say, by Alberta Adams, Detroit’s Queen of the Blues. Adams who had a brief recording career a half century ago (she recorded for Chess), shows little sign of slowing down. She’s heard with a tough studio band that includes guitarist Johnnie Bassett, saxophonist Keith Kaminski and drummer R.J. Spangler from Bassett’s band, keyboard whiz Bill Heid, bassist Pat Prouty, alto saxophonist Russ Miller and trumpeter Dwight Adams for a set that is subtitled Life’s Trials and Tribulations According to Miss Alberta Adams. This writer continues to marvel at Bassett and his colleagues’ superb playing, and with the spirited Ms. Adams they have a wonderful personality to support. The music swings hard, and while Adams may lack a bit of the range she likely had a few decades ago, she still has a way of delivering a lyric. Her vocal approach is not that far removed from her contemporary, Ruth Brown – and this writer would point to We Ain’t Makin’ Honey as an example of this, with her rap towards the song’s end about not having enough money being not too far removed from a recording by Brown. This is one of her albums on the Detroit Eastlawn label. The cover photo was taken by me at the 2000 Pocono Blues Festival. Keith Kaminski gets featured as Adams exhorts him to “play me some blues, not so slow, please mr. sax man, blow man blow …” on the jump number Sax Man. She takes things down in the alley on I Cried My Last Tear, while Bassett kicks off Don’t Worry Me in a T-Bone Walker vein on a track that also lets Bill Heid showcase his blues playing. Heid and Adams contributed Everybody Got Their Hand Out, an Adams rap about everybody wanting something from her. With support from a slow, funky groove, some boppish horn parts and jazzy playing from Bassett, Nothing More to Stay, is a vocal duet with Bassett on a Heid written blues ballad with Kaminski featured again on sax. On Say Baby Say, Alberta Adams sings with authority and believability, and is backed by as good a band as one will find anywhere, resulting in another superb album for Miss Adams. Alberta Adams will be appearing with Johnny Bassett and Joe Weaver at this year’s Poconos Blues Festival, and is one of those acts that are not to be missed. Here is a video of Alberta in performance.

Detroit's Blues Queen is A True Blues Treasure

Alberta Adams is truly Detroit’s Blues Queen. A dancer who became a singer when the vocalist did not show up, she has become the grande dame of the Motor City’s blues scene. She toured extensively with Louis Jordan, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, T-Bone Walker, James Moody and Duke Ellington and recorded extensively particularly in the jump type blues style that is her repertoire today. Her latest disc is Detroit Is My Home (Eastlawn Records), and brings her together with some marvelous musicians including that swinging drummer, R.J. Spangler who produced this. Certainly the album can’t get off to a hotter start than the opening boogie woogie, Keep On Keepin’ On, with Mark Braun (aka Mr. B.) coming off like Pete Johnson while the tempo slows down on for the evocative Tired of Being Alone,” with some strong gutbucket piano from Mr. B.,, solid horn playing and nice use of brushes by Spangler. More boogie styled piano is contributed by Al Hill for Hello Little Boy, which reverses the gender on a classic jump blues that Jimmy Rushing and others have sung. Her voice may have developed some rough edges but she still puts so much heart in her vocals with Paul Carey taking a terrific solo here. Mr. B is back on piano on I’m So Worried, which also sports some terrific trumpet from James O’Donnell on this moody performance. The title track has a strutting tempo with a touch of a rumba in the rhythm with Alberta reciting the places she has been and having been on the road forever but no matter how far she roams, “Detroit is My Home.” Saffire’s Ann Rabson handles the piano on a duet of Alberta and CeeCee Collins on Lucille Bogan’s sassy Struttin’ My Stuff. Rabson also is heard behind Adams on a medley of I'm On The Move / Every Day, on which CeeCee Collins and Thornetta Davis add backing vocals, and also on Rabson’s blues ballad Hopin’ It Will Be Alright. A bonus live track has Collins joining her for a lively rendition, from the club Sushi Blues, of Rosco Gordon’s Just a Little Bit. Anyone who has been fortunate to see Alberta Adams perform know that she is a national treasure and this latest labor of love on Eastlawn will be highly welcomed by anyone who has seen her and give a sense to others what they have been missing. This should be available on cdbaby.com as well as from bluebeatmusic.com.