Tommy Ridgely Since The Blues Began

Tommy Ridgely 
Since The Blues Began 
Black Top

While attending the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for the first time at the end of April, I caught plenty of great blues, zydeco and R&B. While he did not play the festival during the first weekend, Tommy Ridgely was at Howlin’ Wolf, a New Orleans Club, as part of a New Orleans Rhythm & Blues revue that also included Oliver Morgan, pianist Eddie Bo and Earl King. 

Ridgely, who first recorded with Dave Bartholomew’s band in 1949, made such memorable sides as Shrewsbury Blues, Looped, Jam Up and Gonna Meet My Girl. At the Howlin’ Wolf he stuck to the songs from his new album, Since the Blues Began and his vocals were exquisite. I also saw him the next afternoon at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville where he played piano, and sang a wide range of blues, backed by acoustic guitar and harp. 

Since the Blues Began is a superb album, and shows Ridgely to be as vital today as his first recordings with Dave Bartholomew’s band. He is heard with a crack band that includes Sammy Berfect and Edward Frank on keyboards, the incredible Snooks Eaglin on guitar, George Porter on bass and Kaz Kazanoff and Tony Dagradi on saxophones. Ridgely may be close to 70, but he still sings with great vigor and flexibility in his delivery. He doesn’t sound his age. 

He is obviously happy with the album and there is no filler among the songs. There are some new recordings of songs he waxed years ago, including I Heard That Story Before, and Let’s Try to Talk It Over. The latter number may suggest why he was once known as the “New King of the Stroll”. He contributed a number of new songs, like the opening Pretty Lady ( many guys will be able to identify with the sentiment of its lyrics), Running After You, and The World Is Our Stage. Jody Siegel contributed the title song. 

Ridgely’s lyrics explore the varying aspects of male-female relationships from a sophisticated, adult perspective. And, for someone whose early recordings are classic jump blues in a Roy Brown vein, Tommy Ridgely seems completely at home with the nineties Crescent City R&B groove. To reiterate, Tommy Ridgely’s Since the Blues Began is a terrific disc. 

I likely received my review copy from Black Top Records. This review appeared originally in the July-August 1995 Jazz and Blues Report (Issue 203). This is available used or as a download.  Here is the original recording of I Heard That Story Before, that he remade for this album.

One Has To Love Lillan Boutté at the French Quarter Festival

Some years back, I came across an album The Jazz Book (Enja) by a New Orleans vocalist I was previously not familiar with, Lillian Boutté. I confess that the presence of Dr. John was a factor influencing my purchase. Then I discovered the presence of New Orleans legends Edward Frank on piano and Lloyd Lambert on bass with Leroy Jones on trumpet.

Then putting it on my cd player and hearing her launch into Billie Holiday’s “Now Baby Or Never” and sings associated with Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith and Patti Page. On a recording of superb singing, the highpoint was her reworking of “Tennessee Waltz,” with a New Orleans R&B style arrangement. What a terrific performance and it lead me to purchase an ensuing recording with many of the same personnel, But Beautiful, as well as the music of her baby brother John and niece, Tricia “Sister Teedy” Boutté.

I have had the pleasure of seeing John perform a number of times and Tricia a couple of times, but I finally had a chance to see Lillian perform at this year’s French Quarter Festival. Someone mentioned to me that April is about the only time once can see her in New Orleans as opposed to Europe where she has become quite the attraction. I was glad I finally had the change to see her perform, and with a quartet that included the great New Orleans guitarist, Detroit Brooks. The icing on the cake was that she opened with a stunning rendition of Tennessee Waltz. Her set was storming enough for me to go to The Bombay Club that night and catch her opening set that evening.

Lillian Boutté’s recordings may be hard to find, but try the Louisiana Music Factory.In addition to her back catalog, they were selling Lillian Boutté Sings Louis Armstrong, a marvelous EP that is excerpted from her CD, You Got To Love Pops. I simply state, you got to love Lillian Boutté.

Chuck Carbo Had Those Drawers Trouble

There is a video of John Boutté, one of the great voices of contemporary New Orleans music doing a terrific rendition of “Withcraft,” a song originally recorded by New Orleans’ greatest vocal group, “The Spiders.” Lead vocalist of The Spiders was one Chuck Carbo, who after the dissolution of The Spiders took on a solo career. Carbo was regarded as one of the best voices in New Orleans along with Aaron Neville and the late Johnny Adams. Probably outside of the New Orleans area, many became familiar with Chuck Carbo when Rounder, under the auspices of Scott Billington, did their impressive series of New Orleans recordings in the 1990s. Alas, Rounder has seem to have abandoned blues and most New Orleans music these days (Irma Thomas being a notable exception), so looking back at some of these recordings reminds us of this fertile time for the label and this important talent. My review of Chuck Carbo’s Drawer’s Trouble, the first of two albums he recorded for Rounder, originally appeared in the September 1993 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 184). 

New Orleans was never a city known for vocal groups. The best known of its groups during the heyday of New Orleans Rhythm and Blues was The Spiders, whose Imperial recordings often broke the stereotype of the doo-wop groups in part because of Dave Bartholomew’s rocking studio bands. The Spiders were an outgrowth of a gospel group, The Delta Southernaires, and while having certain success, the group dissolved in the late fifties with Chuck Carbo taking on a solo career. 

While Carbo has recorded for a variety of labels over the years with some local hits, his name is less familiar to those outside of the Big Easy than his contemporaries like Johnny Adams, Ernie K-Doe and Aaron Neville. The release of his new Rounder album, Drawers Trouble, will remedy this. Backed by a tight New Orleans band that includes pianist Edward Frank with Dr. John guesting on piano, organ and guitar, it is a set of mostly original songs, many by Carbo, and a few by Dr. John and the late Doc Pomus. 

The material ranges from some strong Crescent City flavored blues to some tough R&B that recalls the glory days of Instant and Minit records. There is a solid reading of Jeannie and Jimmie Cheatham’s Meet Me With Your Black Dress On, (wrongly credited to Doc Cheatham), the classic R&B sound of Average Kind of Guy, and Hurt Coming On, as well as Dr. John’s and Doc Pomus’ recitation of the sleazier side of the Big Apple, New York City Blues. Carbo is a wonderful singer with a rich baritone. He possesses a marvelous sense of time and a knack for a phrase, and the backing he gets is first rate. This is likely to be on this listener’s top albums of the year.

Carbo had one more Rounder album, The Barber Blues, and after recording for Rounder, Carbo did one last album with Edward Frank’s New Orleans R&B Band, Life’s Ups & Downs on 504 Records. The latter is a nice record with a band that perhaps was a bit looser than on the Rounder sessions. It has nice versions of The Spiders classics “Witchcraft” and “You’re The One;” the classic Smiley Lewis recording “Blue Monday;” Carbo's take on “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On;” the torch song associated with Frankie Lane, “That’s My Desire;” and his contemporary Mardi Gras tune, “Second Line on Monday.” The late pianist Edward Frank, was one of the regulars of the the New Orleans scene in the fifties, and revered as a pianist and composer. This did not change even when a stroke made him a one-handed pianist. For a period he lived in Houston and the late saxophonist Don Wilkerson recorded some of his compositions.


Carbo's Rounder recordings are available today on cd-r reissues today, and the music as downloads. The 504 album is available from the Louisiana Music Factory, www.louisianamusicfactory.com.  I likely received a review copy of Drawers Trouble from Rounder in 1993, and I purchased the 504 album in 2009.