J.J. Malone's Early In The Morning Blues

The following review appeared originally in the January-February 2000 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 243) as one of three reviews I did of recent releases on Fedora Records. I have made a few minor changes to the original review. I posted my review of Al Garrett's Out of Bad Luck a few days ago.

J.J. Malone's See Me Early in the Morning is his second release for Fedora. Malone has been a mainstay of the Oakland, California blues scene for years. Malone mixes downhome blues influences with more urbane influences to produce an interesting mix of music. 

The album opens with a remake of his It's a Shame, which was a minor hit in several cities in the sixties. It is followed by the title track which is credited to Junior Wells, and perhaps most associated with the first Sonny Boy Williamson, but which goes back to pioneering blues pianist Walter Roland. Characteristic of these and many of the performances is a distinctive, syncopated and funky rhythm. 

Most of the songs are originals, though Malone is heard strongly on a reworking of Memphis Slim's Mother Earth, and reworks Muddy Waters' Walkin' Thru the Park, with an arrangement that borrows from Cross Cut Saw. An instrumental, Smoked Oysters, suggests the swamp blues sound of Slim Harpo, while Malone goes down in the alley on the country-blues flavored Peace Breakin' Woman. 

Malone plays and sings effectively throughout and this joins his prior Fedora album as one for blues fans to consider.

Al Garrett Climbing Out Of Bad Luck

The following review appeared originally in the January-February 2000 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 243) as one of three reviews I did of recent releases on Fedora Records. I have made a few minor changes to the original review.

Among recent releases from Fedora Records are albums by J.J. Malone, Mojo Buford and Al Garrett. Garrett is the least known of the three, and while based in the Fresno, California area, was born in Memphis. His dad played juke joints in the delta in the 20s. When the family moved to the Los Angeles area, he became part of the R&B scene there, playing bass with the likes of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Smokey Wilson, Roy Brown and Lowell Fulson. 

Listening to his debut album, Out of Bad Luck, one cannot help but notice Magic Sam's influence in both his vocal phrasing and some of his guitar playing. Bobby Logan's tenor sax also contributes this feel as his playing suggests that of Eddie Shaw on the Black Magic album. Garrett sings and plays well, but one will find little original here in his covers, although his performances are not slavish covers. 

There is a nice mix of material here, ranging from the title track and Jimmy McCracklin's I Just Got to Know, to Guitar Slim's rocking shuffle, You Give Me Nothing But the Blues, and the stark, topical Cummins Prison Farm, with a strong, passionate vocal.  Even if he is not nearly as accomplished as Magic Sam, his playing here does suggest how Sam would have sounded doing Little Walter's Last Night and B.B. King's Please Love Me. 

If far from essential, Garrett's Out of Bad Luck does have plenty of pleasures to offer blues listeners.

Iceman Robinson's Slide Guitar Blues

Riler 'Iceman' Robinson, like many playing the blues in Chicago, came from Mississippi. He learned to play blues guitar from a man who was in his 50s and also played the fiddle and the two worked house parties together, with Robinson accompanying the fiddler on guitar. Later he moved to Chicago working a variety of blue collar jobs. An early musical idol was Lightnin' Hopkins, but Robinson later was enamored by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor with the latter two especially influencing his music. 

To my knowledge, Iceman Robinson has one recording available, the 2001 Fedora album I've Never Been Loved. He is backed on it by Frank Goldwasser on guitar; Willie Kent on bass; and producer Chris Millar on drums.  His influences are pretty evident on this traditionally based Chicago blues album. The opening My Baby's Comin' Home, is a reworking of Elmore's Talk To Me Baby, with an urgent vocal and driving slide. It is followed by insistent rendition Hound Dog Taylor's Sadie, where half way through Robinson starts referring to a "Sally" for the remainder of the performance. Other strong tracks include a fine slide instrumental Robinson's Rock styled after some of the instrumentals Elmore James recorded for record producer, Bobby Robinson, and Chicago Lakefront which is a hot shuffle with some tough non-slide guitar.

There is nothing profound about his songs. Just like he needs money, he needs a woman he sings against the insistent backing of I Have a Need. The title track is a relaxed shuffle where he complains that he has never being treated right and has the blues all day and all night. He complains about having no time to play and his woman not being helping any on Workin' Man, a driving blues using the Dust My Broom riff. The insistent Baby How Long adapts Howlin' Wolf's How Many More Years. A driving slide guitar boogie in the vein of Hound Dog Taylor, "Waiting on My Baby," ends this entertaining album.

Iceman Robinson’s I've Never Been Loved is one of many solid traditionally oriented Chicago blues that many may have been overlooked by fans of this style. It delivers some solid Chicago blues with solid slide guitar that should appeal to fans of Chicago styled blues who may have missed this. Fedora is to be thanked for making the music of unheralded acts like Ice Man Robinson available for posterity.

I believe I purchased this and it is still available.

George 'Mojo' Buford 1929-2011

I had the pleasure of seeing George ‘Mojo’ Buford sing with James Cotton at the 2006 Pocono Blues Festival, but never had the chance to see him play harmonica.  Word of his passing on October 11 hit hard for those of us who are fans of old school Chicago-styled blues. Born in Hernando, Mississippi, Buford moved to Memphis while still young and got his early blues schooling there before moving to Chicago in the early 50’s where he became a band that became known as the Muddy Waters Jr. Band. It was not a band of Muddy imitators, but rather Muddy's selected band to fill-in for him at Chicago clubs when Muddy was on the road. Buford, himself, would have several stints as part of Muddy’s band replacing Little Walter and James Cotton. He was a member Muddy’s band when that legend passed away in 1983.

After Muddy’s death, Mojo performed as a leader and also with other blues legends, serving a spell with James Cotton as vocalist after Cotton lost his singing voice. His last performance was with Cotton and guitarist Hubert Sumlin at Yoshi’s in San Francisco this past July. Shortly after returning to Minneapolis, he had heart surgery from which he never fully recovered, and he died on October 12 of heart failure. He was survived by nine children.

James Cotton and Mojo Buford at 2006 Pocono Blues Festival. Photo © Ron Weinstock

Buford physically relocated to Minneapolis in 1962 which would remain his home for the rest of his life and he would be a major figure in that community’s blues scene. In 1964, his first album, Exciting Harmonica Sound of Mojo Buford (Blues Record Society) was issued and it would not be until 1979 when Mr. Blues issued Mojo Buford’s Blues Summit, would he have another full album as a leader. This was subsequently issued on Mr. Blues and the Japanese P-Vine label. He shared albums with other members of the Muddy Waters Band for Douglas Records and was a sideman on a Bluesway album by Otis Spann as well as on some live performances by Muddy Waters. Subsequent to the Mr. Blues album, he recorded several albums for JSP, Blue Loon and Fedora. The latter label issued a 1998 live recording, Champagne & Reefer which was Buford's last album.

Ironically I had uploaded two of his albums to itunes on my Mac computer a few weeks ago. These were Still Blowing Strong, a 1996 recording originally issued on Blue Loon, and Champagne & Reefer, the live Fedora CD I have mentioned. Both recordings are solid efforts that show him to be influenced by Muddy Waters as a vocalist and a capable harmonica player in the Little Walter vein with a fat, crying tone. Both of these albums are currently available.

Still Blowing Strong was a studio recording with a solid Chicago styled band (and not having the physical CD in front of me I can’t provide personnel). It has some solid idiomatic originals, performed in the style of the Muddy Waters Band. There is some Muddy styled slide guitar provided on Apple On A Tree, a nice cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s In My Younger Day, and a couple of instrumentals that showcase his harp playing.

Recorded in Phoenix, the performances on Champagne & Reefer are solid with a band that included Bob Margolin on guitar and Chico Chism on drums. Margolin, in introducing Buford, notes that Buford got him to join Muddy’s band right after one of Muddy’s guitarists had left, which Margolin thanks him publicly for. He provides guitar in the vein of Muddy as Buford delivers forceful vocals on the title track, Blow Wind Blow, Long Distance Call, Don’t Go No Further, and other songs associated with Muddy. There also are spirited versions of Willie Dixon’s Wee Wee Baby, and Sonny Boy Williamson’s Nine Below Zero.

Information in this review was based on Bill Dahl’s biography at allmusic.com and the obituary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Bob Corritore, who produced Champagne & Reefer, has an appreciation of Mojo Buford on his website, http://www.bobcorritore.com/WhatsNew.html. It is an entry dated October 11, 2011.