Nina Simone - The Montreux Years

Nina Simone
The Montreux Years
BMG

This Nina Simone double album is one of the initial releases (Etta James being another) from the Archives of The Montreux Jazz Festival in conjunction with The Claude Nobs Foundation. The Foundation was founded to oversee the Claude Nobs audio and visual archives of recordings of performances at the Festival. There are 29 performances from six performances from 1968 to 1990 over the two CDs (and available in other formats including double LPs). The CDs are packaged in a small hardback package, including notes in the booklet by Stevie Chick and discographical information. The first disc is a mix of performances from 1976 to 1990, while the second disc is the complete June 16, 1968 performance. There are four songs on each disc. The two discs contain two and a half hours' worth of music.

What made Nina Simone so iconic was the range of feelings and music that she transformed into personal statements. Her virtuosity is evident during the opening instrumental rendition of "Someone To Watch Over Me." Still, her accompaniments can be understated at times, while her vocals of protest or joy take us from a whisper to a scream. Her 'lightning in a bottle" performances like a tightrope walker without a net. Songs of protest against racist injustice like her collaboration with Langston Hughes "Backlash Blues," with complaints about Blacks being sent to Vietnam while being treated as second-class citizens, and the well-known "Four Women." These are interspersed with a great interpretation of "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" associated with Billie Holiday or the jubilant "My Baby Just Cares For Me." Another masterful performance is her interpretation of Janis Ian's "Stars" about the struggles an artist test has with great success and yet great self-doubts.

Her initial 1968 appearance at Montreux has an equally varied and astonishing program of her piano and vocals backed by a quartet of Buck Clarke on drums, Henry Young on guitar, Gene Taylor on bass, and Sam Waymon on organ. Simone takes over the standard "Just in Time," slowing the tempo down and playing a splendid solo. One wishes the backing on this song was more in the background. There is a stirring rendition of an old folk song, "When I Was a Young Girl," followed by a deeply felt interpretation of "Don't Let Me Be Understood," where Young adds acidic guitar. There is the tender reflectiveness in her rendition of Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quite Pas," pleading for her lover not to leave. With her brother Sam Waymon supporting her, she brilliantly reimagines The Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" with a deceptively understated rendition. She also sang The Bee Gees' "Please Read Me" at this show. A stirring "Backlash Blues" is followed by "House of the Rising Sun," taken at a brisk tempo. Another adaptation of an old folk song is "Sea-Line Woman," a 19th-century seaport song about sailors and prostitutes sung almost like a work song. Among other memorable selections are "Ain't Got No I Got Life" and the moving closing performance of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free."

Nina Simone was a singular artist who sang with inspired passion, improvised with her voice as John Coltrane did with a saxophone, and astonished listeners and audiences. This outstanding album captures Nina Simone's brilliance.

I received my review copy from a publicist.

JAMES HARMAN Mo’ Napkins Please: ...Strictly the Blues... Vol.2

Sad to hear about James Harman's passing. Here is a review from 2000 that I have not previously posted.

JAMES HARMAN

Mo’ Napkins Please: ...Strictly the Blues... Vol.2 

CANNONBALL (2000)

James Harman has built a well-deserved following with his strong blues vocals, harp playing, and songwriting. Cannonball has just issued this new album of recordings from the 80s, that come from the same 1984-1987 sessions that produced Strictly the Blues...Extra Napkins: Vol. 1. These sessions reunited him with some alumni of his band as well as other top-rated West Coast performers including guitarists Hollywood Fats, Junior Watson, and Kid Ramos; pianists Gene Taylor and Fred Kaplan; bassists Willie J. Campbell and Larry Taylor; and drummer Jimi Bott. 

The tunes are a collection of classics and originals that are modeled on classic blues recordings. The title track is a hot shuffle with some Little Walter-styled harp as Junior Watson rips off a Willie Johnson-inspired solo as the tune evokes Howlin’ Wolf’s Memphis recordings. "Annalee", dedicated to Tommy Johnson and Robert Nighthawk, is a Harman original lyric with Kid Ramos’ guitar adding some Texas flavor to the number. "Too Much Family," a rocking lament about his in-laws overcrowding the house features some terrific Hollywood Fats guitar, also in a Willie Johnson mode, who trades eights with drummer Stephen Taylor Hodges. "Icepick’s Pawnshop Blues," based on the "Forty Four Blues," has Harman lay down harp and his vocal is accompanied only by Fred Kaplan’s piano and Hodges on drums. Mix in these distinctive Harman originals with first-rate covers of The Five Royales’ "(Feel Like) Messin’ Up," Champion Jack Dupree’s "Shim Sham Shimmy," Gatemouth Brown’s "Dirty Work at the Crossroads," and Lightnin’ Hopkins’ "Jake-Head Boogie." The latter tune finds him backed only by Kid Ramos’ guitar evoking the King of Dowling Street’s memory quite effectively. Gene Taylor has a boogie-woogie feature, "The Falcon’s Nest," that showcases his ability to tickle the ivories.

By the time the album closes with an acoustic reprisal of the title track, one is satiated with the musical delights here.

This review is from the May-June 2000 Jazz & Blues Report. I likely received a review copy from Cannonball Records or a publicist. I have made minor grammatical edits to the original review. Here he performs "Extra Napkins."

Kim Wilson That’s Life

Kim Wilson
That’s Life
Antone’s

Kim Wilson’s second Antone’s album showcases his considerable talent as a singer, harmonica player and songwriter. It is comprised of Wilson’s originals and some covers of tunes that haven’t been done to tedium.

Opening with a rocking jump blues, Baby Please Don’t Lie To Me, Wilson confidently delivers his vocal on a lyric suggestive of Percy Mayfield. In contrast Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You sounds like a cover of an unissued Sonny Boy Williamson Checker recording , although Wilson’s harp echoes Little Walter on his fine treatment of Jimmy Rogers’ Blues Leave Me Alone (with tasty harp fills and a solid solo from guitarist Rusty Zinn) and on the harp features, Humpin’ to Please, and Lowdown, both exhibiting his relaxed and fluid phrasing and full tone. Wilson salutes the second Sonny Boy Williamson on She’s My Baby, and his harp also echoes Williamson on a rocking rendition of Junior Parker’s Pretty Baby.

In addition to Zinn, Duke Robillard, Derek O’Brien and Clarence Holliman are also heard on guitar, and Gene Taylor adds piano. The only tune that perhaps comes off flat is Wilson’s straight reworking of Irma Thomas’ classic soul hit, Time is on My Side. Otherwise, Wilson’s songs, vocals and harp recapture the feeling of the classic blues from the fifties and sixties on a set that is much more than simply nostalgia.

I likely received a review copy of this from the label or a publicist. This review originally appeared in the November 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 194). Here is Kim from a somewhat recent performance.

James Harman in a Lonesome Moon Trance

James Harman has been laying his blues harmonica and vocals for several decades. He has stayed true to the blues tradition while as I note in the following review, telling his own story. This review appeared originally in the December2003-January 2004 D.C. Blues Calendar, then the newsletter of the Dc Blues Society. I do not recall if I received a review copy of this or purchased it.

Photo © Ron Weinstock

In his liner notes to his latest release, Lonesome Moon Trance (Pacific Blues), James Harman notes how he has been going through changes in recent years and how he has a bunch of stories to tell which we are fortunate enough to hear now. Harman has brought together some terrific musicians to help out on this including Kid Ramos, Kirk Fletcher, Bob Margolin, Junior Watson, Carl Sonny Leyland, and Gene Taylor on the twelve tracks. 

Performances like Piecework Politicians with its witty suggestions that politicians get paid for the benefits they give the citizens or My Secret Escapade with its atmospheric use of the Bo Diddley groove. Harmon’s superb Little Walter-styled harp graces several tracks including Double Hogback Growler, while on his Miss Bessie Mae Blues, his playing is more in the Sonny Boy Williamson II vein. This is not to suggest he is a copyist, but rather simply to suggest the general flavor of his playing. It should be noted that he certainly appears to have tried to capture the feel and flavor of the classic Chicago blues of the fifties while telling his own stories. 

Harman’s playing, vocals and songs stand up on their own and are well worth hearing. This is a typically excellent recording by Icepick James who has never disappointed this listener with his music. If you have trouble locating this in stores, you can try www.pacificblues.com. 

Here is James in performance at the Wilmington DE Riverfront Blues Festival. Nathan james is the guitarist.

Take a Boogie Woogie Ride With Gene Taylor

Pianist/vocalist Gene Taylor may be best known for his stint in The Fabulous Thunderbirds, but before that he was an important component of that legendary roots rock band, The Blasters. Prior to that he had a stint with James Harman and according to Wikipedia he is currently living in Belgium. That perhaps might explain why the Spanish El Toro label has just issued his new recording Let Me Ride In Your Automobile backed by the Dutch band, CC Jerome’s Jet Setters with Nick Curran make a couple guest appearances.

The recording opens with some rollicking piano on Evangeline Stomp with some ripping tenor sax from Martijn Van Toor and rocking guitar riffs with Taylor’s overdubbed organ adding to the full sound. He follows with some terrific Pete Johnson styled boogie woogie piano and a solid vocal on Rockin’ Little Honey,” with crisp rocking guitar added for a tough performance.” Just a Midnight Girl is a mid-tempo number with a rumba groove (like some of Tampa Red’s latter recordings) and a nice brief harp solo followed by “The Golden Rule,” a rocker with Nick Curran’s stinging guitar has a pointed lyric about he with all the gold makes the rules followed by a strong jump blues rendition of the classic hillbilly boogie, Moon Mullican’s Seven Nights To Rock, with a strong guitar solo from Jeroen Van Gasteren before Taylor’s fluid boogie playing. 

Never Took the Time, is a driving performance with a lyric about a faltering relationship with strong solos and ensemble playing, whereas The Blues For Me has a low-key, rustic feel in comparison with his lament about aspects of modern life. The Walkout has a bit of rockabilly flavor an insistent beat and is followed by three covers. First up is Big Walter Price’s Shirley Jean, which is a nice swamp pop performance. It is followed by a lively version of Johnny “Guitar’ Watson’s Motorhead Baby, greatly accelerating the tempo from Watson’s original into a rocking jump blues with plenty of boogie woogie blues. Let Me Ride In Your Automobile, which dates back to at least 1940 and Big Bill Broonzy. Taylor’s performance derives from Lowell Fulson’s recording (and Fulson receives the composer credit, and has a fine vocal that effectively highlights the wit of the double-entendre lyrics. Flying With Whitey is a instrumental that closes this recording on a hot jitter-bugging note.

Taylor’s originals are solid and idiomatic, his vocals are unforced and the Jet Setters know the difference between rock and roll and hard rock. I have enjoyed Taylor’s work when I have seen him play, so I am not surprised his has put out such a strong a strong blues and roots rock album. I bought it from bluebeatmusic.com, although it is available from amazon and cdbaby, so should be relatively easy to find.