Lucky Peterson
Tribute To Jimmy Smith
Jazzbook Records
Lucky Peterson's passing left a significant hole for music lovers. I first met Lucky with his father, James Peterson, while I was in graduate school in Buffalo and did a blues program on WBFO. He was a prodigious talent then, and of course, he had a significant career working of Little Milton and Bobby Bland before setting forth on his own. Of course, he is best known as a bluesman, but he had considerable jazz chops, as displayed on this tribute to one of his main influences on the organ, the legendary Jimmy Smith.
On this date centered on Smith's music, Peterson is accompanied by guitarist Kelyn Crapp and drummer Herlin Riley. There are also guest appearances by Nicholas Fowler on trumpet, Archie Shepp on tenor sax and vocals, and Phillipe Petrucciani on guitar. Things start with strong renditions of a trio of tunes associated with Smith, Jimmy Forrest's "Night Train," Smith's "The Sermon," and Dizzy Gillespie's "The Champ." There is a collaboration with Archie Sheep, "Jimmy Wants to Groove," which is a musical mashup of various blues numbers. Shepp's booting tenor sax and singing meshes with Peterson's chicken fried playing. Riley maintains a relaxed shuffle groove here. Lucky's passionate singing on "Singing This Song 4 U," a reworking of Leon Russell's "A Song For You," follows. Crapp's nimble guitar backing is noteworthy on this track. With Riley laying down a light Caribbean groove, Crapp and Lucky sparkle on "Jimmy's Groove." The trio follows with an excellent rendition of "Misty," and Shepp's gutbucket tenor sax returns for a relaxed interpretation of "Back At the Chicken Shack."
Guitarist Petrucciani wrote and plays on "Blues For Wes," a tribute to the late guitar genius and the classic recordings Smith and Montgomery made. Montgomery's influence is evident in Petrucciani's fleet solo, followed by Peterson's mesmerizing B-3 solo. It is a superb close to an outstanding recording showcasing Peterson's command of the B-3 and his considerable jazz chops.
I purchased this. Here is Lucky Peterson performing a tribute to Jimmy Smith at a jazz festival.
Purported to be a tribute to Louis Armstrong, Dr. John’s new Concord Records album even reflects that in its title, She-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit Of Satch. Listening to this I find it more satisfying as listening to this as simply a Dr. John album with songs somehow associated with Louis Armstrong. With arrangements primarily by his trombonist Sarah Morrow and the good Doctor, the music is more in the spirit of Dr. John and for a tribute to a gentleman whose legacy might be summed up by a title he recorded, Swing That Music, there is little swing but plenty of funk. This is despite the presence of such marvelous guests as Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, Wendell Brunious, James Andrews, the Five Blind Boys, Ledisi, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, the Dirty Dozen and Arturo Sandoval along with Reginald Veal, Herlin Riley, Pancho Sanchez and Ed Petersen among those playing on these sessions.
One does notice the omission of anyone with direct ties to Louis Armstrong here such as Jewel Brown who was a member of Armstrong’s touring band for years, and Catherine Russell, daughter of Luis Russell, the leader Louis Armstrong’s big band for years before in disbanded. Russell herself has revived a number of Armstrong songs on her wonderful recent recordings (and most definitely in the spirit of Satchmo) and would have made as wonderful a participant as anybody here.
Looking at the material, there are only a few numbers that have a strong connection with Armstrong and core to his performance while several core songs of Armstrong’s music including When It’s Sleepy Time Down South (Armstrong’s theme song) and When the Saints Go Marching In (Armstrong’s recording with his big band popularized a number that has become overplayed perhaps). That’s My Home is a musical cousin to Sleepy Time, and one can understand Dr. John being uncomfortable with the its lyrics. While Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child was performed by Armstrong, and is a nice vehicle for singer Anthony Hamilton, there is nothing about this song or performance that makes one think of Armstrong. The same can be said with Sweet Hunk O’Trash that Armstrong performed with Billie Holiday in a movie and seems to be chosen as a vehicle for a duet with Copeland. Armstrong played on the original Trouble in Mind, and one wonders that a more inspired vehicle for Copeland might have been this with simply Dr. John and just Nicholas Payton on trumpet.
There is a lovely rendition of What a Wonderful World (although hardly a core part of Armstrong’s repertoire when he was alive) with the Five Blind Boys to open this album and there is a fresh, funk and hip-hop rendition of “Mack the Knife” with Mike Ladd adding a rap. Also Tight Like That, with Arturo Sandoval’s trumpet is totally reworked into a Latin number. The duet with Bonnie Raitt on I’ve Got the World on a String is nice but the only thing Dr. John’s “Gut Bucket Blues” has in common with Armstrong’s Hot Five recording is its title. The performance bears little resemblance to Armstrong’s original although Payton is brilliant here and it is a nice blues vocal and performance. Despite some bombast in the arrangement, Dippermouth Blues is also far removed from King Oliver’s original or the various renditions (including under the name Sugarfoot Stomp, and becomes rollicking New Orleans funk with James Andrews (Trombone Shorty’s brother) playing hot trumpet while Doctor John sings some scat phrases he wrote (including the title of this album), That’s My Home is one of the songs here that most evokes Armstrong’s music as does Memories of You with some outstanding playing from trumpeter Sandoval.
The closing When You’re Smiling, with the Dirty Dozen, has a lively Afro-Cuban groove and a solid vocal from the good Doctor. And there is certainly nothing to fault Dr. John’s performances here. The problem is the subtitle of the album, The Spirit of Satch. If you simply called this Ske-Dat-De-Dat, I suspect few would make a connection with Louis Armstrong from listening to it other than observe several songs were associated with Armstrong. At the same time, viewed as a Dr. John album it certainly will appeal to his many fans and on that basis I have no problem recommending this.
I received a review copy from Concord Records. Here is the song Gutbucket Blues as performed by Dr. John followed by the Armstrong Hot Five recording, Gutbucket Blues.
Often forgotten in Rounder Records recordings of New Orleans music in the 1980s and 1990s was the fact they did some straight ahead jazz recordings that are well worth noting. The following review of The New Orleans C.A.C. Jazz Orchestra appeared in the August 1998 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 230). I likely received a review copy from Rounder.
In 1996, Pianist David Torkanowsky put together a big band, The New Orleans C.A.C. Jazz Orchestra, with some of the Crescent City’s greatest musicians and fronted them with three of the city’s pre-eminent singers, George French, Germaine Bazzle and Johnny Adams. Its a band that includes Herlin Riley on drums, Nicholas Payton on trumpet, and Ed Peterson, Wessell Anderson and Victor Goines on reeds. They have a recording, Mood Indigo on Rounder.
The band is heard on a variety of standards from such pens as Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and Percy Mayfield. It is refreshing to hear three distinct vocal styles backed by this swinging aggregation. George French’s take on Don’t Get Around Much Anymore has a sophisticated and relaxed flavor that brings Joe Williams to mind, which is reinforced by his rendition of Carmichael’s New Orleans, a song this writer is familiar with from the sixty five year old recording by Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra that included Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing.
On Sometimes I’m Happy, Germaine Bazzle provides a contrasting style as she phrases the lyrics in a staccato fashion, as if playing the lyrics on a trumpet. On the mid-tempo Ellington blues, I‘m Just a Lucky So and So, Bazzle in contrast caresses the lyric, singing in a legato fashion. On her last feature, Porter’s I Love Paris, Nicholas Payton is heavily featured with some hard bop trumpet.
Adams, sings very cleanly and precisely on Percy Mayfield’s Lost Mind, a staple of his repertoire, and on which he contributes a mouth trombone solo. The three join together on Mood Indigo, opening with three-part harmony with Bazzle taking the vocal lead on parts with some exquisite trombone solos from John Touchy and Mark Mullins, two persons this writer is unfamiliar with.
The recording closes with the three trading lyrics on a medley of Everyday I Have the Blues (featuring Bazzle), Stormy Monday (featuring French), and Not Trustworthy (featuring Adams on another Percy Mayfield lyric) that closes with the three singers each delivering their chosen lyric.
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