Quintus McCormick Soulfully Plays The Blues

Delmark’s Steve Wagner recalls his initial reaction when first hearing Quintus McCormick when recording his 1st Delmark album, Hey Jodie. “Wow this cat could be the next Johnnie Taylor!” Well I might suggest a bit of Tyrone Davis and Artie ‘Blues Boy’ White as well after hearing McCormick’s new Delmark release Still Called The Blues. Wagner co-produced this with McCormick with either John Chorney or Roosevelt Purify on keyboards; Lovely ‘JR’ Fuller on bass; Pete Thomas on drums; Kenny Anderson on trumpet; Dudley Owens on tenor sax; Jerry DiMuzio on flute and baritone.

There is a nice mix of urgency in the vocals and crisp backing with some funk on the opening I Gotta Go, followed by a cover of Bobby Rush’s What’s Good For The Goose which opens with a humorous spoken spot. McCormick’s What Am I Gonna Do? is a fresh original in the vein of some of Tyrone Davis’ recordings. On It Won’t Work he reaches down to the bottom range of his voice while laying down a crisply defined solo. On his interpretation of the Johnnie Taylor recording that provides this album its title, McCormick contributes a lively solo and a fervent vocal.

That’s My Baby is a soulful ballad with DiMuzio adding flute. It is followed by some hard-edged, searing guitar that opens his cover of Little Johnny Taylor’s Everybody Knows About My Good Thing. This is the longest performance on this album and McCormick pulls out all the stops on guitar. I’m In Love With You Baby is another soulful song with the horns evoking classic sixties Chicago soul recordings such as by the Impressions. A nice rendition of the Beatles’ Oh! Darling, has raspy, uncredited tenor saxophone.

Always is a lament played in an understated manner opening with just vocal and his piano before the full band joins in. This closes with a credible, if not remarkable, cover of the Bob Seger hit, Old Time Rock and Roll. Still Called the Blues will appeal to a very wide grouping of blues lovers and is further proof that Quintus McCormick is among today’s finest blues and soul performers

I received my review copy from Delmark. I have previously reviewed his prior Delmark recordings, Hey Jodie! and Put It On Me! Here is Quintus performing. 

Quintus McCormick Puts The Blues On Us!!!

In reviewing Quintus McCormick’s debut CD Hey Jodie (Delmark), this writer found it to be “a marvelous debut album by a blues voice I to hear more from.” About two years later and Delmark has brought us its follow-up Put It On Me! It is a release that builds upon his strengths whether working ins straight blues or in a straight deep soul vein. On this release, in addition to his fine quartet of John Chorney on keyboards, Vic Jackson on bass and Jeremiah Thomas on drums, their are appearance by Billy Branch on harmonica and the Chicago horns.

About his prior album, I observed that McCormick has “developed into a contemporary urban blues voice with a strong soul-blues tinge. He brings a vocal style that captures elements of Charles Wilson, Little Milton, and others with an intense guitar style… .” There is more of this on this release that show him moving from a lazy Jimmy Reed styled shuffle You Just Using Me; to Talk Baby, with its funk and his high tenor vocal; and to the soulful ballad How Quick We Forget, with some deep Brook Benton evoking singing, with a fuzzy toned, buzzy guitar solo. Its a pretty remarkable variety, and that’s just the first three numbers.

There is a fine blues, I Got It Babe, with a Malaco groove (think Down Home Blues) where he sings “I got what you need, make you scream like you’re sweet sixteen” to effective spare backing. John Chorney shines on keyboards here. Another good blues is The Blues Has Been Good to Me with a fine vocal and nice harp from Billy Branch. In contrast, Loveland, with the Chicago horns, is a ballad with a nice groove. The following blues shuffle, “Don’t Know What to Do, has more fine Billy Branch harp and a strong McCormick vocal, but also a fuzzy blues-rock guitar solo that detracts from the performance. The title track is a nice blues performance whose melody hints at Muddy Waters’ classic recording of I’m Ready.

The country soul of “Sadie” has jazzier guitar playing as well with McCormick asking the woman to leave him alone. Another fine slow blues vocal is on Lady Blues with more good guitar (suggestive of mid-60s B.B. King and Detroit bluesman Johnnie Bassett) while the closing Hallelujah, is a wonderfully sung R&B styled gospel number played in a low-key manner. It closes an impressive second album by McCormick who certainly shows absolutely no sophomore slump on this excellent Put It On Me!

My review copy was supplied by the record company.

Quintus McCormick's Soulful Blues Debut

One of my favorite blues discoveries of 2009 was the debut Delmark disc by Quintus McCormick. I wrote the following review which appeared in the October 15 to December 1 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 321).

It has been an interesting musical journey for Chicago blues man Quintus McCormick. Born in Detroit, he grew up enamored with progressive rock with early inspirations coming from Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Santana, Humble Pie and Steve Howe of Yes. After moving to Chicago, and getting a musical degree he was playing pop music until he started with J.W. Williams and the Chicago Hustlers where he got his musical inspiration and then later worked sideman gigs with Lefty Dizz and James Cotton, as well as getting personal insights from various events in his life such as going down south to help his parents bury his granddad. As he has musically grown he has definitely developed into a contemporary urban blues voice with a strong soul-blues tinge. He brings a vocal style that captures elements of Charles Wilson, Little Milton, and others with an intense guitar style that Delmark has just captured in “Hey Jodie!,” the debut album by the Quintus McCormick Blues Band.

It opens with the title track, which is subtitled “Take Good Care of My Baby,” as he adds to the body of songs involving the back door lover, telling him to take care of Quintus’ baby since he can’t leave her alone. Its a soulful performance with nice horns and synthesized strings from keyboard wiz Roosevelt Purifoy. Its followed by the small group “Get You Some Business,” instead of taking care of Quintus’ business, with an insistent backing suggestive of some of the late Andrew Brown. McCormick is generally quite a solid guitarist but his heavily distorted tone adds little to the beginning of what is an otherwise intense performance, “What Goes Around Comes Around,” with some nice harp from Ted Reynolds. Not any complaints can be had for the driving shuffle “You Should Learn From This,” with its punchy horns. “Fifty/Fifty,” with the horns and harmonica has a funky groove as he sings about how he and his partner who have to share equally for their special love they have. “I’m Alright Now,” is a lazy Jimmy Reed-styled shuffle that McCormick takes a more low-key vocal with Reynolds adding some tasty harmonica. It is followed by a rocker, “Get That Money,” which does not completely jell together because of its frantic tempo and accompaniment. Much better are the soul ballad “Hot Lovin’ Woman,” and the pleading “Plano Texas Blues,” while “I’m a Good Man Baby,” is another fine performance that gets to display his fine guitar playing. Standing out among the many fine performances is the soulful singing on “There Ain’t No Right Way To Do Wrong,” and a nice terse solo. Obviously selections like this suggest that McCormick should be a significant presence on the southern blues and soul music, his music be as equally appealing to fans of such recent contemporary blues legends as Little Milton, Otis Rush, Andrew Brown, and Jimmy Johnson. While there may be one or two disappointing tracks among the 15 here, but overall this is a marvelous debut album by a blues voice I to hear more from.

To satisfy a possible interpretation of FTC regulations, I received a review copy from Delmark Records.