Rosanna Vitro's Delirium Blues Project Has To Serve Or Suffer

A project conjured by vocalist Roseanna Vitro and pianist/arranger Kenny Werner, the Delirium Blues Project is succinctly described by producer Jeff Levenson as ”a celebration of the blues as the basis of much popular music.” Anyway, they spent a week in August, 2007 at New York’s Blue Note and this living recording, Serve or Suffer (Half Note), was the result.

In addition to Vitro and Werner, the Delirium Blues Project features a genuine all-star horn line-up of Randy Brecker, trumpet; James Carter, tenor sax; Ray Anderson, trombone; Geoff Countryman, baritone sax; Adam Rogers, guitar; John Patitucci, acoustic and electric bass; and Rocky Bryant, drums. Bringing together the marvelous Werner arrangements with Vitro’s singing and the terrific musicians, one has a intriguing recording that provides a different take on some blues and bluesy material.

While horn dominated one should not short-change the fine playing of guitarist Rogers, yet the real musical fireworks are provided by Brecker, Carter and Anderson. The material is fresh from the opening piece of jive, What Is Hip, followed by a Tracy Nelson number, Goodnight Nelda Grebe, The Telephone Company Has Cut Us Off, with a fine vocal (Nelson was an influence on Vitro) and a choice Brecker solo. Blue is an indigo ballad with a marvelous solo from Carter while he apparently is on soprano with some serpentine playing behind the vocal on Joni Mitchell’s Be Cool, with Rogers employing a bluesy tone on his solo. Lil Green’s In the Night, may be the most familiar number here but Patitucci’s bass is the sole accompaniment for Vitro’s intimate vocal.

A funk groove underlies the rendition of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham’s ‘Cheater Man,’ on which Vitro takes a wordless solo, while on Mose Allison’s Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy, Ray Anderson growling plunger mute work would make Tricky Sam Nanton proud. Most of the players get to stretch out on the closing, Don't Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down, a tune by Eric Bibb, C. Hoglund and Maria Muldaur, whose bass line is a cousin to Green Onion/ Help Me.

This is the type of band that Al Kooper wishes he could have had thirty odd years ago with the original Blood Sweat & Tears while the sophistication of the music also suggests Steely Dan. One hopes that this aggregation was more than a one-shot deal, as this resulting recording whets the appetite for more delirium.

This review originally appeared in the July 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 306) and I likely received my review copy from that publication. Here is Ms. Vitro and Kevin Mahogany singing Blue Monk.

Bennie Wallace's Coleman Hawkins tribute

Tenor saxophonist Bennie Wallace has a most intriguing career playing with blues and gospel artists as well as served as the musical director for several films including Blaze and Bull Durham. His own recordings have included sideman as diverse as Tommy Flanagan, Dr. John, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dave Holland, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, Oliver Lake and Ray Anderson. Viewed as among the most original saxophonists, he has had a deep reverence for classic saxophonists as Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Lester Young and Don Byas. His latest Enja/JustinTime disc is a tribute to Coleman Hawkins, Disorder at the Border, that was recorded at a German concert in 2004, the year of the Hawkins Centenary. With a superb nine-piece big little band, they run through a program of songs associated with Hawkins in swinging arrangements that hint at Jazz at the Philharmonic and similar type gigs, but with wonderful arrangements by Anthony Wilson (except for Wallace on Honeysuckle Rose) that provide a bit of a more modern ambiance than the simple riffs of those swinging groups of years gone buy. Others present are Terell Stafford on trumpet, Ray Anderson on trombone, Jesse Davis and Brad Leali on alto saxophone, Adam Schroeder on baritone saxophone, Donald Vega on piano, Danton Boller on bass and Alvin Queen on drums. It opens with Hawkins’ title track, a blues-based number that Wallace gets right into. Stafford and Schroeder certainly get noticed with some hot playing on Bean & the Boys, the other Hawkins original. Wilson’s arrangement over Vega’s piano provides just the right setting for Wallace’s ballad playing which suggests a bit of Ben Webster with his heavy vibrato. Wallace’s arrangement of Honeysuckle Rose is inspired by Benny Carter's arrangement of the song with Vega’s thoughtful piano being to the fore before the horns dig in and the tempo kicks up a notch in a playful mode with Davis and Leali featured as they both take several choruses before they start trading off each other, before Schroeder takes the front stage and a gruff chorus by Anderson. On Body and Soul, the spare arrangement almost provides a feeling to the performance that Wallace is unaccompanied on his remarkable homage to Hawkins on what was perhaps his biggest hit. It is a entrancing performance. The rousing Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho, is the longest performance which takes this marvelous disc to a strong conclusion.