Project Garnd Slam's Appealing Spring Dance

Project Grand Slam, named after the plot to break into Fort Knox in the James Bond thriller Goldfinger, is a contemporary jazz-fusion group led by bassist Robert Miller, with saxophones and flute from Gilad Ronen and drums from Ron Thaler. On their new Cakewalk Records release Spring Dance, they are joined by Mike Eckroth on keyboards, Joye Hennesey on vocals; Danny Lerman on alto saxophone and Justin Smith on strings. 

The nine selections are mostly originals by either Miller or Ronen with the exception of a cover of the Hollies He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. There is nothing fancy here, just very melodic and bouncy performances with definite appeal to fans of such artists as Bob James, Grover Washington, The Crusaders, and Spyro Gyra. As a disclosure, I remember seeing Sypro Gyra regularly on Thursday Nights at Buffalo’s Tralfamadore Cafe in the mid-seventies when they played a variety of originals and always closed the night out with Sonny Rollins’ St. Thomas.

This listener heard some echoes of the theme from the TV show Taxi, on the title track, while Ma Petite Fleur, is a slow ballad with Ronen’s soprano stating the theme and establishing the winsome mood before Eckroth’s R&B-flavored piano solo. Vocalist Hennessey is showcased on the soulful Remember, with some nice playing by the rhythm, with an attractive tenor sax solo from Ronen and nice support from Miller and Thaler. After the bouncy Catch You Later, Ronen’s The Turn, displays a bit more reflective mood. Hennessey returns for the funky interpretation of The Hollies hit recording. 

The album closes with an instrumental version of “Remember,” which seems like filler. Even including it, the nine tracks on Spring Dance are a little over a half hour. This is nicely performed and recorded. While there is little deep or profound on this, it is a very entertaining recording with a definite appeal.

I was provided a review copy from a publicist.

Albert Castiglia Is Living The Dream

Singer-guitarist Albert Castiglia was a member of Junior Wells Band the last year of Junior’s life. After Wells’ passing the band did some gigs backing vocalist Sandra Hall with Castiglia developing his craft and career in the years since. An energetic guitarist who can rock out, he is also a capable vocalist who has a new release on Blue Leaf, Living the Dream. On this, his band of AJ Kelly on bass and Bob Amsel on drums is augmented by the keyboards of John Ginty with Sandy Mack adding harmonica to a couple of tracks, Jonny Rizzo slide guitar to one and Emedin Rivera adding percussion on two.

The recording a mix of rocking blues and some interesting covers that represent some unusual choices. As a guitarist he certainly can pull out all the stops but even at a rocket tempo, the clarity and articulation in his playing is evident. On the opening title track as he sings about playing the blues wherever he can and the hustlers and sharks one comes across before he takes an explosive solo. I certainly am impressed by his talent even if the performance might be a bit rocked out as a matter of my preference. It is followed by a nice topical blues about us doing clean up for The Man with a latin groove which his rhythm section ably handles under some more guitar pyrotechnics. 

Freddie King is an obvious influence and Castiglia certainly does a fine salute on King’s Freddie’s Boogie, which kicks off in hyper-drive and his mix of chords (in the vein of Magic Sam on Lookin’ Good) and single note runs is exhilarating. He puts plenty of heart singing Little Richard’s Directly From Heart To You, and Ginty takes the first solo on this followed by Castiglia emphasizing the lower end of his guitar’s range. Sometimes You Win represents a change of pace with him on acoustic guitar as he spins a bit of home-grown philosophy in the lyrics, followed by screaming slide on Public Enemy #9, as he sings about being busted in no man’s land with a beer in his hand. 

Sandy Mack adds harmonica to Paul Butterfield’s Lovin’ Cup, a performance that (to this listener) might have benefited from a bit more relaxed tempo and more measured playing. In contrast, the frenzied playing and tempo changes of his original guitar showcase, Fat Cat, seems more realized. I Want her For Myself is a nice acoustic blues with Mack’s harmonic complimenting his solid blues boogie guitar groove. The longest track is a cover of Walking the Backstreets, that most will know from Little Milton’s recording. In addition to a steady vocal, there is plenty of musical heat but also the backing and his playing let the music breathe. Amsel and Kelly display how steady and capable a rhythm section they are here. Castiglia picks up the acoustic guitar for a very engaging rendition of Shakey Jake’s Call Me If You Need Me, before the album closes with a heavy blues-rock rendition of Mose Allison’s Parchman Farm. 

Albert Castiglia is an exceptional guitarist and steady singer who is backed by an excellent band with a fine rhythm section and while Living The Dream will have the most immediate appeal to fans of high energy rocking blues, but there is much that those of us with a more traditional musical bent can enjoy. 

I received my review copy from a publicist.  Here he is performing Walking the Backstreets.

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.

Geremia and MacLeod To be Hosted By Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation

Archie Edwards in front of the
Alpha Tonsorial Palace in 1990s
Photo © Ron Weinstock

When Washington DC Piedmont bluesman Archie Edwards passed away in 1998, some of his friends wanted to keep his legacy and memory alive and created the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. The statement of purpose and goals can be found succinctly stated on the Foundation's website (www.acousticblues.com):

"The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation is keeping East coast acoustic folk blues alive. Through weekly Saturday jams, performances, workshops, exhibits, and lectures, AEBHF carries on the educational tradition of celebrated Piedmont blues artist Archie Edwards.

Bluesman, teacher, barber, and storyteller Archie Edwards (1918-1998) opened the Alpha Tonsorial Palace in Northeast Washington in 1959. Over the years it became a Saturday afternoon gathering place for aspiring musicians, young and old, African American and white. The barbershop became renowned as a place where musicians of every level of expertise were welcome to perform for each other. Until his death at the age of 79, Archie continued spreading the message of the Piedmont blues in his barbershop, on recordings, and on tours all over the world.

To keep the barbershop and Archie’s spirit alive, friends and fellow musicians joined together to form the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. For nearly a decade, Archie’s Barbershop was the foundation’s home and served as a museum and educational center, a place for social interaction and community outreach, and as a memorial and tribute to Archie and the blues musicians and traditions of the region. When the building was sold to new owners in January 2008, the weekly jams moved temporarily to HR-57 - Center for the Preservation of Jazz and Blues. In March 2009, the Saturday jams and occasional workshops and concerts moved to the Barbershop's new home at 4701 Queensbury Rd. in Riverdale, MD20737."

The Foundation enabled a number of Archie's friends and those he mentored to develop their talents in playing blues. Participants of the weekly jams have represented the foundation at various festivals and concerts such as the recent DC Blues Festival and the upcoming (September 22) Bluebird Blues Festival. The Foundation, has since moving to its current Riverdale, Maryland home been more active in offering instrumental workshops and concerts by noted acoustic blues performers. In the next two weeks they will be presenting performances by two of the more gifted acoustic blues performers.

Friday, September 14 at 8:00PM, Paul Geremia will be performing in Riverdale. A little less than a year ago I posted a 2004 review I wrote of one of Paul's recordings, Love Murder & Mosquitos. In my introduction I noted "I had the pleasure of seeing Paul at one of the earliest shows the DC Blues Society was involved with (over twenty years ago) and it was a terrific performance of acoustic blues Paul Geremia was among the folk-blues interpreters of the folk revival and remains one of the finest such artists today." This is a rare opportunity to see a master of acoustic blues who has been active since the folk and blues revival of the sixties. The admission is only $15.00 to see Paul who is a master of guitar, harmonica and piano. Here is a clip of Paul performing Candy Man.

Paul will be also be instructing a Piedmont Blues Guitar Workshop on Saturday, September 15 from 11:00AM to 1:00PM at the Barbershop for $30.00. For those going to the concert and workshop, there is a combined charge of $40.00. The weekly Saturday jam will follow this workshop. 

The following Friday, September 21 at 8:00PM, Doug MacLeod will also be performing at the Riverdale location. A marvelous singer and songwriter, Doug first came to folks attention (including mine) with his album No Road Back Home on Hightone. One of the tracks on this recording that Dennis Walker and Bruce Bromberg produced was Its the Blues. It opens with him recalling being with George 'Harmonica' Smith (who was on this recording) and William Clarke in Oakland and staying in this fleabite hotel before he launches into the song about that night's performance. That recording featured Doug with a band, although today he usually performs solo. The core of his music is on this recording: his storytelling, conversational introductions and interaction with the audience and a vocal delivery which exemplifies the notion of "relaxed intensity," that I believe Bruce Bromberg first employed about Lightnin' Hopkins.  

Doug MacLeod at 2010 DC Blues Festival.  Photo © Ron Weinstock

MacLeod has since has compiled a fairly extensive discography since that recording and established himself for his evocative vocals, guitar and songs, rooted in the blues tradition but speaking from personal experiences. In recent years he has eschewed the electric guitar, preferring to perform and record acoustically with the focus on his intricate fingerstyle guitar as well as slide playing, and his intimate vocals. He was in Washington DC for the 2010 DC Blues Festival with a superb performance and the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation should be thanked for bringing him back to the area. Tickets for this show are also $15.00 and well worth it.  Here is a clip of Doug in performance.

For more information on the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation and all of the Foundation's events and workshops (including how to get tickets) visit their website, http://www.acousticblues.com/events/events.html. 

Arthur Kell Quartet Inspired By Jesters

Bassist-composer Arthur Kell has a new recording by his Quartet on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, Jester. Kell has performed with a variety of contemporary jazz artists including Thomas Chapin, Bobbie Previte, Marc Ribot, Billy Bang, Bill McHenry, Guillermo Klein, Christian Howes, Art Baron, and Bruce Barth and since 1997 has led his own groups. Jester was recorded with his working group of Loren Stillman (alto saxophone); Brad Shepik (guitar) and Mark Ferber (drums) and is a follow-up to his prior BJU Records release Victoria - Live In Germany. Kell notes that most of the touring with his group has been in Europe, and he is pleased to have another recording “that captures the amazing spirit of all those tours.”

The album’s theme (evident from its title) explores jesters and their link to modern day artists and activists. Kell explains that "the jesters became essential in society because they used any skill they had - physical, verbal, musical and political - to educate and illuminate. … The jester as a silly man wearing bells is just a stereotype, a caricature that isn't even representative of most European jesters, much less of those in other cultures. Jesters came in all shapes and sizes and characters. Foolishness could be just the vehicle a jester used to convey an important message to a ruler. … They were the wild card which kept a leader thinking clearly, often wielding vast influence. But more broadly, they were a trickster, that vital character at the heart and dawn of human society that crossed boundaries to open the imagination.” And the centrality of the theme is not simply reflected by the title but also the cover which is “one of a series of jester finials on an iron fence around a bank in Bucharest.”

The seven performances here are wonderfully recorded (well worth listening to on headphones) and Kell’s compositions sound fresh and the band plays wonderfully together. The leader sets the tone on the opening Quarter Sawn with a playful bass figure that Ferber’s adds a parade-like groove before Stillman and Shepik enter to state the theme with Kell. Shepik takes an propulsive solo with his solo punctuated by some prickly single note runs followed by Stillman’s alto whose deliberate playing and solo works off Kell’s playful bass riff. The intro to Ijinna has a bit more subdued feel, with Stillman’s sax and Shepik’s guitar lending atmosphere. Ferber, in turn makes judicious use of his cymbals before Stillman and Shepik deliver the theme (with a mid-Eastern tinge). Ferber’s is marvelous in his adding his rhythmic accents in addition to the coloring provided by his cymbals under some marvelous alto saxophone, followed by Shepik’s crisp and inventive guitar. 

The title track has more of a playful feel with Stillman’s displaying considerable imagination in constructing his solo backed by a lively rhythm. The leader solos here and Shepik judiciously employs chords in his backing of both sax and bass. Song For the Journey opens with Kell providing a bass riff, as Stillman states the theme and Shepik adds chords while Ferber’s cymbal work establishes the song’s languorous mood. Stillman and Shepik’s solos and the group interplay on the to establish Anima Negra, as well as on the amusingly titled Tiki Time Bomb, is favorably compared to similar groups including the celebrated New Orleans band, Astral Project. 

Listening to Jester, one appreciates the enthusiasm the performances received at the time they were recorded in concert. This is an excellent group that displays humor, imagination, and passion in the varied, intriguing compositions performed here. It will appeal to a diverse group of jazz lovers.

I received my review copy from a publicist for this release. Here is a clip of the Arthur Kell Quartet with Loren Stillman and Brad Shepik, but a different drummer.

Lisa Biales' Just Like Honey

Ohio native Lisa Biales is a singer, guitarist and songwriter who blends blues, country, folk, traditional jazz and other roots music. She has recently released Just Like Honey on Big Song Music, a disc produced by EG Kight and Paul Hornsby which presents a number of original songs, classic books and other songs that cross genres. 

The title is not only one of the songs here but also a fair description of her genuine, sweet and tangy vocals. Things start off with a nice reworking of a lesser known Memphis Minnie number, Call the Fire Wagon, which includes some jazzy clarinet and old time fiddle. More of a blues-infused rock is heard on the title track with some strong electric guitar. E.G. Kight’s Sugar is a blues-inflected number with a definite country feel provided by the crisp dobro playing and the fine harmonica. Then there is a rollicking rendition of Candye Kane’s Gifted in the Ways of Love, with Paul Hornsby’s piano standing out although the electric guitar gets a bit over the top. Kight’s ballad When You Were Mine, is a lovely performance with some excellent piano under her vocal. 

A classic Ma Rainey recording, Yonder Comes the Blues, has unusual instrumentation with slide guitar, harmonica and tuba behind her fine singing here. A nice mambo groove marks her collaboration with Kight, Gypsy Woman Blues, with Tommy Talton playing a nice slide guitar solo followed by a cover of Damn Your Eyes, that was part of Etta James’ repertoire. Come To Me is a lovely Biales original performed acoustically and followed by Peaches where she deftly incorporates lines from 1920s recordings by Trixie Smith and William Harris on a delightful country-flavored blues. 

Other songs here include a rocking Bonnie Raitt cover and a delightful duet with Kight on the Delmore Brothers old-time country classic, Blues Stay Away From Me. Tommy Tallon’s Watch Out Baby Don’t Cry is a hot country rocker while Biales’ contributes a soulful vocal on Kight’s Through the Eyes of a Child. Its a marvelous performance of a wonderful song with some marvelous harmonica from Pat Bergeson that concludes this very ingratiating album of blues and roots on a high note. 

I received my review copy from a  publicist. Here Lisa and E.G. Kight perform "Angel From Montgomery."

Johnny Maddox and His Crazy Otto Rags

Johnny Maddox photo uploaded
from amazon.com

Veteran ragtime pianist Johnny Maddox may have had a million selling instrumental with the Crazy Otto Rag over a half century ago, but he has remained true to the music, still performing classic ragtime as well as the ragtime inspired show and parlor numbers of the period and blues of the first few decades of the twentieth century. He also has compiled one of the great collections of sheet music, early recordings and the like of this music. Having recorded numerous CDs, he still keeps his music in catalog on his Crazy Otto label which have their charms. Three distinctly different releases give an indication of the breadth of his catalog and the music that is of a long bygone time.

Songs That Made the Flappers Cry collects a dozen selections with Maddox’s very stately parlor-style piano accompanied by an unidentified violin player on a selection of songs the most familiar of which is My Blue Heaven. A number of these performances are medleys such as the opening They Needed a Songbird in Heaven (So God Took Caruso Away) b/w There’s a New Star in Heaven Tonight, Rudolph Valentino, along with I’ve Grown so Lonesome Thinking of You b/w Some Sweet Day. The cd booklet contains sheet music covers and Maddox’s concise histories of the included compositions.

Salute to the Jazz Age is a hotter album with the clarinet of Vern Baumer added to a number of tracks, with Maddox featured on the others. The tempos are a bit hotter here with Sugar from the pen of Maceo Pinkard (also composer of Sweet Georgia Brown) followed by Maddox’s solid solo rendition of Virginia Blues, one of the early Tin Pan Alley ‘blues’ numbers followed by the Baumer’s clarinet embellishing some wonderful piano on W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues and then on Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans, one of the two compositions that come from after the jazz age. Other songs include Maddox’s wonderful solos on Percy Bradford’s Crazy Blues (one of the first blues songs to be recorded), and Royal Garden Blues, the latter taken at a breakneck tempo (perhaps a tad too fast), and the duo on When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along, as well as Honeysuckle Rose. Maddox’s own Friday Night Stomp is another exhilarating display of Maddox’s piano. This may be the best of the three to introduce listeners to Maddox’s musical world with the variety of settings and tempos.

The last disc under consideration, Sunflower Slow Drag (a reissue of two vinyl lps) is comprised of 24 blue, rags and cakewalks by Maddox including more than a few familiar songs such as the exquisite title track composed by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden and some may remember from the movie, The Sting, followed by a couple of W.C. Handy classics, Yellow Dog Rag and Memphis Blues. Songs like I Get the Blues When It Rains and Dallas Blues were more Tin Pan Alley songs and popular with bands like Guy Lombardo and Ted Lewis, while Will Nash, a pianist with Mr. Handy's band composed The Snaky Blues which was among the first songs the Handy Band recorded. Everybody’s Two-Step is a lively rag number that appeared in the show A Lucky Hoodoo. Another number with a handy connection is J Paul Wyer’s Long Lost Blues, with a familiar melody (My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It). Tom Turpin was another celebrated ragtime composer (and the first African-American to have his rags published) and Maddox treats us to a delightful version of Turpin’s St. Louis Rag that celebrated the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Maddox also treats us to his arrangement of the traditional Frankie and Johnny. 80 minutes of engaging music along with the thoughtful and very informative booklet making for another delightful release that certainly is invaluable for those lovers of early twentieth century music, and enjoyable on its own terms.

This review appeared in the March-April 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 291) and I believe the publication provided me review copies. Here is a video of him performing Frankie and Johnny.

Brooklyn Jazz Underground Ensemble's Fond Portrait Of Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Jazz Underground is a cooperative association of jazz artists who aim to build a greater awareness of original music emerging from Brooklyn, NY. Five of the members have collaborated on a new recording A Portrait of Brooklyn on the association’s sister company, Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. The members forming the Brooklyn Jazz Underground Ensemble are David Smith (trumpet), Adam Kolker (tenor sax, alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute), Dan Pratt (tenor sax, clarinet, flute), Anne Mette Iversen (bass) and Rob Garcia (drums). In addition to being excellent musicians, instrumentalists and band leaders, each contributed two compositions to this recording. While the compositions are inspired by Brooklyn, this recording does not attempt to define the Borough.

Listening to the performances here, one is impressed by not simply the compositions and playing, but also the ensemble work. One might suggest several influences of the overall sound including the classic Ornette Coleman Quartet, and such post-Ornette influenced groups as Old Dreams and New Dreams. Ornette's influence perhaps is most evident on Kolker’s JV, a selection that evokes Ornette’s classic groups (and Kolker’s alto saxophone here echoes Coleman’s blues-infused tone). Smith’s trumpet provides a nice contrast while Pratt plays in a bit more gutbucket fashion. If not sounding like a previously unrecorded Coleman composition, Smith’s Starr St. is a lively original in the post-Ornette vein. Kolker is strong on alto here (not sounding like Coleman) and also adds bass clarinet to the ensemble passages. Garcia’s playing is especially strong here, including during Smith’s solo.


Garcia’s “King” is a strong free-bop performance with a solo from Pratt along with nice supporting riffs by the other horns. Iversen provides a firm anchor as Garcia propels the performance along. Pratt’s Buttermilk Channel is built upon an intriguing motif stated by Kolker on bass clarinet. Garcia’s other original is the lovely, wistful 1898 (the title referrs to the year the City of Brooklyn became part of the City of New York), with thoughtful and lovely playing by Smith as Pratt provides embellishments under the solos.

Iversen’s Osgood in Brooklyn has imaginative interplay between the horns while Garcia’s The Hill is a toe-tapping performance with excellent playing by him as well as from Kolker on tenor. Pratt’s The Cyclone (named after the famed Coney island roller coaster) closes this recording in a hard bop vein, conjuring up some of Woody Shaw’s compositions and recordings. A Portrait of Brooklyn is an excellent collection of first-rate original compositions and terrific playing.

For more information visit http://www.bjurecords.com/artistsBJU.html. I received my review copy from a publicist.

Josh Berman & His Gang - There Now

The back cover of a new Delmark release by cornetist Josh Berman & His Gang, There Now, describes it as "a collection of jazz hybrids: both new compositions and arrangements of early jazz standards. The Gang is concerned equally with the great musical legacies of Louis Armstrong, Pee Wee Russell, Derek Bailey and the Art Ensemble of Chicago." To this Bailey has brought together some of Chicago's accomplished players including Jeb Bishop on trombone; Jason Stein on bass clarinet; Guillermo Gregorio on clarinet; Keefe Jackson on tenor saxophone; Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone; Joshua Adams on bass and Frank Rosaly on drums.

Of the eight performances on There Now, five are Berman’s arrangements of songs associated with the Chicago Jazz of the 20s and 30s including Liza, Sugar and I Found a New Baby, while three are originals by him. WIth this unusual instrumentation and the imaginative arrangements, some may not recognize these songs. An example would be Stein’s free bass clarinet playing with his growls and sheiks that open Love Is Just Around the Corner, before the leader takes the lead with his cornet followed by Bishop’s growling trombone with imaginative horn voicings supporting the solos and a pulse replacing a steady beat.

An oversimplification of what Berman and his Gang has brought here is that some of these performances come off as if the Eric Dolphy of “Out To Lunch” had approached such material. Perhaps it is the presence of Adasiewicz on vibes (Like Bobby Hutchinson on the Dolphy album) that generates this thought, particularly on the leader’s original One Train May Hide Another. Throughout this recording there is a blend of imagination, abstraction, and free, as well as melodic, playing that this ensemble handles in a cohesive and imaginative fashion.

The interplay between the horns through ranges from contemplative to fiery as in where Berman’s cornet adds fore to Bishop’s growling attack on the original Clouds. Free playing follows surging traditionally ensemble passages on Liza, with Stein’s post-Dolphy bass clarinet here spanning a warm woody tone to bluesy leaps and squeals. I’ve Found a New Baby is usually taken at a hot tempo, but after bassist Abrams opens, the theme is stated at a very slow tempo as if they are performing a dirge prior to the middle section which evokes the little instruments and similar soundscapes provided by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and other AACM artists.

Kevin Whitehead’s liner notes provide background and insights to aid those listening to There Now! While this CD may not appeal to those rooted in traditional jazz, those familiar with contemporary post-bop jazz will find There Now! to be a most imaginative and fascinating album that is full of surprises and passion in the performances.

I received my review copy from Delmark. Here is a brief clip of Josh Berman and His Gang in performance.

Joe Weaver's Baby I Love You So

This image is a customer upload on Amazon and is the picture of Joe on the CD cover.

The recent passing of Johnnie Bassett is the latest of veterans of the pre-Motown Detroit music scene. Another person who passed some years ago was Joe Weaver. I wrote the following review for the DC Blues Calendar and it appeared in the June 2000 issue. I had the privilege of seeing Joe at the Pocono Blues Festival as part of a review at the 2000 Pocono Blues Festival with Bassett and the wonderful Alberta Adams. I have edited out a reference to that appearance that was in the original review and have made some stylistic and other corrections that I missed when this appeared originally. It is still available from Black Magic although some sources may be out of stock.

Joe Weaver is a veteran Detroit musician and songwriter whose group Joe Weaver & the Blue Notes served as house band for Fortune Records. Later Weaver was in the house band at the fledging Motown operation, even touring with the Four Tops. He eventually joined the Ford workforce in secure of a more secure financial footing.

As Johnnie Bassett was able to revive his career, he started introducing audiences to some of his friends including Weaver and Weaver joined Bassett at the 1998 Blues Estaffe in the Netherlands. In Spring 1999, with Johnnie Bassett and company in the studio, Joe Weaver & His New Blue Note Orchestra recorded Baby I Love You So for Black Magic. With Bassett leading the way with his swinging guitar, Weaver gets to sing in a most ingratiating manner with Keith Kaminski’s saxophone, Bill Heid’s piano, Bob Connor’s bass and R.J. Spangler’s drums.

Most of the songs here are Weaver originals from the rocking Do You Want To Work, and Soft Pillow, which comes off like Charles Brown in a jump blues vein. Other songs recall the glory days of 50’s R&B such as Looka Here Pretty Baby, and the nice personalized version of Chuck Willis’ What Am I Living For. Weaver may not be able to match the heights Wilson Pickett of the falcons attained on I Found a Love, but in invests plenty of soul in his performance.

There is plenty of wailing and swinging, jumping and jiving to be heard on this blues recording that also shows what swing is all about.

22nd Annual Rosslyn Jazz Fest Offsets Late Summer Blues

Rosslyn Jazz Festival provides a whole day of great jazz. This picture is from 2007 Rossyln Jazz Festival

Saturday, September 8, 2012 (a week from when this entry is originally posted), the free 22nd Annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival takes place at Gateway Park, 1300 Lee Hwy. (at N. Lynn St.), Arlington, VA (2 blocks from the Rosslyn Metro Station and near the Key Bridge). The Festival takes place from 1:00PM to 7:00PM and is sponsored by the Rosslyn BID, and co-presented by Arlington Cultural Affairs. The event will be emceed by on-air personalities from jazz station WPFW 89.3 FM, which will broadcast portions of the event live.

This year the Rosslyn Jazz Festival has a truly outstanding line-up that includes the Howard University’s premier vocal jazz ensemble, Afro Blue; the award-winning vocalist Rene Marie; clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic Don Byron; and two-time Grammy nominee, saxophonist Joshua Redman.

The Howard University vocal ensemble Afro Blue at the 2008 Duke Ellington Jazz Festival

Afro Blue. Formed by Professor Connaitre Miller in 2002, the group just released their 3rd CD, The Best Is Yet to Come. Over eight years, Afro Blue has received nine Down Beat Magazine Student Music Awards, including Best Graduate College Vocal Jazz Ensemble for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Afro Blue made the 2011 finals in NBC’s reality show competition, The Sing-Off. Here is a video of them performing.

René Marie, the award-winning, Warrenton, VA-born singer whose style incorporates elements of jazz, soul, blues and gospel, is a heroine to many. Since her debut recording, Renaissance, the singer has evolved into one of the most intriguing vocalists of our time. With her latest release Voice of My Beautiful Country (Motema Music), listeners will hear her trademark vocals but will also be struck by the wide variety of songs that she interprets - from Motown to Tin Pan Alley to “America the Beautiful.” Here is a video of her in performance.

Don Byron has explored widely divergent traditions, while continually striving for what he calls "a sound above genre." The Bronx-native has consistently been voted best clarinetist in the leading international music journals, since being named “Jazz Artist of the Year” by Down Beat in 1992. His latest project, Love, Peace and Soul (his debut recording with the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet), is the result of an ongoing re-awakening of his own faith. With jazz as a springboard, his stellar band mine the historical riches of American Gospel music via the spirit and pioneering songs of founding father Thomas A. Dorsey and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Here is a video of the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet in performance.

Joshua Redman is one of today’s most acclaimed and charismatic jazz artists. Born in Berkeley, California, he is the son of legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. After graduating from Harvard summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Social Studies, Redman relocated to Brooklyn and immersed himself in the New York jazz scene. In 1993, his first self-titled album earned Redman his first Grammy nomination. In addition to his own projects, Redman has recorded and performed with musicians such as Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, Milt Jackson, B.B. King, Yo Yo Ma, Paul Motian, Dianne Reeves, Clark Terry, and Stevie Wonder. Here is a video of him with an outstanding band.

This is another stunning line-up of jazz for those living in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. There will be some outstanding food options available from regional vendors. For more info, call (703) 228-1850 or visit www.RosslynVA.org or www.arlingtonarts.org. Plenty to enjoy on September 8 and I hope many of you can make it for a terrific afternoon of jazz.

The two photos are © Ron Weinstock

Johnny Guitar Watson - The Funk Anthology

Few folk have had as much influence in the worlds of blues soul and funk than Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. As David Ritz notes in the liner notes of the two disc, The Funk Anthology, Watson lends a long shadow over hip hop, with the track It’s About the Dollar Bill exemplifying this best, although rappers have long sampled his grooves and Snoop Doggy Dogg lifted a trademark phrase from Watson’s Bow Wow (Which Watson in performance referred to as the dog song). He was a major influence on folks as varied as Etta James (“He’s my model. He taught me to sing blues. He taught me to sing ballads....”), Jimi Hendrix, The Vaughan Brothers (who linked him with Freddie, Albert and B.B. King of guitarists they admired... “He made magic,” according to Jimi), Prince and too many others to list as well as being admired by so many others like Marvin Gaye, the Neville Brothers and Lightnin’ Hopkins (“The blues gets all over everything. Watson is all over the blues and the blues is all over him.”).

When he collapsed on stage in Japan during the second verse of Super-man Lover, it ended a four-decade career that took him from Houston to the world and transformed Young John Watson into the Gangster of Love and Superman Lover. He was a pianist who could rock the boogie like Amos Milburn and a guitarist who wowed Frank Zappa with tracks like Three Hours Past Midnight . Then there is the incredible guitar showpiece from the mid-fifties space guitar plus his originals of Gangster of Love. I suspect Watson’s recording of One Room Country Shack inspired Buddy Guy to do that number. Then there were his acclaimed piano album, the duets with Larry Williams which probably did not catch the mood of the audience turning to Motown, the two superb albums for Fantasy which anticipated his maturation and his funkster era for DJM in the seventies.

The Funk Anthology has two and a half hours of Watson’s music from his seven DJM albums From Ain’t it a Bitch in 1976 to Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and the Family Clone (1981), as well as his last album in 1994, Bow Wow for Bellmark). There is at least one album that Watson did in the interim not represented, but this compilation made by his children certainly is full with some terrific music, some of which has become staples of blues and funk bands today, like A Real Motha For Ya, Superman Lover, You Can Stay But the Noise Must Go and Bow Wow. 

There also is the humorous post-Watergate I Don’t Want to Be President that Watson co-authored with Percy Mayfield (and on whose Atlantic recording by Mayfield of this Watson played). I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby has to be as sexy a love song as one is gonna hear anywhere and with the mix of his soulful and bluesy vocals, modern funk feel the other songs like Ain’t It a Bitch, the humorous Telephone Bill (where he sings about calling his woman after 9:00PM when the rates go down), the closing Johnny G is Back, although of course he never left and he does revisit and funkify Gangster of Love.

I am sure that some of those who complain about ‘purists’ in the blues will also dismiss this as funk and not blues, but the simple fact is for the 70s through the 90s this was as contemporary as the blues got. Shout Factory will be reissuing the eight albums collected here separately, so this also serves as an introduction to those releases. These two discs will certainly keep things funked up quite nicely.

This review originally appeared in the December 2005 DC Blues Calendar and in a slightly abridged form in the February 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 279) and I likely received my review copy from either the label directly or from Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Johnny from 1997 performing I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby in Germany.

Sean Carney's Life of Ease

Winner of the 2007 International Blues Challenge, The Sean Carney Band is no Johnny come lately. Carney has been an important part of the Columbus, Ohio blues scene for many years and participated in the IBC several years ago backing up finalist Teeny Tucker. Carney has recorded several times and his CD, Life of Ease (Nite Owlz Records), demonstrates the appeal of his music that led to his winning in Memphis.

Carney is a terrific guitarist with a crisp, swinging attack, a solid songwriter and his band is a terrific band that can cover a lot of territory from uptown jump blues and swing to a more downhome groove as on Pennies & Teardrops. As a vocalist Carney evokes Jimmy Witherspoon on the title track and at other times suggests Duke Robillard, like on the atmospheric I’ve Got a Gypsy Woman. Solid remakes of T-Bone Walker’s I Know Your Wig Is Gone and Pee Wee Crayton’s When It Rains It Pours, shows that Duke Robillard isn’t the only one who can channel Walker’s pioneering and still influential style.

The guest spots include the late Joe Weaver’s marvelous updating of Casey Bill Weldon’s Outskirts of Town (credited to Louis Jordan), Willie Pooch’s fine treatment of Lowell Fulson’s Tramp and Teeny Tucker, daughter of Tommy Tucker, filling up the room with the fine I Live Alone. Special note should be made of the fine playing of saxophonist Gene Walker, a King Curtis protege on three selections.

Thirteen track are studio recordings, and three are live recordings, including two renditions of two songs among the studio recordings and this is an excellent disc that is available from www.cdbaby.com.

This review originally appeared in the March/April 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 291). I believe I may have purchased the CD. Sean continues to be active and among the most interesting persons involved in the Columbus Ohio blues scene and this CD and others by him are available at cdbaby.com and other stores and as downloads. Below is a video of Sean at the 2007 International Blues Challenge.

Ernie Hawkins Plays Those Rags & Bones

As you may be aware, I am a fan of Piedmont blues stylist Ernie Hawkins and earlier in 2012, I posted a review of his most recent recording, Whinin' Boy, while a few days earlier I posted a 2001 review of his CD, Bluesified. I recently discovered I never posted my 2006 review of his CD Rags & Bones which appeared in the March 2006 DC Blues Calendar and the May/June 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 282). I likely received my review copy from Ernie Hawkins or his management.

The masterful finerpicking guitarist, Ernie Hawkins, has a delightful new CD , Rags & Bones (Say Mo’ Music). The talented disciple of the legendary Rev, Gary Davis opens with a superb rendition (played on a 12-string guitar) of Davis’ Make Believe Stunt, a tune Davis derived from a lick of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. The bones of the title are heard backing another guitar rag from Davis, The Boy Was Kissing the Girl (and Playing Guitar at the Same Time).

There are enjoyable covers here including Mississippi John Hurt’s Avalon Blues, country music pioneer, Jimmie Rodgers’ TB Blues, Henry Thomas’ Texas Easy Street, and Mance Lipscomb’s G Rag, with Hawkins delivering relaxed, easy going vocals to go with his deft fretwork. Most interesting are guitar adaptations of three classics of twenties jazz, Louis Armstrong’s Potato Head Blues and Cornet Chop Suey, along with Singin’ the Blues which is adapted from the legendary Frankie Trumbauer/ Bix Beiderbecke recording and a George Gershwin piano roll.

Maria Muldaur guests with a wonderful vocal on Rev. Davis’ I Am the Light of This World, and the album closes with Hawkins handling an African tune Massanga. Its a delight listening to the music hear and how wonderfully the guitar sounds. For further information check www. erniehawkins.com or better mail order stores.

Here is a video of Ernie teaching how to play a Reverend Gary Davis number.

M.S.G. The Acoustic Blues Trio Meets Us In The Middle

M.S.G. - the Acoustic Blues Trio is combined of Jackie Merrit, Miles Spicer and Resa Gibbs. They are among the acoustic blues perform- ers who are associated with the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation and this writer caught a wonderful performance by them as well as a nice extended play CD a couple years ago. They have just issued an self-named CD with a mix of some classic blues, spirituals and ballads with some very strong originals, the trio brings plenty of warmth and soulfulness to these performances.

I am not sure who first recorded the Doc Pomus number (although it sounds like something that Solomon Burke might have done well with), There is Always One More Time, but with Miles providing a spare accompaniment, Resa delivers the reflective lyric in a spellbinding manner that illustrates just how good a singer she is with a honey tone yet able to tear the roof off at times. Miles co-wrote The Home Coming Song, as Resa sings about it will be a long, long time before one sees her again as Jackie adds some nice harp here behind Miles effective accompaniment. Kazoo and bones are heard behind Miles’ affable vocal on the traditional Frankie and Johnnie, lending this classic ballad a folk, jug band flavor.

Resa is featured again on a terrific interpretation of the traditional You Don’t Know My Mind, and a spirited vocal on Midnight Special, both with more fine harp from Jackie. Another original from Miles is his take on the back door man Jody on his lively Jody’s Got Your Girl. Jackie’s Isabelle, sounds like a song written about a mistreating lover, but actually is a blues about Hurricane Isabelle that caused so much damage several years ago, and unfortunately timely in the light of Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita with Resa again shining on the vocal.

Like Miles, Jackie is an affable vocalist and handles the vocal on her Race Track Blues, a short number with a quick rhythmic accompaniment from Miles. A bit of the spiritual side of the trio can be held on Get Right Church and the closing acapella Come to Me in Prayer. The music is never less than tasteful and there are some truly exquisite moments on this splendid release.

This was the trio’s debut album and my review appeared originally in the March 2006 DC Blues Calendar.  For more info on MSG, check their website, www.acousticbluesmsg.com. Here is a video of them performing Isabelle.

Little Willie Anderson Swung The Blues

The B.O.B. label was a small Chicago label that issued some choice harmonica blues albums that were produced by Bob Corritore who has become a distinguished harmonica player in his own name and continues to produce some stellar recordings. In the mid-nineties Michael Frank’s Earwig label reissued two of the releases including CDs by Little Willie Anderson and Big Leon Brooks. This review of Little Willie Anderson appeared in February 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 198). I likely received a review copy of this recording. It is still available (although possibly as a CD-R). Earwig Records has certainly done a service for harmonica blues fans with the reissue of two albums from the B.O.B. label that featured two lesser known Chicago harp players, both of whom have passed - this album and Big Leon Brooks’ Let’s Go To Town. Little Willie Anderson’s Swinging the Blues finds the harp player who was sometimes called Little Walter Jr. (he died in 1991) matched with several musicians who certainly had a significant tenure with Little Walter, including guitarists Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Lee Robinson and drummer Fred Below with Sammy Lawhorn also guesting. With Anderson’s hoarse, crusty vocals and raw harp, Lockwood’s distinctive chording, Lawhorn’s subtle leads and Below’s propulsive drumming, the album is well titled with several instrumentals, including a relaxed Lester Leaps In (with Pete Haskins’ sax added) and the atmospheric Late Night mixed in with Anderson’s idiomatic originals like Come Here Mama, Looking For You Baby, and Willie’s Women Blues, all played with a loose, relaxed groove. To paraphrase one of his songs, it must have been the jelly that gave Willie Anderson the blues, as he sings with considerable vitality. His harp playing may be Walter inspired, but its raw sound indicates he was his own man and didn’t attempt to recreate Walter’s recordings. Nothing fancy here, just a set of solidly played blues.

Long John Hunter's Swinging From The Rafters

One of my favorite blues discoveries of the 1990's was Long John Hunter. A brilliant singer-guitarist, he recorded several fine albums that were produced by Tary Owens, John Foose and Steve Jeter. A showman in his younger days as suggested by the title of the Alligator release, Swinging From the Rafters, I had the pleasure of seeing Hunter a number of times although he no longer tours as much today. His recordings for Alligator (including his collaboration with Lonnie Brooks and the late Phillip Walker, Lone Star Shootout( amongst the finest albums of modern Texas blues of the past few decades. His mix of inventive, twisting guitar and honest, gritty vocals holds up for repeated listening. This review originally appeared in the September 1997 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 224) and I received a review copy from Alligator.

Long John Hunter’s new Alligator album, Swinging From the Rafters, takes its title from his long residency at the Lobby Bar in Juarez, Mexico, across the river from El Paso. There, for over a decade, he would play from nine at night till the rooster crowed before day and developed his showmanship that still characterizes his live performances. Wed that showmanship with first rate vocals and slashing, twisting guitar and you have an artist whose music matches his stage persona. 

Kudos to producers Tary Owens and John Foose (and executive producer Steve Jeter) who also collaborated with Hunter on some fine songs. Moreover, Hunter is an artist of considerable depth and range, whether performing shuffles like Time and Time Again or Stop What You’re Doing (with a latin tinge in its rhythm), or hitting a funk groove on I’m Broke. Hunter is equally at home with the jazz-flavored horns on Trouble on the Line. 

While the liner notes suggest that this is more guitar-oriented than his prior two albums (including the superb Alligator release, Bordertown Legend), Hunter is a natural, totally honest singer whose vocals are not overshadowed by his guitar pyrotechnics. The result is another first-rate album of modern Texas blues.

Sista Monica Parker Headlines 24th DC Blues Festival

Sista Monica at 1997 DC Blues Festival.
Photo © Ron Weinstock

The 24th DC Blues Festival takes place, September 1, 2012. It is at the Carter Barron Amphitheater in NW Washington, DC, starting at noon and running until 7:30PM.

Headlining the festival is the marvelous Sista Monica Parker, who is returning to the Festival after 15 years. Her appearance in 1997 was her first appearance on the East Coast and was one of the finest performances by anyone in the Festival’s history. She does not appear on the East Coast very often so we are fortunate to have the Lioness of the Blues, as the guitarist Vasti Jackson was first to describe her, returning with her outstanding band. I myself have written, “Sista Monica is as compelling a vocalist as anyone in the blues.” She is one of the few living singers one can compare to the greats like Big Maybelle and Etta James. She is that powerful a singer. She has a new release on her Mo’ Muscle label, Living In the Danger Zone.

Also appearing on the festival line-up (and they are closing out the Carter Barron show) is Sugar Ray & The Blue Tones. I first met Ray Norcia when his band then included Ronnie Earl (Horvath) and backed up J.B. Hutto in New York City (the year was 1978). He is still going strong and plays Chicago blues styled blues with an urban touch with a terrific band that includes Monster Mike Welch on guitar and Anthony Geraci on piano. As a vocalist his smooth delivery evokes Junior Parker and he is a strong, but not flashy harp player. Sugar Ray fronted Roomful of Blues for a period as well as led the Blue Notes for over thirty five years. His most recent CD is the Severn issued Evenin’ which I reviewed when it was released last year.The Lionel Young Band is also on the line-up. I have not seen them, but they were winners of the 2011 International Blues Challenge. Young hails from Colorado and plays fiddle in addition to guitar.

Dr. Ayaba Bey will be singing with the
Dc Blues Society band. Photo © Ron Weinstock

Clarence ‘The Blues Man’ Turner, who was the winner of the 2011 DC Blues Society Battle of the band as well as the DC Blues Society Band featuring Ayaba Bey rounds out the line-up. I might add that the DC Blues Society Band sounds better every time I see them with a fresh repertoire of songs and D. Bey is a wonderful singer who should not be overlooked. They are a reason to get to the Festival when it starts.

The festival will also have its usual workshops as well on the John Cephas Workshop Stage located at the main gates in front of what would ordinarily be the ticket booth for the Carter Barron. Nadine Rae will once again lead a vocal workshop, while Mike Westcott will head the guitar workshop. 'Choo Choo' Charlie Williams will conduct the Children's harmonica workshop and the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation Ensemble once again is featured on the workshop stage.  

The Festival is free and no tickets are required for the Festival. The Festival schedule is up on the Blues Society's website, http://dcblues.org/bboard/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=4345.

Afterwards the DC Blues Society holds the Festival After-Party (and fund-raiser) featuring the Lionel Young Band at the American Legion Post 41, 905 Sligo Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. The Legion's entrance is actually on Fenton Street by the Parking lot. The After-Party starts at 8:30PM and is a ticketed event. Advance tickets are available online at a discount over the door price at the Society’s website, www.dcblues.org or one can call 301-322-4808.

Members of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation including Eleanor Ellis, Rick Franklin and
Dave Jackson performing at the Workshop Stage during the 2011 DC Blues Festival.
Photo © Ron Weinstock

BTW, the Lionel Young Band will also be appearing along with The Holmes Brothers and Mikey Jr., at the Baltimore Blues Society's annual Alonzo's Memorial Picnic on Sunday, September 2 at the Rosedale Maryland American Legion Hall. Check out mojoworkin.com for more information.

Be part of the Carter Barron crowd for the DC Blues Festival!
Photo from 2011 Festival © Ron Weinstock