Notable Jazz and Blues of 2012 - Part 2

This is the second blog recapping some of the finer jazz and blues releases that came out recently. Today I focus on recordings I reviewed in the second half of 2012.

New Jazz Recordings

Our Thing (Motéma Music) is the first time studio collaboration between Israeli-born guitarist/composer Roni Ben-Hur and Panamanian-born bassist/composer Santi Debraino. The musical delights of this trio is captured in a beautifully engineered recording which is also one of the better jazz guitar recordings this listener has heard recently.

Cassandra Wilson's, Another Country (eOne Music), is a collaboration with the Italian guitarist and producer, Fabrizio Sotti. From the opening moments of Red Guitar, to the closingOlumutoro, Wilson's sultry and intimate vocals benefits from the backing.

Brazilian born drummer Duduka Da Fonseca bridged the world of samba and jazz on Samba Jazz - Jazz Samba (Anzic Records). With a band of well-regarded players (and bandleaders): Anat Cohen - clarinet and tenor saxophone; Helio Alves - piano; Guilherme Monteiro - guitar; and Leonardo Cioglia on bass, he produced an appealing album with strong ensemble playing on a varied set of compositions. 

Ernest Dawkins Afro-Straight (Delmark) is a terrific recording of straight-ahead jazz from an ensemble led by Dawkins, who is most associated with free jazz, as they tackle tunes from Coltrane, Shorter, Gillespie as well as an original blues from the leader. This is an excellent recording that easily refutes the stereotype that free jazz players can’t play straight-ahead.

Cornetist Josh Berman & His Gang, There Now (Delmark) is an imaginative free-bop release that includes very original interpretations of songs associated with the Chicago Jazz of the thirties. I found it a most imaginative and fascinating recording, full of surprises and passion.

Five members of Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a cooperative association of jazz artists from Brooklyn, NY, collaborated on a new recording A Portrait of Brooklyn on the association’s sister company, Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. It is an excellent collection of first-rate original compositions and terrific playing.

New Blues Recordings

Vicksburg Blues (Red House Records) is the first collaboration between pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson and singer-guitarist Pat Donohue and mostly explores classic blues in the vein of Leroy Carr, Tampa Red and Big Bill. "This is simply the finest album of blues piano and guitar duets in a number of years and certainly one of the finest new blues albums I have heard in 2012."

Johnnie Bassett had a new release on Sly Dog Records, I Can Make That Happen. This was another well produced and enjoyable recording. He died not long after this was released but was still making it happen with his soulful and sophisticated blues.

There are several songs on Linsey Alexander's Delmark debut Been There Done Thatthat if were recorded thirty years ago would be viewed as blues classics. This was one of the finer blues albums I heard in 2012. 

Michael Burks, Show of Strength (Alligator). What turned out to be a posthumous release was a stunning display of his fiery fretwork and soulful singing performing some fine material. 

Omar and the Howlers, Too Much Is Not Enough (Big Guitar). There is the second album of JimmY Reed's music Omar Dykes has put together and this includes the alte harmonica master Gary Primich about others. These are wonderfully paced performances and many ‘blues players’ would do well to see how one can take familiar material and make it sound fresh and vital

The Lioness of the Blues, Sista Monica, most recent recording on her Mo Muscle Records label is Living In The Danger Zone. A singer that combines the power of an Etta James with the nuanced delivery of Ruth brown, Sista Monica has produced another strong release.

Willie Buck with The Rockin’ Johnny Band had a new album on Delmark, Cell Phone Man. Evoking Muddy Waters, His vocals exhibit some of the same expressive qualities and with the strong backing here (which at times suggests some of the outstanding Delmark albums of the late sixties and seventies) Buck produced an outstanding recording of real-deal Chicago blues.

Fourteen Stories is the self-released recording by the Red Lotus Revue, a band rooted in fifties’ Chicago blues. They produced a strong collection of Chicago styled blues.

Vintage Jazz and Blues Recordings

Magic Sam, Live 1969 - Raw Blues (Rock Beat label). Exceptional previously unissued club recordings by legendary Magic Sam backed by Bruce Barlow (later with Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen) on bass and Sam Lay on drums. Soul may not be quite hi-fi, but the performances are searing.

Don Sebesky’s Giant Box was part of the CTI Masterworks reissues of classic CTI albums marking the label’s 40th Anniversary. The performances onGiant Box display how his ambitious synthesis of classical, jazz and popular music was realized. His orchestrations frame the featured players here and enhance the solos that exhibit the skill and imagination of some of the greatest jazz musicians of four decades ago.

Celebrating a half century of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is a new box set on Columbia/Legacy, The 50th Anniversary Collection. It spans there recordings and includes some previously unreleased material. This is a joy and soulfulness of all of the performances here on this celebration of 50 years of what is truly a cornerstone of American culture, not simply music.

Labor Records issued a new Louisiana Red CD, When My Mama Was Living, bringing together 16 tracks comprised of one track on CD for first time and the rest previously unissued selections or unissued alternate takes. This new release of unissued songs and alternate takes is welcome as. Louisiana Red was in quite fine form during this period.

Grant Green, The Holy Barbarian/ St. Louis 1959 (Uptown Records). This is first release of live recording of nearly 70 minutes of what was a strong performance of blues and hard-bop organ jazz in St. Louis at a short-lived pioneering venue.  Beautifully packaged this is as exciting release as Resonance Records recent Wes Montgomery CD.

Louis Armstrong & the Allstars, Satchmo at Symphony Hall - 65th Anniversary: The Complete Recordings (Hip-O-Select). A double CD reissue that includes previously unissued music that is one of the classic traditional jazz recordings and one of the most legendary performances of Armstrong’s career which thankfully is finally available in a complete issue.

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.

Alberta Adams - Say Baby Say

While we are still recovering from the news Johnnie Bassett just passed away at the age of 76, the remarkable Alberta Adams wis turning 95 and will be celebrated by the folks in Detroit. The following review is of her second album for the Cannonball label. This review appeared in July/August 2000 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 246), and her performance at the Pocono Blues Festival, referenced in this review was outstanding. I received a review copy from Cannonball or a publicist. This may be harder to find but her recent recordings are available on Eastlawn Records. Happy Birthday, Alberta Adams. Cannonball has just issued a second album, Say Baby Say, by Alberta Adams, Detroit’s Queen of the Blues. Adams who had a brief recording career a half century ago (she recorded for Chess), shows little sign of slowing down. She’s heard with a tough studio band that includes guitarist Johnnie Bassett, saxophonist Keith Kaminski and drummer R.J. Spangler from Bassett’s band, keyboard whiz Bill Heid, bassist Pat Prouty, alto saxophonist Russ Miller and trumpeter Dwight Adams for a set that is subtitled Life’s Trials and Tribulations According to Miss Alberta Adams. This writer continues to marvel at Bassett and his colleagues’ superb playing, and with the spirited Ms. Adams they have a wonderful personality to support. The music swings hard, and while Adams may lack a bit of the range she likely had a few decades ago, she still has a way of delivering a lyric. Her vocal approach is not that far removed from her contemporary, Ruth Brown – and this writer would point to We Ain’t Makin’ Honey as an example of this, with her rap towards the song’s end about not having enough money being not too far removed from a recording by Brown. This is one of her albums on the Detroit Eastlawn label. The cover photo was taken by me at the 2000 Pocono Blues Festival. Keith Kaminski gets featured as Adams exhorts him to “play me some blues, not so slow, please mr. sax man, blow man blow …” on the jump number Sax Man. She takes things down in the alley on I Cried My Last Tear, while Bassett kicks off Don’t Worry Me in a T-Bone Walker vein on a track that also lets Bill Heid showcase his blues playing. Heid and Adams contributed Everybody Got Their Hand Out, an Adams rap about everybody wanting something from her. With support from a slow, funky groove, some boppish horn parts and jazzy playing from Bassett, Nothing More to Stay, is a vocal duet with Bassett on a Heid written blues ballad with Kaminski featured again on sax. On Say Baby Say, Alberta Adams sings with authority and believability, and is backed by as good a band as one will find anywhere, resulting in another superb album for Miss Adams. Alberta Adams will be appearing with Johnny Bassett and Joe Weaver at this year’s Poconos Blues Festival, and is one of those acts that are not to be missed. Here is a video of Alberta in performance.

Johnnie Bassett Had The Cadillac Blues

As I write this, word was received that Johnnie Bassett, a gentleman as well as a superb bluesman has passed away. The Detroit News has an obituary as does the Detroit Free Press. Here is a review of his CD for the now defunct Cannonball label that appeared in the April 1998 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 230). I likely received a review copy from the label or a publicist. 

Johnnie Bassett’s emergence from obscurity in Detroit continues with Cadillac Blues (Cannonball), the third album by the very talented singer-guitarist to hit the racks in a very short time. This album is similar to his Black Magic album, I Gave My Life to the Blues, with Bassett backed by the Blues Insurgents of Chris Codfish on the Hammond B-3 and organ bass; R.J. Spangler on drums; Keith Kaminski on alto and tenor saxophone; and Dwight Adams on trumpet and flugelhorn.

Johnnie Bassett at the 2010 Pocono Blues Festival. It was the last time I saw him perform. Photo © Ron Weinstock What is remarkable is not just how good Bassett is, or what a good band he has, but how consistent his recordings are. He has had three first-rate albums made available in such a short time. Perhaps having waited four decades to take the spotlight, he doesn’t waste any opportunity to showcase himself. It certainly does not hurt that he has good material, or that the Blues Insurgents are such a fine band. Codfish and Spangler provide a swinging rhythmic foundation, while Adams and Kaminski play punchy head arrangements and take some terrific solos. With a hint of world weariness in his voice, Bassett effectively communicates the ironies in the lyrics, like on his own That’s Fair Play, where he notes how a former lover is suffering with her new man. Perhaps its because Bassett has been in the motor city for so long, but cars are a frequent theme in the songs. Not only are there two songs devoted to the Cadillac, the title track and Cadillac Baby, but on That’s Fair Play Bassett also notes that a former lover won’t leave him alone now that he has a Mercedes. A bit of Memphis funk on Get Over Here Baby is tempered by the Blues Insurgents’ jazz sensibilities. Kaminski and Adams both take solos that go beyond simple blues band conventions and complement Bassett’s own fine playing. Much is made of T-Bone Walker’s influence on Bassett, although one should not minimize the clear influence of B.B. King’s guitar playing of the mid-sixties. Bassett might be compared to the late Fenton Robinson, although Robinson’s music does not swing quite as hard as Bassett’s does, like on the hot jump blues Raise the Roof, Raise the Rent. Produced by Ron Levy at Willie Mitchell’s Memphis Studio, Cadillac Blues, is another release that will help establish Johnnie Bassett as one of the brightest new names in the galaxy of blues stars. Here is a video of Johnnie Bassett performing Cadillac Blues.

Johnnie Bassett Can Make It Happen

A couple years after his acclaimed The Gentleman Is Back, recording, that gentleman of the Detroit Blues, Johnnie Bassett, is back with a new release on Sly Dog Records, I Can Make That Happen. This new release on the Mack Avenue subsidiary label brings the veteran singer and guitarist produced by keyboardist Chris Codish and saxophonist Keith Kaminski, both of whom have long tenures playing with Bassett. The program of eleven songs display Bassett's genial vocal style and jazz-inflected guitar that evokes some of B.B. King's recordings from the mid-1960's. I am particularly thinking of the live Blues Is King album although Bassett is a little bit lighter in his attack. In any event, the performances here are rendered with a relaxed soulfulness and a definite panache starting from the opening moments of his salute to his home city Proud To Be From Detroit, to the closing moments of Let's Get Hammered.

Proud To Be From Detroit is a mix of travelogue (going from Greek Town to Belle Isles), a salute to the city's sports teams, ladies, music and other matters ("if you come to visit, you may never leave") set to a nice funky groove (James Simonson's bass merits note) with Bassett taking a fleet, skittering solo. Its followed by some risqué blues including Bob Codish’s Love Lessons, where Johnnie will take this lady to school, taking care of her in home room and helping her with her homework. Spike Boy has strong guitar in addition to intriguing railroad imagery, as Johnny boasts of being a natural born driving and is better than any machine. Horns help frame the performance. The title track, by Chris Codish and Nashville songwriter Jim ‘Moose’ Brown, has a nice groove as Johnnie tells this lady that if she wants to get out of her rut, come to him and he can make it happen, and if she needs some satisfaction, well Johnnie can make it happen.

A fairly straight cover of Solomon Burke’s Cry For Me follows and is a pleasant performance, although Johnnie’s vocal does not carry the weight that Burke does. My own favorite rendition of this song is the deep southern soul reading that Bobby Powell gave it. Bob Codish’s Teach Me To Love, is a classic R&B ballad with Detroit blues diva Thornetta Davis sharing the vocals and Keith Kaminski taking a booting tenor sax solo. Kaminski contributed the swinging instrumental Dawging Around, which is a tribute to the late Scott “E. Dawg” Petersen, who was a member of Bassett’s Blues Insurgents. This finds the leader in more of jazzy guitar vein, Kaminski is clean and solid and Codfish gets gritty on the organ. More funk follows on Cha’mon as Bassett urges everyone to get grooving while on Motor City Blues he sings about some of the harder times in Detroit while expressing an optimism that the Motor City will be coming back. The closing Lets Get Hammered is an ebullient shuffle with Codfish rocking the 88s where Johnny says to bring him some alcohol.

Included on my advance copy is a nice understated cover of Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary, but which has been replaced on the issued CD by a cover of Reconsider Baby, apparently at the request of the Hendrix estate. I cannot comment on that latter performance, but even if were a lesser performance this would not change the opinion that this is another well produced and enjoyable recording. Johnnie Bassett is still making it happen with his soulful and sophisticated blues.

A publicist provided me with a review copy. Here is Johnnie doing a selection from his prior album.

The Gentleman Johnnie Bassett Is Back

2010-0724 Pocono Blues Day 2-2626, originally uploaded by NoVARon.

It has been so nice to see Detroit’s Johnnie Bassett bring his sophisticated and urbane sound back and while this release was issued in 2009, and this review originally appeared in the August 2009 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 319). I have a particular fondness for Johnnie and his earlier recordings as well as his live shows. For example, he put on a terrific show at the Pocono Blues Festival this past July (pictured above). Anyway here is the review.


Its been too many years since that Detroit bluesman Johnnie Bassett has had a new release and thankfully the Mack Avenue subsidiary Sly Dog has issued the aptly title “The Gentleman is Back.” Perhaps its the misfortune of his prior label going under after releasing several distinctive recordings characterized by Bassett’s soulful baritone and his jazzy guitar style with its mix of T-Bone Walker, mid-sixties B.B. King (think the “Blues is King” album) mixed with a dash of Grant Green’s bluesy jazzy styling. As Bob Porter says in the liner notes, Johnny does not waste a note, “no flash-all content.” On this new album he is joined by several old friends. Chris Codfish on keyboards anchors the backing trio, “The Brothers Groove,” while saxophonist Keith Kaminski fronts the Motor City Horns on a program of mostly originals composed by Codfish’s father Robert or Chris himself with a few choice covers.

The material on “The Gentleman Is Back,” is first-rate with Bassett delivering the lyrics with wry wit or with a world weary recognition that sometimes a woman is set in her ways and gets what she wants, so that in the title of one of Robert Codfish’s songs, “Nice Guts Finish Last.” At the same time, he can commiserate with Chris Codfish as they share the vocal on “Keep Your Hands Off My Baby,” which opens with Chris telling Johnnie about all the men making a pass on his woman. At the same time he sings about not wanting a fashion model with a lean and hungry look, wants a soul food mama who knows how to cook with the kind of loving he can’t leave alone, keep your skinny women, Johnny wants one with “Meat on Them Bones.” Few would dare to put “Georgia on My Mind” on record and expect to be taken serious, and while he can’t match Ray Charles on the Hoagy Carmichael standard, his mellow blues performance certainly is first rate. Perhaps the only miscue is the use of steel guitar on “I Can’t See What I Saw In You,” a country-tinged ballad perhaps but which didn’t need the pedal steel. “I’m Lost,” is a splendid Duncan McMillan song about being lost in love and misery over a woman. I was nor familiar with this tune and the performance here evoke Latimore’s “Let’s Straighten It Out,” as well as the B.B. King recording of Roy Hawkins’ “The Thrill is Gone.” In any event, his vocal is superb and guitar solo is at the top of his game. 

One of the finest gentlemen in the blues is indeed back and we should be quite thankful for Mack Avenue and Sly Dog for that fact and releasing this terrific recording. It should be relatively easy to find.


For purposes of FTC regulations, the review copy was received from the firm handling publicity for the recording label.

Bill Heid shines on jazzy blues piano set.

“You Know I Can’t Reuse: The Bill Heid Sessions,” (Eastlawn) is one of those discs that straddle the blues and jazz categories, so unfortunately sometimes get lost in the mix of new recordings. Drummer RJ Spangler is one of those musicians who has championed the swinging blues and rhythm pioneers of his native Detroit as well as providing solid, idiomatic support that helped revive the careers of such folks as Johnnie Bassett, Detroit’s Blues Queen Alberta Adams and the late Motor City legends as Joe Weaver, Stanley Mitchell and Kenny Martin. RJ tours with his Rhythm Rockers and plays in different combos such as RJ Spangler’s Blues Four which reunites him here with Bill Heid, one of the unsung blues and jazz keyboard players of the past thirty-five odd years. The Pittsburgh native has lived in Chicago for several years where he was on Alligator recordings by Koko Taylor, Fenton Robinson and Roy Buchanan. He later recorded for a variety of labels including several excellent organ recordings for Savant as a leader, in addition to recordings by Johnny Bassett and others for Cannonball. He lived in Detroit for about two decades developing a bunch of followers including RJ and played a major role in helping getting Johnny Bassett some international exposure. More recently, he has been part of the Baltimore and Washington jazz and blues scene. This new disc that RJ Spangler produced has Pat Prouty on string bass and Keith Kaminski on saxophone with Johnnie Bassett adding his guitar to several selections.

As the disc's subtitle suggests, Heid is the focus here. Heid plays piano and handles the vocals on a set of jazz-inflected blues or blues-inflected jazz. A good part of the 11 songs here derive from the repertoire of such jump blues legends as Floyd Dixon and Jimmy Witherspoon although it opens with a rollicking rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Ninety Nine,” with Heid’s Amos Milburn-Floyd Dixon inspired boogie piano complementing his unforced off-the-cuff vocals embellished by Bassett’s nice solo. Dixon’s “Red Cherries,” is a sophisticated uptown number with the, “Cherry a day will keep the doctor away,” has him singing about the fun in getting cherry juice on his tongue. Next is another Dixon classic, though more in the Charles Brown-Little Willie Littlefield vein, “Baby Lets Go Down to the Woods,” as Bassett’s guitar conjures up Oscar Moore. The tempo picks up for Leiber-Stoller’s “Too Much Jelly Roll, a popular part of Jimmy Witherspoon’s fifties repertoire. While he can’t shout the blues like Witherspoon, Heid’s delivery appeals in its own fashion on Spoon’s “Failing By Degrees,” with the down-in-the-alley piano ably supported by Prouty’s bass and Spangler’s brush work. Heid's “Boogie For Mr. B.” is a fine original boogie woogie. Heid’s piano also adds a fresh feel to the Joe Turner and Pete Johnson classic “Piney Brown Blues,” with Kaminski telling his bluesy story on tenor sax, while Jimmy Witherspoon’s “Times Getting Tougher Than Tough,” gets rollicking piano along with Kaminski’s tenor sax punctuation. The title track, originally by Detroit’s Five Dollars backed by Joe Weaver & the Blue Notes, has a tasty rumba groove while Johnny Bassett, who played on the original, adds his guitar here.

RJ, in the album notes, mentions outside of Bill’s original boogie, these are songs that Bill would play with RJ and the cats iover the years but had never recorded. I add that none of these numbers have been done to death. In any event, Heid adds his own inflections to his performances making for a set that should appeal to fans of jazz and blues, and artists like Jay MacShann, Charles Brown, Floyd Dixon, Amos Milburn and Mose Allison who defy category borders. Kudos to Spangler for putting together such an strong session. It is available at cdbaby.com and bluebeatmusic.com, to name two of the sources listed on http://eastlawnrecords.com.