Willie Kent Long Way to Ol' Miss

Willie Kent
Long Way to Ol' Miss
Delmark Records

Willie Kent is a Mississippi native who has mixed in traditional and modern blues elements. His new Delmark album, "Long Way to Ol' Miss," eschews novelty for straight-forward blues. Kent's gruff vocals and firm bass anchor the performances which mix shuffles and midnight grinders with nice playing as keyboardist, Kenny Barker, and guitarists Chico Banks and Willie Davis tossing in apt fills and solos.

The back cover highlights Banks, so he may be the featured player here. Kenny Savdak spells Barker on four tracks including "Dirty Works", an effective reworking of Little Joe Blue's back door blues classic and Mississippi Heat guitarist James Wheeler adds guitar to a couple of his originals, the high-stepping shuffle, 'It Ain't Right" (where he also sings), and "Extension 309". 

There are also covers of the a classic Charles Brown recording "Black Night," and Amos Garrett's" Ain't No Love in My Heart," along with eight Kent originals. "My Friend," is a nicely rendered shuffle suggestive of a top-flight B.B. King number from the late fifties. There are some flaws like Kent's "Ain't Got Long to Stay," with its messy accompaniment, but that is the exception here.

Certainly those who have enjoyed Willie Kent's past albums or live performances will find plenty to like here. Others will discover a bluesman worth hearing.

I believe this review appeared in a 1996 DC Blues Calendar, the newsletter of the DC Blues Society. I received my review copy from Delmark Records. Here is a video of Willie Kent performing.

Rockwell Avenue Blues Band Heads Back to Chicago

Rockwell Avenue Blues Band
Back to Chicago
Delmark Records

As keyboardist and vocalist Ken Saydak observes that the title of this album is fitting  for veterans of the Windy City's blues scene who came together for this project. The title of the band is also a nod to Delmark Records North Rockwell address.

Saydak was joined by guitarist and vocalist Steve Freund, harmonica player and vocalist Tad Robinson, bassist Harlan Terson and drummer Marty Binder. Collectively they have played with and recorded with Chicago legends like Big Walter Horton, Sunnyland Slim, Otis Rush, Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, and Buddy Guy. Saydak, Freund and Robinson also have established well regarded solo careers with heard on five vocals. Along with bassist Terson, they contribute to the originals here, with one song a collaboration between Mary-Ann Brandon, Fred James and Saydak. There is one Elmore James cover.

One should be not surprised by the strong music heard here. This is one terrific band with the three frontmen all having plenty of solo space. Robinson is particularly impressive with his harmonica playing here such as his sax-like backing behind Saydak's vocal on "That Face," a performance that featured Saydak's strong singing that has tonal qualities (but not the country drawl) reminiscent of Elvin Bishop. At the same time, Robinson plays more in a Junior Parker vein on the soulful "Free To Love Again," Freund channels Robert Nighthawk on his terrific slow blues "Lonesome Flight." In addition to his strong singing and guitar, the band is superb with Saydak pounding the ivories. One cannot praise Terson and Binder enough as they anchor this and the entire recording.

Saydak's "Chariot Gate" evokes early James Cotton, while Freund's rendition of "Stranger Blues" has a fresh arrangement, and is not a copy of Elmore James' original recording. Binder superb on this. It is  followed by a rootsy rocker by Saydak, "For a Reason." Other notable tracks include Robinson's "Hey Big Bill," with a spirited guitar solo and Robinson's fine harp as he calls on Big Bill to help lift him up from his blues. Terson, Saydak and Robinson collaborated on the title track, a nice West Side Chicago styled blues that like the entire album is wonderfully played displaying marvelous interplay between the band members.

The Rockwell Avenue Blues Band may have been assembled for this recording, but they come off as one terrific band. With solid vocals, strong solos, and choice material, "Back to Chicago," is a most welcome musical delight for Chicago blues lovers.

I received my review copy from Delmark. This review appeared originally in the May-June 2018 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 378), but I have made some stylistic and clarifying changes to the published review.

Bonnie Lee Sweetheart Of The Blues

Bonnie Lee
Sweetheart Of The Blues
Delmark

Among new Delmark blues releases is Bonnie Lee’s Sweetheart of the Blues. Probably best known for her performances with Willie Kent and the Gents, this album will surprise many as it shows her to be far more a singer than a blues belter.

While those familiar with her will not be surprised by her take on Jimmy Reed’s Baby, What You Want Me To Do, her low-key interpretation of Buddy Johnson’s classic ballad Since I Fell For You is a model of taste and phrasing that showcases another side of her. There is considerable variety in the musical settings, from the straight Chicago blues flavor of Got the Blues ‘Bout My Baby with Billy Branch’s harp, the dance-oriented I Love My Baby, and Ocean of Tears which is suggestive to these ears of a Big Maybelle tune.

In addition to Billy Branch, others appearing on this album include bassist, Willie Kent, guitarist Willie Davis, guitarist Steve Freund (who contributes several choice solos, and even takes one vocal, If You Be My Baby), pianist Ken Saydak, and saxophonist Hank Ford, whose solo on Since I Fell For You is especially tasty. Johnny B. Moore contributes the stinging, snapping guitar behind Bonnie’s unforced vocal on Junior Parker’s Next Time You See Me.

With its variety and Bonnie Lee’s natural soulful singing, Sweetheart of the Blues makes for an impressive American LP debut. 

I likely received a review copy from Delmark Records. This review originally appeared in the October 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 205). Here she is performing at the 1999 Chicgao Blues Festival.

Al Miller's In Between Time

Harmonica player and singer, Al Miller, is a contemporary of Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite and Mike Bloomfield who was among the first wave of white Chicago bluesmen. He worked with Chicago Slim and Johnny Young, was in a band The Wurds which was the first white blues band signed by Chess, spent a couple years in San Francisco working with Bloomfield, and returned to the Windy City. In the early 1990s he recorded a debut CD, “Wild Cards” for Delmark which featured Willie Kent, Dave Spector, Tad Robinson and Steve Freund. In 1999 and 2000 he assembled some of Chicago’s finest talent including John Primer, Dave Spector, Willie Smith, Ken Saydak, Billy Flynn, Harlan Terson and Kenny Smith, which Delmark has just released as … In Between Time.

This album is one of straight-ahead Chicago blues. As Scott Dirks says in the liner booklet, “Al Miller isn’t out to reinvent the wheel, or shoehorn disparate genres into an ill-fitting blues hybrid and call it “original … .” He mixes in a few idiomatic originals with covers of songs by Johnny Young, Jimmy McCracklin, Percy Mayfield, Elmore James, and Eddie Taylor. The varying line-ups share one thing in common, and that is playing old school blues, whether a slow blues and rocking shuffle. 

Whether listening to Miller reprise Johnny Young’s My Baby Walked Out with Barrelhouse Chuck contributing two-fisted piano; or John Primer channeling Magic Sam (on vocal as well as guitar) for a strong rendition of B.B. King’s I Need You So Bad, this recording shines. Miller is an able vocalist, but his harp really shines such as his original Old Friends, with a nice latin groove. The title track is a Muddy Waters flavored original with Billy Flynn on slide followed by a rollicking take of Johnny Young’s instrumental I Got It, with more tough harmonica from Miller. 

On A Better Day, Flynn channels Earl Hooker’s wah-wah slide guitar on a recording that evokes Hooker’s recording, You Gotta Lose. Another Johnny Young cover, Tighten Up On It, has more explosive harmonica. It is followed by John Primer taking the vocal on Elmore James’ 1839 Blues, on an accompaniment (Ken Saydak on piano) suggesting Otis Spann’s Hungry Country Woman. Billy’s Boogie is a lively feature for Flynn’s fretwork followed by Flynn channeling Bo Diddley on Miller’s cover of Little Walter’s Make It Alright. Rob Waters adds organ as Miller imaginatively reworks Percy Mayfield’s uptown Bachelor Blues into a Chicago blues, while Primer is featured in a tribute to one of his mentors, Sammy Lawhorn, on Primer’s Lawhorn Special.

Al Miller is a capable singer and an excellent harmonica player. He is complemented by some excellent players on a mix of originals and covers of songs that have not been over-recorded. With a generous helping of over an hour of music, … In Between Time is an exceptional, straight-ahead, Chicago blues recording.

Delmark sent me a review copy of this.