Anthology Strictly speaking, blues is a limited musical form. Opinions vary,
but few experts believe that there are more than 14 distinct songs in
the blues. Words and keys may change, but the music foundation is
narrow. On the other hand, especially overseas, "blues" is an
umbrella term for all African-American originated or influenced music
over thirty years old, and that makes it possible for an instrumental
anthology such as this to include some funky numbers derivative of
Isaac Hayes and Ray Charles as well as expected explorations of Jimmy
Reed, Elmore James and other standards. Zydeco gets its slot on this
CD, too, as does ragtime.
Blind Pig's hit a home run with this piece. Unlike the products of
some theme anthology-mad labels, this one doesn't try to multitask.
It tries to do one thing, which is entertain with the blues, and it
does that one thing. It does it extremely well. This record is what
volume knobs are for.
Artists lending their talents to the record include Charlie
Musselwhite, Deanna Bogart, Danny Gatton, Bill Perry, Chris Cain,
Chubby Carrier, Tommy Castro, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Kim Wilson,
Bob Margolin, Nick Curran, Walter Horton and others of whom I know
less than I would like to know.
Powerful, powerful, powerful. Guaranteed to produce joy, tears, and
other extreme emotions as only the best records can. Soul blossomed early and spectacularly in Memphis, so much so that
big labels frequently sent their most promising artists there to
record(Wilson Pickett received and waxed "In the Midnight Hour"
there, for instance). It wasn't New Orleans, but it was big. Now
we've got a soul revival going on, showing itself via early disco
singles reappearing in sleazy bar jukeboxes and in more enjoyable,
hipper fashion on underground radio, in private homes and on
bandstands. That should make reasonable listeners think of Memphis
again. Well, here's a centerpiece modern Memphis soul release.
Largely instrumental, heavy on overdriven organ and enthusiastic horn
sections as part of the rhythm section, it is the music about which
Rufus Thomas commented several decades ago, "It will make you want to
do something nasty, like rub chicken grease all over your clean,
white shirt."
There's very little that jumps out as spectacular or innovative here.
There's not supposed to be. Deep Soul documents the ghetto streets
that are, or at least were, common to all big American cities. It's
one story, sold by a composite character incorporating the
perspectives of a lot of recording artists and songwriters from
Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Chicago, and even a little
input from the sugar chiffon soul crowd in Detroit. When it seemed
that they'd said it all by the mid-seventies, the music started to
fall on deaf ears, and then the music metastasized into disco, and a
lot of us started to wish for deaf ears, but that's another story.
The story here is that those streets still have the same rhythm, and
there is more to say and more to explore about it, and the mainstream
soul groove still works, and these ten cuts ("Coming Home
Baby," "Deuce and a Quarter," "Seven and 7," "Spanish
Delight," "Under the Table," "Back at the Chicken Shack," "Doin' It
to Death," "I Remember Stax," "My Country Loves Me" and "Bling
Bling") are guaranteed to happen for you. Treat yourself well. Find
and buy this record.
Cocktail jazz. No bebop mathematics. No straight ahead savagery. Just
the most elegant small combo interpretations of show tunes one could
find. Almost danceable. Absolutely recognizable, yet still "jazz"
enough to be interesting. Also surprisingly blue in appropriate
passages.
Titles include "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," "I Could Have
Danced All Night," "The Heather on the Hill," "On the Street Where
You Live," "Almost Like Being in Love," "Thank Heaven For Little
Girls," "I Talk to the Trees" and "Show Me." The band's Chet Baker
(trumpet), Herbie Mann(flute, tenor sax), Zoot Sims(alto and tenor
sax), Pepper Adams(Baritone sax), Bill Evans(Piano), Bob Corwin
(piano), Earl May (bass) and Clifford Jarvis(drums).
This baby's a must. If you claim to have a serious record collection,
this one has to be a part of it. Beautiful, swinging and mandatory.
by Arthur "LoveWhip" Shuey
Intentionally ugly music is a fad now on the fringes of popular
music. This record reflects that fad. It also sounds a lot like
classic War. Lyrics are very strong and would be infectious without
all that distortion in the background. Definitely funky, but in
conflict with itself; pushing listeners who might like to groove away
with offensive sound.
Kevin Breit, who headlines this project, is one of Canada's most
respected guitarists, and for good reason, but the Johnny "Guitar"
Watson bag isn't big enough to showcase his talents. The rest of the
band, clearly capable, is equally mistreated by production strategy
throughout most of this release. When a cut does sound good, like
#10, "Faithful," one wonders whether it is really as precise and blue-
eyed soulfully great as it sounds or just a relief from the tunes
that frame it.
In short, this record's like a great live show with land mines in the
parking lot.
A great surprise. A great record. A modern, Caucasian Willie Dixon of
a songwriter. The worst thing I can say about this release is that
some of the lyrics are a little topical, and that's a mild, concern.
There is a fascination with intentionally ugly music now, tunes that
come out of potential to create mud. This one does the opposite;
coming out of primordial ooze to make listeners truly feel thoughts.
Popa Chubby's got a grip on the mystery and magic of music throughout
this release -- He is articulate in that no man's land between mind
and emotion. He comfortably, seamlessly goes from one to the other
not only within each song, but within individual lines within those
songs. He both has something to say and says it. His is an angry
persona, but at no point is his anger pointless.
Vocals, electric guitar, electric sitar, percussion(Popa Chubby),
electric and acoustic bass(Nicholas D'Amato, Steve Logan), keyboards
(Mike Lattrell) and drums (Steve Holley) create a dense, compact
sound based in everything from Hendrix to hip hop. As the CD
progresses, one gets to know, like and look forward to Popa Chubby as
he makes public his own struggle against having fun in a deeply
flawed world, especially as he loses said struggle in a major way
and, grudgingly, has such a good time with music that he takes us
along with him. It's too modern and too electric to be blues, but it
defines blues successfully as music that acknowledges Life's problems
for the sake of release and joy.
It is most closely akin to blues in Popa Chubby's guitar work, which
is along the lines of late '60s Mike Bloomfield/ Jimi Hendrix blues
rock legends, but successfully inserted in 21st century song
construction and production. Vocals are melodic within a limited,
broken-glass-in-the-glottus range and are magnificently captured,
achieving much of what most of us assume Bob Dylan to have been
attempting all these years. The adrenalin-drenched rock version
of "Keep On the Sunny Side of Life" seems obvious once one hears it,
but it took Popa Chubby to come up with it.
There are probably ways to tweak Peace, Love & Respect, but it's so
superior to most of what's out there that only praise seems in
order ... that and this reviewer's correction of previous negative
opinion about this remarkable artist.
"Keepin' it real" is an all too accurate summation of what Piazza et
al do here, if "keepin' it real" means compromising oneself to pay
the bills. Here's a man rated among the top couple of dozen blues
harmonica players and entertainers in the world, and he's pretty much
punching in at the beginning of a set and punching out at the end of
it. No changes are taken. Cover tunes are consistently based on rock
rather than blues versions. Originals are self promoting. Chances are
not taken. Musicianship is superior, but not superlative.
Not a bad record at all, but a disappointment if one expects great
blues or greatest harmonica. It just sounds like a great demo for a
$500/night bar blues band looking for work anyplace instead of a
record by a renowned, established blues act.
Harmonica is a great blues instrument because of what blues is. Blues
is a solution to life's woes, and harmonica is the solution to what
instrument is going to play every other part when the guitarist or
small combo gets on the bandstand or in the studio. Blues was
originally a response from a minority to being considered inhuman,
and harmonica is the instrument that sounds most like the human
voice. Blues is the sound of Hope when nothing else offers Hope, and
harmonica is the Music when nothing else can be transported, afforded
or recorded.
As a harmonica player, believing the statements above, I cannot
review this record, which intentionally explores sub-blues and very
little harmonica. I apologize to Mr. Musselwhite, whose abilities and
catalog I admire immensely, for being unable to objectively critique
his exploration of the most negative factors that ever cemented song
beds. Having followed his work attentively for so long, I can only
recommend all of his previous releases to readers and ask them for
advice in truly enjoying this album.
Starts out strong, but that's a function of song order. A really good
CD, unless it has a particular story line, can be listened to in
random order and sound just about as good as it does in the given
track order. They look at "Memphis" as music fans on a pilgrimage
falling in love with a place where so much started and ended. It
would be tough to improve on their take on that town. Very Van
Morrison meets Arlo Guthrie on Billy Preston's bandstand.
After that opener, though, one becomes anxious to hear what the
Toronto sextet does with bagpipes, the wild card instrument in this
blues-rock outfit. The second song, "Smarten Up," shows us artistry
without lasting purpose. It comes across as a well done novelty
number that loses charm as one becomes familiar with it and figures
out what to expect. Hmmm ... maybe they're building tension for the
third cut, "James Brown Ate My Bagpipe." Like the second cut, it is
interesting without successfully grafting the instruments into one
coherent product.
And so on. This is a perfect bar band for live appearances every two
months, and ideal for right-on studio backing for artists in need of
this sort of thing for one cut on a record in progress. Right now, as
good as their separate ingredients are, their stew's not done yet.
Keep an eye out for them while they're stirring.
This is a different take on Chicago blues; material recorded there
that doesn't sound as if it was based there. Classic Chicago blues
was raw like a frayed electric cable, sparks and all. Delta blues,
maybe a little uptown from visits to or brief residences in Memphis,
was raw like those 'sweet 'taters you and your baby had just put in
the fire to roast when you saw her husband come walking up the hill.
Chicago blues is dense; this is sparse, which is particularly cool
because Willie Dixon, master of slap bass, is marvelous and warm
here; his talent probably as clear to the average listener as it is
to schooled upright players on the hundreds of amped Chess sessions
that featured him. The other bassists on this recording are displayed
to the ear just as well.
Harmonica, too, is better audible than on most blues albums of any
vintage, and it sounds like harmonica. As superlative as Chicago
bluesharp deity Little Walter Jacobs was, he was trying to sound like
Louis Jordan's alto sax, which Jordan himself habitually played like
a tenor sax. The result, a combination of instrument, amplification
and recording, was great, but it was a long way from what a harmonica
sounds like, right out of a player's pocket. This album is full of
harmonica that sounds like harmonica. Piano is percussive as hell.
Sax is an insect orchestra in the jungle.
These 17 cuts, fronting Albert King(with the Willie Dixon Band), Otis
Spann, Willie Dixon, Billy Boy Arnold, Sunnyland Slim and Homesick
James, capture a transitional point halfway between country and city,
acoustic and amplified, natural and schooled; equidistant from
Memphis, Clarksdale and Chicago but extremely close to all three.
by Arthur "LoveWhip" Shuey
Bare Blues
Blind Pig Records BPCD8005
www.blindpigrecords.com
The Royal Sessions
The Bo-Keys
Yellow Dog Records YDR 1061
www.yellowdogrecords.com
Chet Baker
Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner & Loewe
Riverside 12-307
www.fantasyjazz.com
John & the Sisters
John & the Sisters
Northern Blues NBM0020
www.northernblues.com
Peace, Love & Respect
Popa Chubby
Blind Pig Records BPCD5089
www.blindpigrecords.com
Keepin' It Real
Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers
Blind Pig Records BPCD5088
www.blindpigrecords.com
Charlie Musselwhite
Sanctuary
Real World Records 72435 97379 2 8
www.realworldrecords.com/musselwhite
Taxi Chain
Smarten Up
Northern Blues Music NBM0019
www.northernblues.com
by Arthur "LoveWhip" Shuey
Windy City Blues
Anthology
Stax Records SCD-8612-2
www.fantasyjazz.com">www.fantasyjazz.com