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July
2008
Ndidi
Onukwulu
The Contradictor
Jericho Beach/Outside
Contradictor indeed. Listeners coming to this CD from her last one are in for a big surprise. Her work here is almost the vocal equivalent of free jazz. New producer Steve Dawson has reached deep down into his bag of tricks to try to provide sympathetic accompaniments and the end result is quite a challenge for the listener and difficult to describe in words. Her new songs are essentially formless, her voice shifting from conversational to screaming, often within the same line of the song. The lyrics seem to be intensely personal but are often unintelligible. “Forever SZ” alternates between strummed acoustic guitars to an off-kilter cabaret band. “Goodnight JF” has a Parisian accordion over acoustic guitars, Jesse Zubot’s violin floating on top. “Move Together” is an island of gospel harmony. “Boogie MB” is built on a Hooker riff but the vocals take off in unusual directions, something that happens in many of the songs. By the end of the song “Rise”, the assembled forces have manufactured a massive scream. The CD then ends with Harry Nilsson’s “He Needs Me”, with a surprisingly straightforward vocal to a circus-like accompaniment. Maybe there’s a happy ending. It would seem to me that a great deal of time would have to be spent with this album in order to understand what she’s trying to do. It’ll be interesting to see how many will take the task on.
New
Guitar Summit
Shivers Stony Plain/Warner
Music
“Shivers” is a Charlie Christian composition and the founder of electric guitar jazz is an appropriate source for the title of this new volume celebrating the guitar. The trio from Volume One, Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, & Gerry Beaudoin, is back and joined by Randy Bachman this time, although it appears that two of his appearances, both Mose Allison songs, are taken from his own Jazzthing II, which was done with the New Guitar Summit. That quartet’s performance in town also provided one of our recent concert highlights. With his own jazz album and his work on volume one, blues rocker Geils easily carries his weight in this context and Robillard needs no introduction. Beaudoin may be the least known but his seven-string work with David Grisman brings a slightly different sound to the proceedings. Bachman does play on the new sessions, soloing fourth on “Shivers”. Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home” is one of the other non-originals, while each contributes original songs. This CD is for guitar lovers everywhere, especially for those who’ve had enough of ‘too many notes too loud’ playing.
Watermelon
Slim
No Paid Holidays
NorthernBlues/Outside
The third musical blast for NorthernBlues from Norman, Oklahoma, should do just as well as its predecessors. Reports from his Waterfront Blues performance have certainly testified to that. It opens with that slide guitar roar that has become his trademark and doesn’t let up. That first song is “Blues For Howard”, which continues his musical activism. An impassioned (even for Slim) vocal tells the story of a troubled war veteran turned writer. This song and several others are enhanced by the piano of Dave Maxwell. The Workers are still Cliff Belcher on bass, Michael Newberry on drums and Ronnie “Mack” McMullen on guitars. With “Archetypal Blues No. 2”, Slim sees himself connected to the blues greats. Somewhat unusually, he then takes on Detroit Jr.’s “Call My Job”. It’s a fine performance but seems a bit of a letdown after his strong originals. One of which follows immediately, a heartfelt ballad called “Dad In The Distance”, with a lovely slide part. “Bubba’s Blues” is a defiant rocker, promising everyone to keep on doing what he’s doing. Lee Roy Parnell, a country player with a couple of excellent blues albums in his discography, guests on slide. Another non-blues is a surprising choice: Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die” with just Slim and his harmonica. “Into The Sunset” puts us back on track. A delightful solo country blues, “Max The Baseball Clown” will surely be popular next spring. One of the things he’s promised to keep doing is writing and performing songs like “Bloody Burmese Blues”. “I’ve Got A Toothache” is a spoken tale over an electric slide guitar and a tapping foot. It’s over to an acoustic slide guitar for the album closer, a moving performance of Fred McDowell’s “Everybody’s Down On Me”. I think it’s important that Slim is getting some recognition for his work now. His performances are among the strongest things happening in blues these days, I hope he keeps on going.
Homemade
Jamz Blues Band
Pay Me No Mind NorthernBlues/Outside
Second place finishers at the 2007 IBC talent search in Memphis, this young family band was the talk of that year’s Chicago Blues Festival and was quickly signed to NorthernBlues. They are Ryan (Perry), 15, who plays guitar & sings (very well), Kyle who is 13 & plays bass and Taya who is 9 & plays drums. They are largely self-taught and hail from Tupelo, MS. All three are excellent players and perhaps more importantly, have in their father Renaud a songwriter who can inject something new into the guitar trio format. The result is a strong blues album that anyone would be proud to have recorded, let alone such youthful musicians. Pop it into the player and the funk of “Who Your Real Friends Are” puts you in the forefront of contemporary blues. “Right Thang Wrong Woman” is more traditional in style but with an excellent new take on a well-worn theme. “Penny Waiting on Change” is a marvelous slow blues, one that’s as interesting as its title. The full line is ‘I woke up this morning feeling like a million dollars but now I feel like a…’. “Pay Me No Mind” shows they’ve fully absorbed the Hill Country sound and “Shake Rag” is an instrumental in the standard guitar trio sound that they had avoided up until now. This really is homemade blues, recorded in their home in Tupelo, but to no obvious disadvantage. I hope there are many more.
Mississippi
Heat
Hattiesburg Blues Delmark/Outside
Mississippi Heat continues to amaze: a fine new CD with an almost completely new lineup once again. Pierre Lacocque is, as always, the leader, harmonica player, the vision, finding new players to suit his needs. Fortunately, he’s held on to Inetta Visor, his lead vocalist since 2001. Another constant has been Kenny Smith on drums, whose rock steady support must make it easier for the new players, although even he’s not on all the tracks here. Another feature of the Heat’s CDs is the guests and Carl Weathersby & Lurrie Bell shine. Weathersby adds guitar to six songs and vocals on one with Bell adding guitar and vocals on two more. All this discussion of the personnel is distracting me from Pierre’s new songs, which carry the load very well indeed. For Inetta, he wrote a fine slow blues, “Forgot You Had A Home” and a smart new latin number, “How Much Worse Can It Be?”. “Hattiesburg Blues” continues the latin theme, with Inetta singing about going back to Mississippi to a tune that sounds much like “Hernando’s Hideaway”. It has an especially nice harp solo from Pierre. He saves his best work, though, for the instrumental “Calypso In Blue”. Weathersby’s feature, “Hell and Back” reminds one of what a fine singer this man is. The latin touches lend some nice variety to yet another fine album of traditional Chicago Blues. A stripped down version of the Heat supplied the entertainment at Delmark’s Sunday Blues Brunch during the Chicago Blues Festival. We go to Chicago for moments like this.
Dave Specter Live in Chicago DVD & CD Delmark/Outside
Dave Specter is a veteran of the Chicago scene, an Anson Funderburgh type of guitarist who does not sing and who is often out of the spotlight for that reason. He has recorded most frequently with Tad Robinson as his vocalist and Robinson is on board here with his harp for three songs. The first portion of this program was recorded at Buddy Guy’s Legends last August and the second, the previous night at Rosa’s Lounge. The Legends set concludes with guest vocalist/guitarist Jimmy Johnson, one of Chicago’s best, in my opinion. He gets three songs on the DVD, one of which gets deleted on the CD version. Sharon Lewis guests on the Rosa’s Lounge set, which is two songs shorter for the CD. First off, Specter’s instrumentals, four of which are here, ensure his place in the front rank of guitarists. Director Tom Koester takes us on a tour of Legends and its fabulous memorabilia collection during the opening credits while “Boss Funk/Riverside Drive” shows off Specter and his band. Brother John Kattke is on keys, Harlan Terson on bass and Marty Binder on drums. Robinson’s original “What’s Your Angle” is a cynical but very perceptive prescription for getting ahead. Johnson’s high tenor graces “Out On The Road”, “Feel So Bad” and “You Don’t Love Me”. “Out On The Road” is particularly good and these will do just fine until he releases a new album. Sharon Lewis is a fine up and coming singer with her own CD recorded live at Rosa’s. She rather reminds me of the late Valerie Wellington. Her own songs, the funky “In Too Deep” and the autobiographical soul ballad “Angel” are an excellent introduction. The main program runs roughly 90 minutes and as an extra has continuous commentary by Specter on the songs & the players as the whole program runs again. There is also a complete Delmark/Specter discography plus photos from his personal collection. This DVD continues the high quality series of blues club recordings by Delmark. They are beautifully shot, very well recorded in high resolution audio and available in surround sound. They may not replace going to a club, but sometimes there’s no club nearby, or perhaps Dave Specter isn’t playing your club this night.
- John Valenteyn, jvalenteyn8724@rogers.com
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