First a word about the excellent backing band casting. On the keys one finds Sammy Berfect (accidentally Marva Wright's brother), a skilled musician who played for many musicians like Willy Deville, Harry Connick or Tori Amos ; Lee Allen Zeno (from Buckwheat Zydeco band at the time) on bass ; Raymond Weber (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Solomon Burke) on drums ; and a solid and experienced horn section : renowned Austin musician, arranger & producer Mark 'Kaz' Kazanoff on sax, Rick Trolsen (Dr. John, Boz Scaggs...) on trombone, Willie Singleton (Four Tops, Rita Coolidge, Nancy Wilson, Lou Rawls...) and Hollywood film scores musician Jamil Sharif on trumpet. These four bring a strong r'n'b touch to the album. Too strong ? That's a good question...
Before the excellent “Fast Train” is over, you've understood that Parker is a particularly brilliant blues guitarist and soulful singer. The fact is confirmed on the energetic soul “It's Hard But It's Fair“. The following number, “Bent Out Of Shape”, is a powerful track with an original melodic vocal line. On “So Glad I Found You“Parker delivers great blues guitar and singing, the horns are almost superfluous. It was a wise decision to place “I Call Her Baby” before “Watch Your Step”, not that the song is under level but it would go a little unnoticed despite another fine guitar solo.
So here we are, at the much copied “Watch Your Step”, first recorded by Parker in 1961. It is of course the outstanding hot rocking moment of the album with its killing guitar riff which inspired so many British blues boom musicians. Parker is faultless on guitar. Unfortunately the track doesn't exceed tree and a half minutes !
In a similar vein, “Break It Up”, written by Carey Bell and the only title not signed by Parker, is punctuated by a powerful riff from the horn section and features a sax solo by Kazanoff which is not able to overshadow Parker's guitar though. On the heavy soul “Let That Be The Reason”, Parker shines again on guitar, and even more on the soulfully sung “I've Got A Way With Women”. “Bobby-A-Go-Go” is another rollicking moment of the album with the exotic brass band-style of the horns and Weber's work on congas. The album closes down with its third highlight, the soulful “Blues Get Off My Shoulder” carried by Berfect's organ and featuring again a fine piece of Parker's guitar.
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| With Albert Collins (right) |
Physically looking like a crossover of James Brown and Sammy Davis Jr., Parker, who died in 2013 at age 76, was a sparkling blues guitarist, with a reputation of being rather economical in his technique, playing the right note at the right moment. As it appears in this album, this isn't totally true : he has indeed a very good sense of playing the right note at the right time, but this didn't prevent him to deliver long solos when he felt like it, alternating mellow touch and cutting flashes.
No wonder why Jimmy Page admired his style so much, to the point of offering him to record on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label in the mid-1970s. Parker, who was never able to manage his career properly, declined though and remained in obscurity until Black Top Rec. finally managed to push him in a New Orleans studio where he recorded this album, and a follow-up in 1995.
We can still wonder how the album would have sounded without or with lighter horn arrangements, at least on half the songs… Nevertheless Parker left a memorable soul blues work. ☻
Bobby Parker, 1937-2013
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