The Super Catch-Back, vol. 4 & 5 : Boney Fields - Maria Muldaur - Toronzo Cannon - Tab Benoit, Debbie Davies, Kenny Neal - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Cyril Neville - Wes Montgomery - Buckwheat Zydeco - Kenny Burrell & Jimmy Raney

...they deserved to be featured here…

 

Boney Fields & The Bone's Project - Red Wolf (2003)

Howlin' Fields

The wolf is howling and growling out there in the background, red like a chili pepper and hot as the infernos. On the cover, with his dark bowler hat, wicked eye and sharp teeth ready to tear your flesh, he's fronting a jungle jumble of fearsome musical animals, and from the CD disc he's throwing a threatening look at you.

This is not Howlin' Wolf but Boney Fields, and “Red Wolf” is a highly enjoyable album by the champions of funk jubilation, Boney Fields and his Bone's Project band, one of the baddest horn section on the circuit today (Fields on trumpet, Nadège Dumas on tenor sax, Max Pinto on baritone sax and Pierre Chabrèle on trombone).

Those who have listened to the band's exceptional “Live At Jazz à Vienne” will recognize the original studio versions of four great numbers : the opening title track “Red Wolf”, the reggae-flavored “Live In Peace”, “Making It Funky” which does just that, and the excellent “Late Comer”.

When Fields and the gang make up their mind to go into a boogie, they do not hesitate and deliver the most unbelievable piece of funk, driven by the incredible bass work of the great Mike Armoogum (the Armageddon of funk bass !) on the incandescent “Boogie Thing”, a title Jaco Pastorius would have sold his soul to the devil to play. Four minutes of the hottest stuff I've heard in a long time !

This second opus from the band has several references to blues. The word appears in four titles : “Another Place In The Blues”, “Jump To The Blues”, “I Gave The Blues To Myself” and “Young Boy Playing Blues”. Actually only the last two numbers sound like real blues,“Young Boy Playing Blues” featuring in particular a thrilling blues guitar solo by the great Hervé Samb (definitely confirming he's an outstanding guitarist), the first two titles being much closer to R'n'B.

“Thank You Baby” is a kind of soul funk song, while on the crooning “Hello Brother”, Fields vocals take a Louis Armstrong turn, and on the lively “Wake Up”, his baby daughter participates with her cries.

Finally, never short of surprising ideas, BF&TBP have introduced a bonus track at the end of the album : a totally unexpected kind of... zydeco-flavored country rock (!) with an accordion sound most likely produced by a keyboard and echoes of Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup's future rock'n'roll classic “That’s All Right (Mama)” !

This album is excellent from top to bottom. As usual with funky Boney ! With such a Red Wolf I wouldn't mind playing the part of the Little Red Riding Hood... ■

_________________________________________

Boney Fields & The Bone's Project - We Play The Blues (2006)

As much funk, more blues

Fields was in a blue mood on this 2006 album, his third, featuring a huge number of musicians counting no less than five sax and trombone players in addition to himself on trumpet, plus some famous guests : next to Fields' usual excellent guitarist from Senegal Hervé Samb, Lucky Peterson and Corey Harris gave a hand on their six-string on a few tracks, Jean-Jacques Milteau brought his harmonica to the party while master trombonist Fred Wesley recorded his overdubbed parts from L.A. on a couple of tracks. And lastly vocalist Martha High is present on nine of the thirteen tracks. Two drummers and two keyboard players also shared their task while the bass stayed in the magic hands of the sole and outstanding Mike Armoogum. A whole lot of people for a rich horns-driven sound.

Fields and his Bone's Project are based in Paris but their musical roots clearly come from the African-American side of the Atlantic : blues, jazz, R'n'B and funk… In this album, Fields delivers his personal vision of the blues. A funky one indeed, a big band one too.

What we have here is a quite pleasing listening moment and some nice funky (rhythm &) blues tracks : "Don't Call Me Local", a true Chicago blues featuring Milteau, "I Wanna Get Funky" with Lucky Peterson on lead guitar, "We Play The Blues" without any extra guest except Martha High on backing vocals but certainly one of the best tracks of the album, as well as "Girl Insane", another highlight performed in a reduced five-piece configuration and revealing Samb's exciting guitar-slinging skills.

On the exciting "Your Good Thing Is About To Run Out", Peterson who co-wrote the song is replacing Samb on guitar. "Ain't Doing Too Bad" is another hot funky number, and "Revelation", if not really a blues, takes us into an explosion of trumpet, saxes and trombones, one of them being Wesley's.

The album's title being "We Play The Blues", it was legitimate to pay tribute to the style which stands as a main root of all blues, the Mississippi country blues. This honor was granted to the emblematic Fred McDowell. His "You gotta move" (here also co-attributed to Rev. Gary Davis) concludes the album with a superb slide guitar performance from Corey Harris, who shares vocals with Peterson, and with Milteau's excellent harmonica.

One thing is certain : you always get nice surprises with Boney ! ■

Videos
► Festival International de Blues, Mécleuves (France), 2021 : https://youtu.be/Xc_NNbmZJu0
► Jazz Café Montparnasse, Paris, 2019 : https://youtu.be/ThVNeGxuycQ
► Caveau des Oubliettes, Paris, 2016 : https://youtu.be/tm2Whox-Pgs

_________________________________________

Maria Muldaur - Louisiana Love Call (1992)

A Maria piace New Orleans

A nice declaration of love to New Orleans and Louisiana, rightfully opened by the excellent “Second Line”, yodeled by the soulful New York-born and multi Grammy-nominee Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato aka Maria Muldaur (80 today and 50 when this album was released) whose warm sultry voice fits nearly all styles of American roots music : folk, blues, R'n'B, gospel, jug band and Dixie jazz, country…

A great interpreter, Muldaur's homage to the Big Easy musical heritage features a cast of prestigious local musicians among whom the late Dr. John on piano & vocals, Zachary Richard on accordion, Aaron (vocals) and Charles Neville (sax & vocals), David Torkanowsky on keyboards, Cranston Clements and Amos Garrett on guitar...

No tribute to New Orleans without an emblematic second line tune, a must of the Nola culture, here a song written by the British-born, New Orleans-adopted pianist Jon Cleary and featuring David Torkanowsky on piano and the Nevilles on backing vocals. The album offers famous outstanding covers, like the appealing slow and even swampier version of JJ Cale's “Cajun Moon” enlightened by Charles Neville's mellow sax and Clements' slide guitar; Bobby Charles & Marty Grebb's typical Louisiana R'n'B “Dem Dat Know”; the iconic “Don't You Feel My Leg” from Louisa & Danny Barker and Ken Harrison, magnificently sung by Muldaur in yodeling mode; or Leon Russell's "Layin' Right Here in Heaven” featuring a great vocal duet with the ever excellent Dr. John.

There are also two other Marty Grebb's songs : “Best of Me” with Dr. John again on piano and vocals, and the melancholic country ballad “Louisiana Love Call” with Zachary Richard on “Cajun accordion” (a diatonic and smaller version of the instrument), Amos Garrett on guitar and backing vocals by Aaron Neville.

The nostalgic romantic ballad “Creole Eyes”, signed by one time Fleetwood Mac's guitarist Richard Vito, is arranged with a Caribbean calypso flavor. The rocking version of Nick Daniel's “Blues Wave”, led by Clements' guitar, is followed by “So Many Rivers to Cross”, a Daniel Moore/Jodi Siegel's song, already covered by Marcia Ball in her 2003 album “So Many Rivers”, and not to be mistaken with Jimmy Cliff's 1969 “Many Rivers to Cross”.

“Without a Friend Like You”, an energetic blues written by Ronnie Earl, Darrell Nulisch & Hubert Sumlin, features nice guitar by Garrett. And the final “Southern Music”, written in the 1980s by the late Nashville country musician Russell Smith, is driven by a fine jazzy-blues piano (Torkanowsky ?).

On all these titles, Muldaur is delivering superb, varied and powerful vocal performances, totally at ease whatever their style or tempo. Her love call to New Orleans and Louisiana music is a true pleasure for the ears. ■ 

Videos

► Audio interview, Australian radio, 2001 : https://youtu.be/AuxHRnj2RIM
► With Canadian Country musician Dick Damron, Sun Country TV show, 1983 : https://youtu.be/UYElJULiQmk?t=205
► With Zachary Richard & Doctor John, Italian TV, 1992 : https://youtu.be/qb9ZHJB8doE
► Live in concert, 2016 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/-82WpCjWU-I
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/PqFcY1frBdA
→ Part 3 : https://youtu.be/SfLtWGBLVTg
→ Part 4 : https://youtu.be/jwPsSUREuTw
► With the Lillian Armstrong Tribute Band, Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Berkeley, CA, 2019 : https://youtu.be/zfhI0BoWuvA
► Christmas at the Oasis, 2020 : https://youtu.be/YKk6YYn0bYM?t=117
► Concert for the release of Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny album “Let’s Get Happy Together”, Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall, Mandeville, LA, 2021 : https://youtu.be/Bm0yUQf5Gms

_________________________________________

Toronzo Cannon - Leaving Mood (2011)

Son of a gun !

Toronzo Cannon is one of the most thrilling musicians to have emerged from the new generation of Chicago bluesmen, those of the post-Muddy Waters age. When Waters died, in 1983, Cannon was only 15. Seven years later, after he had to give up basketball because of a leg injury, his sister offered him his first guitar and the reggae fan that he was then learned how to play by watching Bob Marley on videos.

But the blues was already secretly working its way back inside him. Back because he heard a lot of blues in his childhood : his family at large played a lot of blues records, and himself used to hang around the famous blues joint Theresa's where one of his uncles was working. The young Toronzo was standing outside in front of the back alley entrance listening and trying to peek at the cream of Chicago blues artists.

Another few short years and for a half decade his late blossomed blues vocation led him to play as a sideman for musicians like Tommy McCracken, L.V. Banks or Joanna Connor…, before going solo a few years later, and self-releasing his first opus, “My Woman”, in 2007. All that time, he was working at the Chicago Transit Authority (the real one, not the band) as a bus driver.

His second album, “Leaving Mood”, is the first for a label (Delmark). Cannon's appears to be altogether a talented songwriter (he signed or co-signed with rhythm guitarist Lawrence Gladney, ten of the fourteen titles) who composes up-beat titles and catchy melodies, a pleasing singer and an exciting guitarist putting out biting and stinging guitar licks, most time with a stirring dose of funk, and an occasional taste for wah-wah.

The band behind Cannon is solidly grooving, and two excellent musicians stand out : rhythm guitarist Lawrence Gladney and keyboardist Roosevelt Purifoy who both enrich Cannon's work in the finest manner.

The album also welcome two guests : the elegant harmonicist Matthew Skoller (on three numbers) and the always flawless guitarist Carl Weathersby (on two tracks). Sharp ears might catch the moment on “Hard Luck” when the latter breaks his high E string and finishes his solo with five strings.

Frankly, there isn't a bad track on this album, and depending on the listener taste, some will sound more appealing. Personally, I have a soft spot for the funk-spiced “I Believe”, the superb “Open Letter”, probably my favorite, the funky rolling suite of “She's Too Much”, “You're A Good Woman” and “Earnestine”, the soulful slow cover of Nina Simone's “Do I Move You?”, or “Baby Girl” driven by Gladney's exciting rhythm guitar.

In fact, I'm not convinced that what Cannon plays can be called “Chicago blues” any longer, except for the fact that he is a pure Chicagoan. One thing I'm certain about though is that his “Cannon blues” makes this album highly enjoyable, and that's fine with me. Cannon, you son of a gun! Ha ha ha... ■

Videos

► Armenia, 2013 : https://youtu.be/XJcnz0ACkoM
► Villerest, France, 2013 :
→ Set 1 : https://youtu.be/3BnIT8M2H0s
→ Set 2 : https://youtu.be/wGYMR5GqsyU
► With Joanna Connor & Mike Wheeler, Chicago, 2017 : https://youtu.be/2Cc8CyFYdqw
► Lahnsteiner Blues Festival, Germany, 2021 : https://youtu.be/SJlT2UVEpzU
► Rosa's Lounge, Chicago, 2022 : https://youtu.be/YgGWbgoBPxE
► The Fallout Shelter, Norwood, MA, 2022 : https://youtu.be/ynvEIeWk4a8

_________________________________________

Tab Benoit, Debbie Davies, Kenny Neal - Homesick For The Road (1999)

Turkey necks and boiled potatoes

It's unbelievable that nobody seems interested in such a fine album so far, or for those who, like me, know it, dropped a little comment it certainly deserves! Why unbelievable? Well just because it's an excellent CD like I said. And not because it gathers three “stars” of contemporary blues, but because each of them have all the necessary ammunition in stock to shoot some exciting blues : stirring guitar skills, soulful vocals, evident complicity.

Tab Benoit

And experience. As mentioned in the presentation, Kenny Neal inherited the genes of his harmonicist father Raful, jammed with Slim Harpo and toured in the Buddy Guy's band. Tab Benoit went to college in Baton Rouge at the Tabby Thomas' blues club where he also played with veterans Raful Neal and Henri Gray. California native Debbie Harris got her master degree in blues as a member of the Icebreakers, the band of the late great Albert Collins.

Debbie Davies

The collision of such three superb guitarists and singers (and occasionally harmonicist concerning Neal) who know what blues is all about, gave birth to this exciting collection of 12 titles. Benoit and Davies came with one song each, Neal with two from his father (who by the way dropped in with his harmonica on his own “Luberta”.

Kenny Neal

The remaining eight songs are from outside songwriters. Davies' writing partner Don Castagno brought two, Jimmy Vivino co-wrote the opening track “Deal With It”, and above all two covers from legendary musicians : the iconic “I Put A Spell On You” of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and “Night Life” from Willie Nelson.

The three accomplices share vocal and guitar parts, each in his/her style but perfectly complementary. In fact, to be true, all three are not featured together on all tracks : Benoit performs “Down In The Swamp” alone, just like Neal does “I've Been Mistreated”, Neal is not playing on “So Cold”, Davies is absent on “Down In The Swamp”, “I Put A Spell On You” and “Night Life” as is Benoit on “Money” and “Still Called The Blues”.

Nevertheless, in a solo, duo or threesome configuration, the menu exhales heady flavors of Louisiana swamps and of Texas deep country BBQ saloons. Dusty heartfelt blues straight from the dirt. A delight. I've never eaten “turkey necks and boiled potatoes”, as mentioned in the presentation, but if it tastes as good as this faultless album, I'm ready for it any time! ■

Debbie Davies & Kenny Neal

Videos
► Debbie Davies, Musicians Institute, Hollywood, CA, 2017 : https://youtu.be/GeTUYsjzd-s
► Tab Benoit, The Token Lounge, Westland, Michigan, 2022 : https://youtu.be/Sj75YQney4I
► Kenny Neal, Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, New Orleans, 2022 : https://youtu.be/VYajIcYIYqo

_________________________________________

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Save My Soul (2003)

BBVD goes to New Orleans

The big bad guys took down to New Orleans for this album mainly devoted to Dixieland jazz. The signal is given from the start with a second line brass band when-the-saints-like intro humorously titled... “Zig Zaggity Woop Woop, Part 1” ! The part 2, longer and even more exciting, almost concludes the disc with the same brass band feel, ending with… a long minute blank (to catch one's breath ?), before a nonsensical cacaphonous outro featuring... a Swiss clock cuckooing the hour in the background. Really weird. Big Mad Cuckoo Daddy ?!

Let's forget this cranky silliness and see what's in between. The  appealing “You Know You Wrong”, introduced by nice percussion, is delivered in a typical very brassy New Orleans R'n'B version, just as its follower, “Always Gonna Get Ya”, a swinging number with lively piano by Joshua Levy and a rain shower of horn riffs. Then comes a mid-tempo classic from the New Orleans repertoire, “Don't You Feel My Leg”, lacking a bit more fantasy though, before the rejoicing Cab Calloway-ed swinging “Oh Yeah”. The next track, “Simple Songs”, turns into a hot Dixieland tune carried by Levy's racing piano and Lee Thornburg's trumpet solo.

The piano ragtime “Next Week Sometime” sounds like a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton . The title song “Save My Soul”, with its Pink Panther melodic line, is halfway between New Orleans and Cab Calloway's styles, spiced with Ron Blake's trumpet. It is followed by the outstanding moment of the album, “I Like It”, a superb mambo with great Afro-Cuban piano. Viva la salsa !

Another big bad album from the big bad Californian swingers, though not as enthralling as their Live released the following year (*), but rather enjoyable still. ■

Videos : BBVD playing some of the album's songs live 

► “Zig Zaggity Woop Woop”, 2009 : https://youtu.be/1Zz2vT2QZjc
► “You Know You Wrong” :
→ 2004 : https://youtu.be/eAMrUMGLEZc
→ 2005 : https://youtu.be/nvZppByrdFM
→ 2018 : https://youtu.be/ipRXNA9AWJE
► "Always Gonna Get Ya", 2011 : https://youtu.be/_f_vei89DzY
► “Oh, Yeah”, 2010 : https://youtu.be/BJUQcI0-XO4
► "Simple Songs”, 2010 : https://youtu.be/4nIEXy6F-Ts
► "Save My Soul", 2022 : https://youtu.be/MMBdgbtYX3c
► "I Like It", 2010 : https://youtu.be/qg0PuBTM90g

_________________________________________

Cyril Neville - Brand New Blues [2009]

Outstanding new blues

Knowing the musical style attached to the name Neville, you'd expect Cyril to come out with some of that bayou funk he used to play with his three brothers. And maybe some reggae, since he embraced rastafarianism in the mid-1970s (incidentally the way he sings the opening track “I Found Joy” sounds like he rather says “I Found Jah”). No, this 2009 opus is a real blues album, and a magnificent one ! The ten tracks are in fact all outstanding, with their very special appealing sound.

This sound is most likely due to Cyril teaming up on this project with the talented, imaginative and innovative New York-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Brian J, leader of the Pimps of Joytime, a peculiar band mixing New Orleans, West Coast and NY funk to deliver a unique repertoire.

Both men co-wrote half the songs, and Brian J doesn't save his energy, delivering tasty work on guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and percussion, and some additional vocals. No less ! On top of all, the album features a few notorious guests : brother Art and nephews Ivan and Ian, and three great musician friends, Waylon Thibodeaux, Johnny Sansone and Tab Benoit. All three and Cyril are members of the Voice of the Wetlands All-stars group founded by Benoit as the musical arm of the Voice of the Wetlands activist organization that denounces the continuous destruction of the fragile eco-system of Louisiana's wetlands.

The very personal cover of Jimmy Reed's “I Found Joy” starts with an appealing bass guitar sound, Art Neville is on Hammond B3 organ and Cyril's hoarse voice delivers a soulful vocal performance. The groove is launched. The title track, the very pleasant “Brand New Blues”, features Ivan Neville on Hammond B3 organ and the excellent guitar of Tab Benoit.

The excellent “Shake Your Gumbo” is a rejoicing number marked by exciting bass riffs and second line-flavored percussion, reminding what Cyril was playing with the Neville Brothers.

“I'll Take Care Of You” follows : a heart-felt slow number featuring Art on B3 and Brian J on vibrato guitar, where Cyril is delivering a great demonstration of soulful vocals.

Introduced and driven by typical New Orleans drumming, the humorous boogie “Cream Them Beans”, has a swampy flavor brought by Johnny Sansone's harmonica, Brian J's fine guitar and Waylon Thibodeaux's washboard. A great moment,

Same swampy atmosphere on “Cheatin' and Lyin'” whose lyrics rise up against post-Katrina looting in the city. “Mean Boss Blues” gathers a great casting : Tab Benoit and Brian J on guitar, Ivan Neville on B3 and Johnny Sansone on harmonica.

On the laid-back cover of a second Jimmy Reed's number, “Blue Blue Water”, the matchless Johnny Sansone is offering his outstanding harmonica again while Andy Cotton is on bass. After the rhythmic gospel-inspired blues “Don't Move My Mountain”, the album closes on the superb adaptation of Bod Marley's “Slave Driver” into a long slow soulful blues, with Art Neville on Hammond B3 and Hagar Ben Ari on bass while Brian J adds a great low-tuned guitar solo.

With this great album, often referring to the tremendous physical, social and psychological damages inflicted by Katrina on the Crescent City, his city, Cyril Neville caught us where we wouldn't expect him. With his pirate looks and beads around his neck, the youngest Neville brother (still 60 when this album was released) appears as an inspired blues vocalist, singing better than ever, a musician who not only knows exactly which direction he wants to take but is also able to hit his musical target right in the heart, coming out with a collection of all outstanding tracks. Far from the image given by those who wrongly considered him as the weak point of the Neville Brothers... ■

► Links to a few videos of Cyril Neville's solo shows were recently listed here

_________________________________________

Wes Montgomery - Echoes Of Indiana Avenue, 1957-58 (2012)

Thumbs Up!

Wes Montgomery (1923-1968) was one of the most extraordinary jazz guitarists, a true heir of Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. When you know that he learned to play guitar all by himself from the age of 20, not even able to read music, you wonder what his fingers were made of, and particularly his right thumb...

He developed indeed a unique personal technique of plucking the strings with the fleshy part of his agile thumb which produces his famous smooth and warm sound punctuated by occasional sudden hard bursts. He once explained that he used his thumb instead of the usual pick of jazz guitarists to soften his sound and avoid waking up his children when he practiced.

But there's no risk of him putting us to sleep with the release of these lost tracks which mysteriously surfaced 40 years after their recording in 1957-58 in his native Indianapolis, half in studio half live in a local club.

Montgomery wanders from bossa nova (“Diablo's Dance”) to swing (“Straight No Chaser”, “Nica's Dream”) through organ-driven tracks (“Round Midnight”, “Darn That Dream”), and romantic numbers for late night dancing couples (“Misty”, “Body And Soul”).

But these fine tracks, marked by Montgomery's talent for embroidering on jazz standards, are dominated by two brilliant stand-outs recorded live, which maybe explains the energetic groove of the whole band : the hard swinging “Take The A Train” on which one measures the incredible dexterity of his famous thumb, and the superb improvised “After Hours Blues”, my favorite!

The title describes exactly this impromptu number : a soulful blues with Montgomery fighting to be heard over the noise of “after hours” drinkers in a jazz club, at some moments aggressively thumb-picking a nasty distorted sound out of his strings. But even there, he remains quite subtle and imaginative. A great track to conclude a fine album by an amazing jazz guitar master. ■

Videos  - These European TV broadcasts perfectly show Montgomery's unique technique :
► London, 1965 : https://youtu.be/zAkA6854tCk
► BBC Studios, UK, 1965 : https://youtu.be/L8V0eYLBiJ0
► Brussels, Belgium, 1965 : https://youtu.be/PbGGP_YGAi4
► Holland, 1965 : https://youtu.be/3yNmp2TqdgA
► Hamburg, Germany, 1965 : https://youtu.be/L8V0eYLBiJ0

_________________________________________

Buckwheat Zydeco - People's Choice (1982)

Buckwheat Blues

Thirty years ago, I bought the album “On Track” (1992) by instinct because the name Buckwheat sounded nice to my imagination and I fell in love with what was inside so that ever since it has been one of my fetish albums though at the time I didn't know much about Zydeco music and didn't have the Internet to get info. Today I have most of Buckwheat Zydeco albums, but didn't know this particular one.

At that time, 41 years ago, Stanley Dural (1947-2016) hadn't heavily funkified his music yet and instead stood mainly on the blues side of traditional Zydeco (for example on the second track, “Baby Do Right Sometime”). Never re-issued on CD (one wonders why!), this LP was the third opus of BZ, after “One For The Road” (1979) and “Take It Easy Baby” (1980).

On the opening track “B.W. Zydeco Blues”, Dural hasn't forgotten he was initially an organist before learning the accordion with Clifton Chenier. Neither has he forgotten his native Creole culture, singing a couple of songs in French : “You Used To Call Me” (despite its English title) and “Ma Tit Feye” (My Little Girl).

He was already a talented showman, even in studio, punctuating instrumental numbers with his “Oh!” and his “Hey toi!”. Above all, he was already a prolific songwriter, signing seven of the ten titles, the remaining three being from Clifton Chenier (“You Used To Call Me”), Ernest Kador (“I Done Got Over”), Buster Brown & Morgan Robinson (“Fannie Mae”).

He also knew already how to make an irresistible dancing number (“Gonna Go Rockin' Tonight”), a 100% blues song (“Bad Luck”), or a tearful slow (“People's Choice”). And, quite importantly, he already knew how to get fine musicians around him. Guitarists Paul “Lil' Buck” Sinegal and Russell Gordon are both excellent and prove it on “I Done Got Over”, “Bad Luck” or “B. W. Special”. Lee Allen Zeno is a renowned Louisiana bassist, and the others ― Nat Jolivette (drums), Ernest Johnson (washboard) and John Bell (tenor sax) ― are doing a tight job.

In other words, this record shows how Dural was already a hell of a good band leader. People's Choice? Mine anyway! ■

Videos
► On BBC TV (UK), 1983 : https://youtu.be/xmyvROkSszs
► “Ma 'Tit Fille” (a different version from the one on “People's Choice”) on David Letterman's Late Night show, 1989 : https://youtu.be/Sfdc4-LiSNg?t=27
► More videos here

_________________________________________

Kenny Burrell & Jimmy Raney - 1957 Two Guitars (1992)

Seven for a duo

While at the same period Wes Montgomery was recording in Philadelphia his “Echoes Of Indiana Avenue” (1), two other jazz guitar giants were having a great time in the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ. But what's interesting in this album is that despite its title, it's not just a pure guitar work : the other musicians do not stick to a simple backing role and participate actively to the seven titles.

Kenny Burrell

It's a good thing because the renowned pianist Mal Waldron and trumpet player Donald Byrd in particular are excellent jazz musicians, as are saxophonist Jackie McLean, bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Arthur Taylor. They create a nice frame for Burrell and Raney not over-invading but tasteful interventions on guitar.

Jimmy Raney

If Kenny Burrell is relatively well known, it's not the case of Raney, except for sharp jazz aficionados. Yet a few days after his death in May 1995, Steve Voce, musical critic at the British daily The Independent, wrote : “Jazz has always found room for musicians of great talent who the general public manage to ignore. If there was any justice the guitarist Jimmy Raney would be more eminent than Dave Brubeck, Bunk Johnson or a hundred other jazz icons better known than he was.”

This album proves him right. Especially when one knows that for some thirty years Raney suffered from a degenerative disease of the ears causing progressive loss of the hearing. Amazing! Reminds Beethoven!

The fact is that his super cool, still bopping guitar sounds superbly appealing. His style mixes perfectly with Burrell's more blues-influenced own. Both play with a superb technique, playing a call-response game, for example on the outstanding over 12-minute up-tempo “This Way”.

The length of some tracks (“Blue Duke”, “Little Melonae”, “This Way”) leave large opportunities to Waldron, Byrd and McLean for soloing too. The appealing Waldron wrote the first tree pieces, McLean signed “Little Melonae”, and Watkins, “This Way”.

So this album isn't just a duo or a duel between “two guitars” but a nice collective work from a group, even if it didn't survive the recording. And for many, it will be the opportunity to discover an underestimated artist like Raney. ■

(1) https://jellyrollbaker.blogspot.com/2023/04/wes-montgomery-echoes-of-indiana-avenue.html

Videos : unfortunately there's no video of both guitarists playing together...
► Kenny Burrell
→ With Grant Green and Barney Kessell, France,1969 : https://youtu.be/_4jMQNJFPO4
→  “Take The A Train” with Dave “Fathead” Newman and Hank Crawford, France, 1977 : https://youtu.be/GQmDsBQbs8I
→ With Jimmy Smith, Jazz à Vienne, France, 1993 : https://youtu.be/EnUpUUUwkzk
► Jimmy Raney
→ “Autumn Leaves” with Cal Collins, Louisville, KY, 1987 : https://youtu.be/OWpfN9PP2Uw
→ “Out Of Nowhere” : https://youtu.be/pUL6i_qVyt8
→ Duo with Hungarian-born jazz guitarist Atilla Zoller : https://youtu.be/CDWomOtFCGE