Robben Ford, Paul Personne, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal & John Jorgenson - The Incredible Lost In Paris Blues Band (2016)

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Not lost for the blues

A guitarists album that will seduce guitar aficionados but also blues lovers. In November 2015, it happened that Robben Ford and Ron Thal were both in Paris. Paul Personne, one of the godfathers of French blues, then had the idea of inviting them to an unplanned session in one of the best studios in Paris. He also contacted multi-instrumentalist John Jorgenson also in town at the time, and asked singer Beverly Jo Scott to come down for some vocals from neighboring Belgium where she resides. And finally he chose two solid French session men to take charge of the rhythm section, bassist Kevin Reveyrand and drummer Francis Arnaud.

Paul Personne

None of the three guitarists ever met before and under the direction of producer Personne the session was of course devoted to blues standards.

Paul Personne is a veteran of the French blues scene who started his career back in the early 1970s and now stands as one of France best blues guitarists.

Robben Ford

Robben Ford is a kind of schizophrenic guitarist with one hand in blues and the other in jazz and fusion, and a long list of albums behind him. He played with famous blues musicians like Charlie Musselwhite and Jimmy Witherspoon, with the family Ford Blues Band, and with his own combo The Blue Line, but also with jazz artists like the great Miles Davis, and with Larry Carlton with whom he teamed up for numerous tours. He was also a member of the progressive fusion groups Yellowjackets and L.A. Express, who worked with Joni Mitchell and George Harrison…

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (real name Ronald Jay Blumenthal) is rather the hard rock guitar-slinger type. He was Guns N' Roses guitarist from 2006 to 2014, famous as much for his virtuoso technique on guitar as for his fancy custom instruments. The most impressive one is the "DoubleBFoot", a unique double guitar with a fret-less neck on top and a fretted one on the bottom. Certainly closer to Joe Satriani or Metallica, he's probably the less familiar with the blues culture of Personne and Ford.

John Jorgenson

John Jorgenson is another phenom. He plays an impressive number of string instruments, saxophone and clarinet, piano and organ, and feels at home in musical genres as different as country, bluegrass and gypsy jazz. He has recorded or toured with artists as diverse as Elton John, Tommy Emmanuel, The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt or... Barbra Streisand and Luciano Pavarotti ! He was a member of the The Hellecasters and of the Desert Rose Band with Chris Hillman.

Beverly Jo Scott

As confirmed in the videos listed below, these musicians have very different profiles. Personne is a pure blues artist, Ford wanders from blues to jazz and back, Thal belongs to the hard rock/metal universe, Jorgenson is incredibly eclectic and BJ Scott rather comes from the folk scene…

Personne took a risk : locking musicians so different in a studio for three days, with not much time to rehearse, might have turned to a clash, at best to a musical mess, and the tapes would have stayed in a dusty closet.

Bassist Kevin Reveyrand

On the contrary, Personne must have a gift as a producer : relaxed and apparently thrilled by the challenge of playing with new partners, the musicians have performed quite an appealing collection of blues covers.

Little track by track review.

Drummer Francis Arnaud

The session starts with a funky version of Tom Waits' “Downtown” with churchy organ by Jorgenson and alternate vocals and guitar solos by the three six-stringers.

Scott appears on vocals on the following “Fire Down Below”, a solid Bob Seger blues-rocker, which gives opportunity to Personne and Ford to have a nice muscular duel (Thal doesn't participate ― actually he appears only on six tracks).

Thal is back on a rather roots delivery of Willie Dixon's classic “Little Red Rooster” and shares the lead parts with Ford while Personne plays it slide and sings, and Jorgenson is on piano.

Ford

The later is both on guitar and piano on the band's blues rocking revisit of “I Don't Need No Doctor”, a Ray Charles' staple, with Personne on vocals.

Janis Joplin “One Good Man”, of course sung by Scott, is taken on a heavy pounding mid-tempo with Jorgenson on the organ and Personne on slide again while Ford is as inspired as ever. Thal is absent (it seems he missed one of the three days of the session!)

Thal

On the cover of Howlin' Wolf's “Tell Me”, Personne is alone with Jorgenson both on guitar (he gives a good glimpse of his talent on the instrument) and piano.

Homage to Mike Bloomfield with “You're Killing My Love” : Personne is on vocals, sharing guitar with Ford, Jorgenson on keyboards, and Thal still out.

Jorgenson

“It's All Over Now”, a Bobby & Shirley Womack number with Dylan-flavored vocals from Personne, is one of the outstanding tracks of the album. Thal is back and the four guitarists (Jorgenson is on guitar too) offer a great moment of entangled solos.

Other outstanding track, the swampy voodoo atmosphere (a Ford idea says Personne) given to Muddy Waters' “Trouble No More” built on a kind of scary repetitive bass + guitar riff behind. Personne and Ford (also on piano!) are on vocals while Jorgenson enhance the strange atmosphere with his Leslie guitar and Thal weaves a nice solo in the midst.

Personne

Scott sings the mellow jazzy “Evil Gal Blues” and Personne and Ford are perfect on guitar while Jorgenson is on piano and organ. God knows where is Thal...

He's back though for a rhythmic version of Elmore James' “I Can't Hold Out” : Personne is on slide and vocals, Ford on rhythm, Thal and Jorgenson exchange nice solos.

Scott & Personne

Then comes a revisit of Bob Dylan's “Watching The River Flow” with the team complete (Jorgenson is on piano and organ). Not the best track but everybody knows that only Dylan can properly cover Dylan !

Personne concludes the album with an impromptu solo acoustic version of “Driftin' Blues”.

Though improvised more like a jam session, this album is better than lots of long planned recordings. This is what happens when you gather talented musicians together no matter what their musical backgrounds are. ■

Videos

■ Lost in Paris Blues Band
► The making of... : https://youtu.be/rDOX_9taEgw
► Zenith, Paris, Nov. 18, 2015 : a few days after recording the album, Robben Ford, Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, John Jorgenson and Paul Personne were together on stage playing “Talk to Your Daughter” for the final jam of the “Autour de la Guitare” show, along with Larry Carlton, Christopher Cross and many French musicians. The bass and drums were in the hands of the same Kevin Reveyrand & Francis Arnaud who play on the album : https://youtu.be/7VXktKTyoxM

■ Robben Ford

A young Ford with Miles Davis

► With Jimmy Witherspoon, Los Angeles, 1973 : https://youtu.be/h7eRNf83o4Q
► With Yellowjackets, Montreux Jazz Festival, 1981 : https://youtu.be/EX2YiG-npa4
► With Miles Davis, Amnesty International Concert, Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ. 1986 : https://youtu.be/1qZnXLWZjQo
► With Miles Davis, Montreux Jazz Festival, 1986 : https://youtu.be/lFhfdOKFJwM
► With his band the Blue Line, Toronto Beaches Jazz Festival, Canada, 1993 : https://youtu.be/qDwIuj6mYSg

Ford with Larry Carlton

► With the Blue Line, the Bottom Line, NYC, 1995 : https://youtu.be/0ul7m3INpKE
► Ohne Filter, Baden-Baden, Germany, 1997 : https://youtu.be/wYiRSc2htBA
►With the Blue Line, Burghausen, Germany, 1998 : https://youtu.be/7DLit9wNRiA
► New Morning, Paris, 2001 : https://youtu.be/rVsFt2eajqo
► With The Ford Blues Band,  Budapest, Hungary, 2005 : https://youtu.be/73N13FvKBSE
► With Larry Carlton, Montreux Jazz Festival, 2007 : https://youtu.be/9TaY_4wc9JA
► With Larry Carlton, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands, 2007 : https://youtu.be/yWRtwd_Z8HA
► Rockpalast, Germany, 2007 : https://youtu.be/jPdav4svWEE
► Tokyo Jazz Festival, Japan, 2008 : https://youtu.be/VqCY_XULneI
► Blues Cazorla Festival, Jaén, Spain. 2009 : https://youtu.be/KC7mGtq3dJQ
► Paris, 2010 : https://youtu.be/3fbGv2r_TjQ
► With Bill Evans, Estival Jazz, Lugano, Switzerland, 2010 : https://youtu.be/JPS3hhjKR9g
► With The Blue Line, 2012 : https://youtu.be/Q2CTeY8LHqA
► New Morning, Paris, 2012 : https://youtu.be/XUOA_7tInfw
► With the Nordkraft Big Band, Denmark, 2013 : https://youtu.be/9_XWXt7Vupw
► With Larry Carlton, Beverly Jo Scott and other guests, “Autour du Blues” concert (Around the blues), New Morning, Paris, 2015 : https://youtu.be/1IG38Sc2r-U
► Montreux Jazz Festival, 2016 : https://youtu.be/pkNueVYUPOU
► Jaan’s House, Nashville, TN, 2021 : https://youtu.be/ngi9gpjq7DE
► Nashville, TN, 2021 : https://youtu.be/k2clpQPSL2g
► Koko Jazz Club, Helsinki, Finland, 2019 : https://youtu.be/oQOrO3dKH1s
► Opening for Eric Clapton, Bologna, Italy, 2022 : https://youtu.be/VWxtvmNCMng

■ Paul Personne

Personne with Johnny Hallyday

► With the late French rock star Johnny Hallyday on “Toute la musique que j'aime” (all the music I love comes from the blues), 1993/1994 : https://youtu.be/fFnioGopfz4 & https://youtu.be/SDxLdyqUbb8
► Festival “Les Vieilles Charrues”, France, 2004 :
→ #1 : https://youtu.be/6nEcDP4S9Io
→ #2 : https://youtu.be/CNKhSgyriwk
→ #3 : https://youtu.be/7Tze7G8NdNQ
► With French guitarist Louis Bertignac, Château de Vincennes, Paris, 2013 : https://youtu.be/QZdXZDk0WoY
► Alençon, France, 2015 : https://youtu.be/rXR270miH3c
► On the TV program “Acoustic”, 2015 : https://youtu.be/BbuH6a-PeME
► “I don't need no doctor”, radio studio, 2017 : https://youtu.be/5efKkTepvRI
► “Gimme Shelter” with Berverly Jo Scott & Louis Bertignac : https://youtu.be/iyL4eepDkMM
► Meaux, France, 2019 : https://youtu.be/qM4KhD0YTH4
► Blues-sur-Seine, Mantes-La-Ville, France, 2019 : https://youtu.be/fD_nw0SfOVg
► Monaco, 2021 : https://youtu.be/aIpljUcogu4

■ Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal

► La Maroquinerie, Paris, 2005 : https://youtu.be/2v6CW8xgr7U
► The Guns N' Roses years, 2006-2014 :
→ Rockpalast, Germany, 2006 : https://youtu.be/QulWhRIM9cg
→ Lisboa, Portugal, 2006 : https://youtu.be/4x1JL00NHUI
→ Reading Festival, UK, 2010 : https://youtu.be/WEmAilfLD6k
→ Bridge School Benefit, 2012 : https://youtu.be/xRWN4iH3-e0
→ 2012 : https://youtu.be/XB0aqKpgLu0
→ Quebec's Summer Festival, Canada, 2013 : https://youtu.be/malTR3hfUSE
► With Pino Scotto, Woodstock, 2014 : https://youtu.be/cEdNA_PO9rk
► Minsk, Belarus, 2014 : https://youtu.be/ThJmBkV07pQ
► Newcastle Upon Tyne. UK, 2016 : https://youtu.be/1QDUiVLIfwo
► Music Factory, Battle Creek, Michigan, 2017 : https://youtu.be/0KnLC03V6rY
► Amazing technical and sonic demonstration at the Guitar Show, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2017 :
→ #1 : https://youtu.be/wK3VvjTZh00
→ #2 : https://youtu.be/WX8pmzRQuW4
► Pattaya, Thailand, 2017 : https://youtu.be/dj0-2rt-V9A
► With his new band Sons of Apollo, 2018 :
→ on a musical sea cruise : https://youtu.be/-Yzk8DYjG4E
→ in Battle Creek, Michigan : https://youtu.be/cr5a-aDtUzE
→ at the D'Addario Guitar Festival, Russia : https://youtu.be/9d6KgRRctw0
► ZestFest, Dallas, TX, 2022 : https://youtu.be/W7JoGxwIhCY



■ John Jorgenson

► With his former band The Hellecasters, Germany, 1994 : https://youtu.be/4jXsD7K65PA
► Gypsy Jazz with the John Jorgenson Quintet :
→ Issoudun, France, 2003 : https://youtu.be/w_QfqZNTsQ4
→ Copper Mountain, CO, 2013 : https://youtu.be/c1LtoJCm-10
→ Glen Echo, MD, 2018 : https://youtu.be/XGt5mDWeLoM
► John Jorgenson Electric Band, Netherlands, 2013 : https://youtu.be/-2Rwl81mO9I
► John Jorgenson Electric Band, Copper Mountain, CO, 2015 : https://youtu.be/MervOZ-gdDw
► Larryfest, 2016 : https://youtu.be/I1oiwqhzbtw
► The John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band, Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, Framingham, MA, 2016 : https://youtu.be/Vl9xvWk0Cn4
► With his former band mates from The Desert Rose Band Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, Berkeley, CA, 2017 : https://youtu.be/bG-ccLklKTg

■ Beverly Jo Scott
► Rockpalast, Germany, 2007 : https://youtu.be/HUJzKc3JbvY
► 2009 : https://youtu.be/RO_YCzJ6VCs
► Baudour, Belgium, 2018 : https://youtu.be/sSKWHYVp1Jc
► Orgelet, France, 2021 : https://youtu.be/SZIIeopmbMY