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Boston born Zack Slovinsky aka Cadillac Zack didn't play guitar seriously before he was 19. Two years later, he moved to Chicago to study cinema at the university. There he spent lots of nights hanging around the West and South sides blues clubs and met Magic Slim and above all John Primer who took him under his wing and became his model. He is proud to say he plays the West Side style of the legendary Magic Sam. Luck had him meeting somebody who had played with Magic Sam : Willie Pooch.
When he was thirteen, he and his family made the big jump that so many Afro-Americans from the Deep South used to do : move up north, and especially to Chicago. There the gospel boy became a blues singer, and he switched from guitar to bass because bassists were more in demand, which gave him the opportunity to play more particularly with Magic Sam, Luther Allison and Elmore James.
In 1962, he jumped on the offer made by a Columbus club, Sam’s Bar & Grill, to lead the house band. So he moved to Columbus, Ohio, playing and singing the blues at night while working during the day at a steel mill, a job he held for 30 years until his retirement in 1999. But he had become a local blues legend, always neatly dressed in his flashy colored suits and elegant hats, and didn't retire from music, continuing to sing until the end despite diabetes problems which cost him a leg. He died in Columbus in May 2010.
As for Zack, he also became an active blues concert promoter in South California with his now famous concept “Cadillac Zack Presents…” which showcases the best contemporary blues artists three nights a week in three different venues around Los Angeles in Arcadia, Long Beach and Tarzana.
In 2003, Pooch and Zack recorded this fine album, joined by a cast of quality : saxophonist Eddie Shaw, pianist Detroit Jr., guitarist Eddie Taylor Jr. and Hammond B-3 player Ron Scott, completed with drummer Willie Hayes and bassist Sho Komiya.
Like often with unpretentious albums, this one happens to be quite enjoyable. Pooch is a skillful heartfelt singer, Zack, a proficient guitarist, and the musicians around them, impeccably tight.
The sessions were held in Chicago, and indeed this is a vintage Chicago blues opus. Classic but appealing groove and neat sound, as on the opener “The Blues Do Something To Me”, or on the slow laid-back “I Get So Weary”, two songs that summarize perfectly what the blues are all about.
There's two tracks where Pooch is singing more or less the same story, “Worried About That” (a Howlin' Wolf cover) and “Worried About You, Baby” (a Pooch original), but they show how a same subject can be delivered in two different styles : classic Chicago West Side for the first, more jazzy for the latter…The 8-minute long slow and soulful “As The Years Go Passing By” is Zack moment of glory on lead guitar. “You Gotta Move” is not a cover of Fred McDowell's iconic song but that doesn't keep it from being an excellent number. It is followed by “Movin'”, signed by Eddie Shaw, one of the best tracks of the album, and by the sax soaked “Roosevelt Rock (For The 1815)” written by Zack.
Pooch has a perfect blues voice and the soul to go with it. Zack is anything but a show-off guitar slinger, his playing is all the more appealing that he's never overdoing things. The blues do something to them, they certainly do something to us too. ■
→ “Slow Blues” : https://youtu.be/Liw21LQWSQc
→ “Sweet Home Chicago” : https://youtu.be/Wqn391mh4Gc
► With Shirley King on a bus, Chicago, 1998 : https://youtu.be/1foQwwzHnOU
► Willie Pooch and the New Upsetters at the Blues Station : https://youtu.be/iTl4HnPU5j0
► Full show, 2000s : https://youtu.be/-ZodbFs3uL0
► With Sean Carney, Ft Myers Beach, FL, 2009 : https://youtu.be/2RyCfUEmAl8► Willie Pooch Benefit Party, just a few weeks before his passing, Delaware, OH, April 2010 :
→ #1 : https://youtu.be/exd7kAGHlHE
→ #2 : https://youtu.be/2LGYbo39_zw
→ #3 : https://youtu.be/7swAno2xze4
■ Cadillac Zack
→ Cadillac Zack Presents The Blues : https://www.youtube.com/@BluesExpert/videos
→ MusicUCanSee : https://www.youtube.com/@MusicUCanSee/videos
► “Broken Hearted Blues” with Scott Dirks, Maui Sugar Mill Saloon, Tarzana, CA, 2010 : https://youtu.be/Xps7mU4MC6I
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| With Eddie "The Chief" Clearwater |
► His idol John Primer, Cadillac Zack's Blues Party, 2013 : https://youtu.be/IQXzoV2amZ0
► With Trenda Fox, Maui, 2014 : https://youtu.be/sEyQ18-7qmU
► With Michael Ledbetter, “Three O' Clock Blues”, Malarkey's Grill, Long Beach, CA, 2014 : https://youtu.be/2bDi4yL09Uc
► With Michael Be Hoden (bass) & Bill Bates (guitar), 2015 : https://youtu.be/guuKDJpkFAc
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| With Joe Louis Walker |
→ “Mean Old World”. https://youtu.be/FlKlIJxIKA8
→ “Every Time I Get To Drinking” : https://youtu.be/vriZ92C6QrE
► With Lance Lopez, “Heart Fixing Business”, 2016 : https://youtu.be/P7xp2zAJnW8
► With Joe Louis Walker, 2017 : https://youtu.be/2Ky-V5onuWo
► With Hash Brown, 2017 : https://youtu.be/O36RkuK5bvs► With Hash Brown & Rj Mischo, 2017 : https://youtu.be/2xubIQf-rOg
► With Duke Robillard, 2017 : https://youtu.be/CUQm-LSEFaI
► With Darrell Nulisch. “Play It Cool”, 2017 : https://youtu.be/v1zKMiq9aLE
►
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| With Elmore James Jr |
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