May 15, 2022

Angela Strehli Band - Live From Rancho Nicasio (2001)

The album

Queen of Texas Blues
She was sexy even past 60, blonde (but not naturally), sung with legends like Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan or W.C. Clark, with her one time accomplices Marcia Ball & Lou Ann Barton, with The Blues Broads (herself, Dorothy Morrison, Tracy Nelson & Annie Sampson), recorded a few solo albums, helped to manage and build the reputation of Austin renowned club and record label Antone's, and later of the Rancho Nicasio, an old mid-19th century stagecoach roadhouse set in the peaceful north of San Francisco Marin County, that her husband-manager Bob Brown bought and renovated in 1998. That's where this album was recorded.

With Muddy Waters
I'm not going to repeat here what's in the detailed biography joined to the album posted on Blue Dragon and mentioned below, except to remind that the lady was born in Lubbock, Texas, in 1945, and that her reputation as "Queen of Texas Blues" is much more considerable than her thin solo discography indicates : only one 3-track EP and four studio albums since her recording debut in 1986 (she was already 40). Let's also mention her joint ventures with Marcia Ball and Lou Ann Barton in 1990, and with the Blues Broads in 2012. The reason is that she appears on numerous "various artists" projects and compilations or as a guest singer on other artists works, and had an intense concert activity long before her first recording experience with musicians like those mentioned in the beginning of this review. Still she waited 2001 to do her first and only live album to date.

T
his one proposes solid Texas style rhythm'n'blues. Here and there a detail in Strehli's vocals or Schermer's guitar lines, reveals light country music echoes, nothing surprising for a Texan lady.
The twelve featured songs, technically very well recorded and mixed, see Strehli going through a kind of retrospective of her career. There's not one single under-level track on this live. The listener will take his pick of favorites according to his own taste.

Personally, if I was threatened to death to point out a few, I would mention "Just What It Takes", the groovy soul "A Stand By Your Woman Man", "Clean Up Woman" and "Stranger Blues" both illuminated by Schermer's top guitar work, the equally rocking "Tell Me Why", "Slipped, Tripped, Fell In Love" for the chorus vocal harmonies, "Howling For My Darling" ("whooo… hooo…"). But what about "Big Town Playboy", "It Hurts Me Too" or "You Don't Love Me" ? Wouldn't be fair not to mention these either !

T
he truth is that her excellent band is seriously rocking, Texas way, starting with Mike Schermer on guitar who certainly deserves his being dubbed "Mighty" and is undoubtedly the other attraction of this live. But the most impressive instrument of the lot is the lady's incredibly attractive husky vocal texture. Though she was then around 56, her voice is as powerful and full of energy as it was at her debut. Maybe more... In all cases, more sensual than ever. A perfect voice for singing the blues. 


More infos

Angela Strehli's bio : https://musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004819/Angela-Strehli.html
A 2010 interview with Angela Strehli : https://www.sacramentopress.com/2010/09/25/blues-on-the-green-2-interview-with-angela-strehli/
The Rancho Nicasio : https://ranchonicasio.com/
Aerial discovery of the peaceful Nicasio
village : https://youtu.be/Eqipl1zMkLQ

Live performances videos

At the Austin Blues Heritage Festival (with Major Burkes Blues Band, Mark Pollack, "Little" Charlie Sexton, W.C. Clark Blues Revue, Tex Thomas & the Wranglers,  Angela Strehli Band (from 29 :00 to 38 :45), and the Cobras, 1982 : https://youtu.be/Eaj_k_uSdKM
"Take Me To The River" with W.C. Clark & All Stars Texas Blues : https://youtu.be/sQWbcrLblAY
"Fool In Love" with Marcia Ball : https://youtu.be/q6s4jKusTXQ
"Stand By Your Woman", at the Frederikshavn Blues Festival, Denmark, 2007 : https://youtu.be/9A4c9pLYEYE
With The King Snakes, Denmark, 2007 : https://youtu.be/SZ4tubvfuaA or https://youtu.be/HaUmvU3TqAk
"Boogie Like You Wanna" with the Cobras, Austin, 2010 : https://youtu.be/RHh9dUq75Io
With Marcia Ball and Lou Ann Barton, at Antone's, 2017 :

https://youtu.be/_HCs2KScQrs

With Tommy Castro & the Painkillers and Deanna Bogart at Rancho Nicasio, 2021 : https://youtu.be/xmlmGddoliU
Birthday perf., 2021 : https://youtu.be/-7cUYzn2uis

With Stevie Ray Vaughan
With SRV, Jimmie Vaughan, Jeff Beck and Kim Wilson, Hawaii, 1984 :
"You Were Wrong" : https://youtu.be/HfZDaJfUMXE
"Don't Fall For Me Baby " : https://youtu.be/zlDlfIzVVY0 or https://youtu.be/4p1VDHzoFiE or https://youtu.be/B8QlL2iY7Xo
 

► The Blues Broads: Angela Strehli, Dorothy Morrison, Tracy Nelson & Annie Sampson
"Oh Happy Day", 2012 : https://youtu.be/agN_BnlIacw
At the Festival de Blues, Lucerne (Switzerland), 2013
 : 8-part playlist
From the 2014 DVD) :
10-track playlist
"Take My Love With You", at Rancho Nicasio, 2017 : https://youtu.be/EvhntGWjuN4
"Oh Happy Day", at Rancho Nicasio, 2021 : https://youtu.be/MTv7SOQsuC0

► With "Mighty" Mike Schermer
Denmark, 2007 :
"Boogie Like You Wanna" : https://youtu.be/PU6PjqW8kdw
"Kiddio" : https://youtu.be/EcUuBNrkMJk or https://youtu.be/LxxGxVIW9Ks
"C.O.D."  : https://youtu.be/LMl2fb13VcQ or https://youtu.be/7bVlRA8DrgY
"?" : https://youtu.be/mcKmzvFgGMY
"Big Town Playboy" : https://youtu.be/z85Ephqgzes

Mighty Mike Schermer and Friends - Live At Greaseland ! Vol. 2, 2021 : https://youtu.be/AvoKuy20JO8
- Mike Schermer : guitar/vocals
- Steve Ehrmann : bass
- Paul Revelli : drums
- Tony Stead : keyboards
+ Nic Clark : harmonica
- L'il Baby : vocals
- Kid Andersen : guitar, vocals, percussion and synthesizer.
















Nicasio, a small peaceful Marin County village

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May 13, 2022

Jimmy Smith - Back At The Chicken Shack (1960)

The B-3 master
T
here are two ways to appreciate an album such as this one. The first is to invite a pretty woman for a late drink by your place, install the CD or vinyl, turn your hi-fi to a low volume and let Jimmy Smith weave a cool relaxing ambiance in the background helping your romantic attempt to seduce the lady. The music is secondary. This is what I call the passive way.
The second way is to put your earphones on, put up the volume to a reasonable high, tune the equalizer to the appropriate settings, close your eyes and immerse yourself in the musicians work, trying to isolate and follow each instrument's part and see how they mingle together into the global result. (Note : this way doesn't forbid your feet to gently stomp the swinging beat.) This is the active way and it's rather my way.

The Incredible Jimmy Smith, as he was called, took the B-3 out of its traditional churchy gospel environment to the open as a full jazz instrument. Born in 1925 in Pennsylvania, he was already a skilled pianist since his early teens, playing in his father's entertainment show, when one day of 1955 he decided to buy a B-3 model. For a whole year, he studied the complex secrets of the instrument, practiced intensively and created his own style, before starting to perform in Philadelphia clubs in 1955 and in New York from 1956, where he was quickly remarked by famous Blue Note label bosses Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff who immediately put a contract on the table.

Considered to be the creator of a new genre, the "funk or "soul jazz", in the late 1950s-early 1960s, Smith did some forty recording sessions (!) for Blue Note between 1956 and 1963. "Back At The Chicken Shack" is from one of the 1960 sessions, actually the same one during which his album "Midnight Special" was taped.

Cool is THE word about this elegant album halfway between funky blues and jazz . Smith bubbling B-3 Hammond organ is cool, Stanley Turrentine's flamboyant tenor sax is cool, Kenny Burrell's laid-back jazz guitar is cool, and Donald "Duck" Bailey's background but essential drumming is cool.

This being clearly stated, let's add that the B-3 is a very intricate instrument, difficult to master. The whole apparatus weighs close to 200 kg ! Equipped with two manual keyboards, a pedal board, two sets of manual draw bars and one of pedal ones, numerous preset keys, built-in vibrato and chorus effects,  a unique harmonic percussion system, and a tone cabinet, it has to be coupled to an external Leslie speaker which produces the typical inimitable B-3 sound. Not surprising that it took an entire year to Smith to control such complexity.

The result, as it appears on this album, is as groovy as it is original. The five tracks on this record leave enough space for each of Smith accomplices to express himself through solo moments, starting by Turrentine.

Stanley Turrentine
The bluesy swampy swing of "Back At The Chicken Shack", though mostly dominated by Smith, sees Burrell going through a short but mellow solo. Turrentine affirms the presence of his warm hoarse sounding tenor sax on "When I Grow Too Old To Dream" and "Minor Chant", his own composition, where Bailey surges suddenly with his drums rolls. On the long Smith original "Messy Bessie", Burrell comes in front with a solo full of virtuosity. The final number, "On The Sunny Side Of The Street", a Jimmy McHugh-Dorothy Fields tune, sees Smith, Turrentine and Burrell alternate solo parts.

As for the discreet Bailey, the importance of his presence can be measured by imagining how the album would sound without him : it would undoubtedly lack something essential.


Infos & docs
History of the Hammond B-3 Organ : http://theatreorgans.com/grounds/docs/history.html
Excellent article on Smith on the "JazzProfiles" blog : https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2020/02/jimmy-smith-breaking-new-ground.html
A German documentary film on Jimmy Smith : https://youtu.be/u6s5rnLhcUQ or https://youtu.be/eUHXfPkWIbs

Live concerts videos
Donald Bailey
On Jazz Scene USA, 1961 or 1962 : https://youtu.be/m7ZuoB_4_8E or https://youtu.be/VmUIOPyjEic
At the Antibes Jazz Festival, Juan-les-Pins (France) with Roy Montrell on guitar & Donald Bailey on drums, 1962 : https://youtu.be/ZXsieoGSrC4
On the Jazz 625 TV program, with Quentin Warren on guitar & Billy Hart on drums, 1965 : https://youtu.be/AB6Lvo-lsIY or https://youtu.be/gobKu4UlxSA
On the BBC, 1965 : https://youtu.be/gobKu4UlxSA
In Denmark (with guitarist Nathan Page & drummer Charles Crosby), 1968 : https://youtu.be/5CA-5MqVD3g
At Salle Pleyel, Paris, with Charles Crosby on drums and Eddie McFadden on guitar, 1969 : https://youtu.be/U1mQzxx3zMI
Kenny Burrell
In Rotterdam (Holland), 1971 (list of musicians below the video) : https://youtu.be/kmW_pWeBbBc
Jam Session "Newport In New York", with Kenny Burrell, Roy Haynes, Clark Terry, Art Farmer, Illinois Jacquet & James Moody, 1972 : https://youtu.be/eB0_L5NKgVE
The Jimmy Smith Quartet in Germany : https://youtu.be/t-Ztek1A7wo
With Herman Riley(sax, flute), Carl Rocket (guitar) & James Levi (drums) : https://youtu.be/VGCyoUpPIJc
Hammond Jazz live : https://youtu.be/VmUIOPyjEic
At the Vitoria Jazz Festival (Spain), 1983 : https://youtu.be/pXR_INxQvw0
In Pescara (Italy), 1983 : https://youtu.be/zNFp8WPyYPc
At the Blue Note Club, Tokyo, with Carl Locket (guitar), Herman Riley (sax) & James Levy (drums), 1992 : https://youtu.be/5ZAUuJyn8Jc
In Sori (Italy) with Kenny Burrell (guitar), Herman Riley (sax) and Grady Tate (drums), 1993 : https://youtu.be/qPxWpMMt2hI

The last concerts
In Leverkusen (Germany) with Mark Whitfield on guitar, Jimmy Woode on bass & Dowell Davis on drums, 2004 : https://youtu.be/HFabbicg1d8
In Bratislava (Slovakia), 2004 (same band as on preceding video) :











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May 12, 2022

Little Jimmy King - Something Inside Of Me (1994)

The album

Tormented soul

I've had this album for a good while, but I listened back to it for this occasion and I confess I had forgotten that it was so good. King's tortured guitar is a serious delight. King belongs to this post-Hendrix generation of bluesmen who emerged in the footsteps Robert Cray, Joe Louis Walker or the late Lucky Peterson, reviving electric blues in the late 1980s and the 1990s by incorporating some rock elements. People like Bernard Allison (Luther's son), Eddie Vaan Shaw Jr., Guitar Slim Jr., Ike Cosse, James Armstrong, Jimmy D. Lane, Sherman Robertson, Tab Benoit or Troy Turner (whose promising career was brought down by drug addiction, according to my excellent informant Lou Cypher from Blue Dragon)…

Emmanuel Lynn Gales aka LJK was born in 1964 (or 1968 according to some information channels) in Memphis and died of a heart attack in 2002. His twin Danuel Gales and his elder brothers Eric and Eugene are all blues guitarists. He chose his stage name in homage to his two heroes Jimi Hendrix (left-handed as himself) and Albert King, and actually joined Albert King's band as second guitarist in 1988. In 1991, he left his mentor to start a career of his own with his own band, The Memphis Soul Survivors, and recorded a first album. "Something Inside Of Me" is his second one.

T. Shannon (l) & C. Layton
J
udging by his tortured guitar style, the "something inside" is certainly a tortured soul, or at least a tormented broken heart : "There's something inside me that just won't let me be / My baby's gone and left me, and my heart's in misery..." Backed by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm section, drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, by veteran Ron Levy on B3 organ (who also produced the album) and the Midtown Horns, King lets his torments pour out of his six-string. The sound of his guitar, totally up-front, is aggressively distorted and often using the wah-wah effect.

This re-appropriation of rock elements, a fair payback as rock did originally borrow a lot from the blues, is particularly evident on this album, and in this sense it's as much a kind of blues-rock album as an urban electric blues one. The influence of Hendrix bursts out from the opening barn-burner track "Under Pressure" throughout the whole record, unto the instrumental apotheosis of "Resolution #1" : though its title seems to be a wink to John Lennon's song "Revolution 1" on the Beatles' White Album, it is in fact much closer to the psychedelic universe of Hendrix.

Albert King
A more classic Chicago style blues like Albert King's "Can't You See What You're Doin' To Me" is given the same kind of rock treatment. The choice to cover Cream's song "Strange Brew" is equallyrevealing of this will to cross styles over. Still, songs like "Something Inside Of Me" and "Blues Been Good To Me" demonstrate that it is a real blues album in spirit. Three successive rhythm'n'blues numbers, "Baby, Baby", "Shouldn't Have Left Me" and "Unlovable", have a definite Memphis sound, due to the front presence of the horns and B3 organ. The final instrumental "Upside Down & Backwards", co-written with his brother Eugene, closes the album with a last demonstration of King's feverish guitar style.

As a matter of fact, by many aspects, in spirit if not in form, this album reminds me of Troy Turner's "Handful Of Aces" released two years earlier, this being obvious on a track like "Win, Lose Or Draw".
Classical orthodox blues aficionados might not like such an album. Too bad… I like it and I'm glad with that. 

Info

L. to r. : Eric, LJK, Eugene
Audio
"Left Hand Brand", The Gales Brothers' 1996 album
featuring Eric Gales, Eugene Gales & Manuel Gales aka LJK
(full credits below the video) :
https://youtu.be/1ZOA9t8HVKo



Videos
In studio at Rounder Records with Ron Levy and the Memphis Horns, session and debrief : https://youtu.be/3UgDcxqiSt0
With Albert King, Seattle, 1990 (amateur video) : https://youtu.be/yr6iMdwzSJM
With Khari Wynn, BB King's Blues Club, Memphis, 2001 : https://youtu.be/iGZFEQ1Cgrg
With the Memphis Soul Survivors (Michael Allen : Hammond B3 organ - Dywane Thomas : bass - Lannie McMillan : sax - Andrea Pizzuti : drums - Luca Marianini : trumpet), Porretta Soul Festival, Italy, 2000 : https://youtu.be/-IUKa23pd_4
Tribute to Albert King, Jimi Hendrix and SRV, BB King's Blues Club, Memphis, 1999 : https://youtu.be/mnnmfsiDHYg or https://youtu.be/gqYSIuG3ANA
At the Jimi Hendrix Guitar Festival, Seattle, 1995 : https://youtu.be/HgdE3CN3TPw & https://youtu.be/zjsI_KmnUGU
"Angel of Mercy", 1993 : https://youtu.be/uxWHqgPf-dc












 


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May 09, 2022

The Nighthawks - American Landscape (2008)

The albuml

Mark Wenner and… the Nighthawks

In 2022 the Nighthawks celebrate half a century of existence ! No need to say the band, or at least its leader, has gone through all kinds of experiences and knows each and every trick of the business. Founded in 1972 by harpist-vocalist Mark Wenner and guitarist Jimmy Thackery, the Nighthawks have known a long series of member changes around Wenner after the departure of Thackery in 1986. The pillar, the heart, the soul and the driving force of the band, Wenner must have in store a huge amount of will, strength and health managing to keep his 30-album band alive for these 50 years !
Wenner, an upper-class kid from Bethesda, near Washington D.C., started to play harmonica in his teens. He got definitely caught by the blues and the instrument when struck by the lightning of a Paul Butterfield Blues Band concert in 1966 at Columbia University in New York which he had just entered. Rather than studying seriously, he spent most of his time haunting the Greenwich Village's blues clubs where he saw great bluesmen like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells or Buddy Guy play, practicing his harmonica intensively and jamming with student bands. After managing still to graduate from university, his mind made up to form a blues band, he returned to the D.C. area where he soon met a young impetuous guitar player named Jimmy Thackery. This was the sparkle that lighted the birth of the Nighthawks in 1972.

Thirty-six years later, the tireless, stainless Nighthawks released "American Landscape", their 15th studio album or so. The menu includes mostly covers from the Imperial Crowns (Jimmie Wood & J. J. Holiday), Tom Waits, Bob Dylan (twice) Ike Turner, Motown founder Berry Gordy, Louisiana record producer and songwriter Jerry West aka J.D. Miller, Steve Cropper and soul singer-songwriter-producer Dan Penn, and two original tracks due to bass keeper Johnny Castle.

A rather eclectic American landscape totally designed to put Wenner's harmonica and vocals up front, the rest of the band being almost confined to a backing part, except maybe Paul Bell on guitar.
This makes this album rather disappointing, despite a few outstanding tracks like Tom Wait's "Down In The Hole", Johnny Castle's "Where Do You Go?" and vintage rock'n'roll song "Jana Lea", or the too short acoustic jazzy outro track "The Fishin' Hole", actually the theme song for The Andy Griffith Show TV program.

Inspiration seems to have brought the band in scattered directions and the album lacks unity, from rocking and jumping numbers like "Big Boy" and "Matchbox" to blues-soul numbers like "Made Up My Mind" or "Standing In The Way" through a cool jazzy piece like "Try It Baby". Even Steve Cropper's "Don't Turn Your Heater Down" sounds a bit wheezy. Bob Dylan isn't allowed a better treatment, despite Paul Bell's guitar that reminds the Byrds' folk-rock sound style, not enough to catch the ears of Dylan's fans seriously.

Just like the front cover illustration showing a messy jumble of two or four-wheel vehicles (reflecting heavily tattooed biker Wenner's passion for motorcycles), this album is too dispersed to reveal the band's musical identity and really convince. 


Interviews
Wenner on The Nighthawks, performing, recording and rock'n'roll (audio) : https://youtu.be/-FerO3Bgl0o

Mark Wenner's side-band the "Blues Warriors"
A Blue House Productions Live Stream Concert with Mark Wenner : vocals, harmonica - Mark Stutso : drums, vocals - Clarence “The Bluesman” Turner : guitar, vocals - Zach Sweeney : guitar -, Steve Wolf : upright bass : https://youtu.be/Xina6wqGB4k

Live versions of songs from the album
"Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" : https://youtu.be/uHLuqNrh2Qw
"Standing In The Way" : https://youtu.be/FW3MyZR7vM0


Nighthawks live shows
At Earl's Hideaway, 2022 : https://youtu.be/h4pvSBX2l3s
On Pearl Street Live, 2021 (go straight to 1:19 :00, the sound is mute prior to that !) : https://youtu.be/6DVjlne8gMI
A Blue House Productions Live Stream Concert, 2021 :
In Gaithersburg (Maryland) on the 4th of July 2020 : https://youtu.be/KcFPqr4vzz8
Thanksgiving benefit concert, Kensington (Maryland) :
At Terra Fermata, Stuart (Florida), 2019 : https://youtu.be/i5g1xrGKI7k
At the Kensington Book Fair (Maryland), 2019 : https://youtu.be/xSTMJ-R5O_I
At the Takoma Park Street Festival (Maryland) :
2018 : https://youtu.be/zPvlmP6XeBk
At Lee District Park, Franconia (Virginia), 2017 : https://youtu.be/EBn5uakdjeo
With Bob Margolin (at right)
With Bob Margolin at the Iridium, 2015 :
At the Herzog Ernst Celle Pub in Germany, 2014 :
At the Dinosaur BBQ, Syracuse (New York) :
At the Reigen Cafe, Vienna (Austria), 2013 : https://youtu.be/2BZjM1fLoEE
At the State Theater, Falls Church (Virginia), 2003 : https://youtu.be/6nj-gnGloE4

The old times (with Jimmy Thackery)
At the Cheers Club, Paonia (Colorado), 1984 (12-part playlist) : click here
TV show, 1982 : https://youtu.be/Vp9Ctq9L94Q



Other famous nighthawks
"Nighthawks", Edward Hopper, 1942
Except the name of the blues-rock band, it's also the name of :
  a famous painting by Edward Hopper from 1942,
a line of Gibson guitars,
American bluesman Robert Lee McCollum (1909-1967), better known as Robert Nighthawk,
a famous Marvel & DC Comics character,
a military aircraft, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk,
a motorcycle line from Honda,
an Australian dragonfly (Apocordulia Macrops).



Paul Bell
Johnny Castle
Pete Ragusa
Mark Wenner
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