Buddy Flett - Rough Edges (2013)

→ Thanks to my unique partners...

Vibrations from the soul

A vibrato voice directly plugged to the soul, a guitar drowned in a sea (a Mississippi sea of course*) of reverberation, a rhythmic atmosphere darkened by a foot stomping on the pedal of a hypnotic bass drum…, the opening track “Train” foresees the best for the next eleven tracks of this outstanding, intense and very personal album.

Buddy Flett (born Bruce Mechlin Flett in 1951) is a survivor : he spent several years recovering from a nasty viral encephalitis which required a medically-induced coma followed by a month-long intensive rehabilitation in hospital. He contracted the virus while on a blues cruise playing with the famous Mississippi-Arkansas bluesman Hubert Sumlin (1931-2011), his master, his mentor, his friend, himself mentored by the legendary Howlin' Wolf during the two decades spent as his first guitarist…

Special Bruce Katz : Bruce Katz Band - Crescent Crawl (1992), Mississippi Moan (1997), Three Feet Off The Ground (2000), Homecoming (2014), Bruce Katz - Solo Ride (2019)

→ Thanks to my unique partners...

Black Katz Bone

Almost every music aficionado knows about Jazz-fusion, a new hybrid form of jazz developed by the musicians who accompanied Miles Davis on his legendary innovative album “Bitches Brew” in 1969. It was then called “jazz rock” and rushed like a tsunami through the 1970s. Similarly, the mix of blues with rock logically became the blues-rock genre. Another tsunami.
Well, Bruce Katz invented Blues-fusion, an original style of bluesified jazz or jazzified blues : soul and funk Hammond B-3 organ jazz à la Jimmy Smith, retro stride piano style, explosive boogie-woogie and swing…

Ronnie Earl, Pinetop Perkins, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones & Willie “Big Eyes” Smith - Eye To Eye (1996)

→ Thanks to my unique partners...

Chicago blues magic

The album could have been titled “Ronnie Earl meets Pinetop Perkins” or the opposite, as the two musicians dominate the album, the great Perkins on piano and singing, the magnificent Earl on guitar. No matter, these 13 tracks produced by Earl are superb pieces of classic Chicago blues of the best kind, featuring three of the best former members of the Muddy Waters' band.

Drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith was the first to join Muddy Waters in 1961, followed by Perkins who took over Otis Spann's seat behind the piano in 1969, and by bassist Calvin “Fuzz” Jones who got on board in 1970 (his real nickname would be originally “Fuzz Box”). Perkins, Jones and Smith backed Waters for many years before leaving to form the Legendary Blues Band in June 1980 with harmonicist Jerry Portnoy.

Jimmy Witherspoon with The Duke Robillard Band (rec.1995, rel. 2000)

→ Thanks to my unique partners...

Spoonful

This is supposed to be Witherspoon aka “Spoon” last recording and many critics apparently underrated it on the account of his being under his usual vocal level. Nevertheless the album is a triple treat featuring blues crooner Spoon of course, Robillard and… Sax Gordon !

Spoon's voice is so hoarse that you wonder if he's gonna make it to the end of each song. Actually he died from throat cancer two years after this 1995 live recording in a Vancouver club. But the then 75-year old veteran never lets his voice fail him.

Lonnie Brooks - Live From Chicago : Bayou Lightning Strikes (1988)

→ Thanks to my unique partners...

Brooks' groove

Chicago is like Hollywood. Most of the Chicago blues musicians were “immigrants” native of the Deep South states. Lonnie Brooks was no exception. The Louisiana born Texas blues slinger, the bayou lightning man, migrated to Chicago in 1960, bringing with him his energetic mix of Southeast Texas and Louisiana swamp blues and rock'n'roll (honed in particular in Clifton Chenier's band in the 1950s), and… his iconic Stetson cowboy hat. Logically he signed with Alligator Records that certainly reminded him his native swamp country.

Fenton Robinson - Somebody Loan Me A Dime (1974, 1990)

→ Thanks to my unique partners...

Robinson's mellow… dic blues

I generally don't pay much attention to the laudatory praises about any album by the musical critics establishment, as those mentioned in the presentation doc; all I'm interested in is what kind of feeling a song, an album or an artist are giving me. It's not an intellectual matter; it's something closer to animal instinctive behavior (1). And the fact is that Robinson's blues feels me with a groovy spirit.

The assassination of Blue Dragon

 
Autopsy of a murder

Though it really hurts me to announce such a heartbreaking news, it's my duty to inform that my exclusive partner Blue Dragon has been ruthlessly closed down by Blogger/Google just a few days ago !

Blue Dragon was going to celebrate its eighth birthday this month, the cream of blues-influenced music blogs, always posting original albums far from the mainstream, under the strict management of its two impassioned blog-masters. Blue Dragon was my exclusive partner since January 2022, and we had a great time all along.

This decision from the Big Brother of the blog world is all the more unjust that it certainly results from repeated denunciations by malevolent blog visitors  who didn't accept BD's very strict rules, first of all the engagement not to share the albums with anybody or any other blogs. Some didn't want to abide and found nothing else to have their mean petty revenge than to destroy an eight-year work. Just disgusting ! 

How else to explain that while Blue Dragon went through its difficult last months, so many similar blogs have lived their life quietly without any hassle from the copyright patrol ?

From last August Blue Dragon started to receive infringement notices from a mysterious London office, and seeing some posts put back to draft without notice (nor any real logic) directly by Blogger/Google. When contacted for explanations, none of these entities ever answered !

Without its partner, Onurblues' future is uncertain. I'm presently thinking about a way to continue with a different concept... I'll keep you informed right here.  ■ Onurbix 

► Let's mourn Blue Dragon's passing with all due musical honors : https://youtu.be/b_awCl-qYM0 (music : Kermit Ruffins, "When I Die, You Better Second Line")

► Blue Dragon's address was jellyrollbaker.blogspot.com. Here are some “Jelly Roll Blues”,”Mr Jelly Roll Baker” and other “Jelly Roll” stuff :
> “Jelly Roll Blues”
→ Jelly Roll Morton : https://youtu.be/BcOyVW-8WYo
→ Louis Armstrong : https://youtu.be/8VegtJxgY6o
→ Bukka White : https://youtu.be/Uv1P69xveUE
→ Jimmie Davis : https://youtu.be/_8tK2Fr3_Yo
→ Jorma Kaukonen (1978) : https://youtu.be/koF4_8BFb_Y
→ Gerald French & the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, "Jelly Roll", New Orleans, 2013 : https://youtu.be/PjBrWtcAwW0

> “Mr Jelly Roll Baker”
→ Otis Spann : https://youtu.be/x6rU5LIVYCQ
→ Lonnie Johnson : https://youtu.be/1HepVzZ5gPE
→ Frankie Lee Sims : https://youtu.be/8d-PJjCctjE
→ Leon Redbone : https://youtu.be/-9Jyx2jxIQU
→ John Martyn : https://youtu.be/nIgr_OTgW8Y
→ Joe Bonamassa : https://youtu.be/wM3-AVnUX6g and https://youtu.be/_dN521Py2Sk

> And also...
→ Charlie Mingus, “My Jelly Roll Soul” : https://youtu.be/wzNuG8q2Xh8 and “Jelly Roll” : https://youtu.be/aGF76md7e3Q
→ Johnny Dodds, “Mr Jelly Lord” : https://youtu.be/YaeiarwYdpE
→ The French Quarter Pounders, “Ain't gonna give nobody none of my jelly roll”, New Orleans, 2023 : https://youtu.be/yckYUhqKb5s

> Even in Japan they have a band called The Jelly Roll Baker Blues Band. Live, 2009 : https://youtu.be/H43uIdyfSy8

The Super Catch-Back, vol. 6 & 7 : Papa John Creach - L.V. Banks - Sue Foley - John Cephas & Phil Wiggins - Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers - Waylon Thibodeaux - Hans Olson - Tab Benoit - Jeff Ray & Hurricane Harold - V.A.-Texas Guitar Summit

... they deserved to be featured here…

Papa John Creach - Papa Blues (with The Bernie Pearl Blues Band) (1992, reissue 2015)

One last one for the road
to the next world

I discovered Papa John Creach on Hot Tuna famous album “Burgers” back in 1972. The presence of a violinist (or fiddler) on a blues album was a surprise but a good one. Actually, if the fiddle was one of the primary instruments of Old time music (pre-bluegrass Appalachian folk, early Cajun music, country & western, jug bands…), it was also used in the early times of Blues.

Before WWII, Lonnie Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy in the first years of his career, Lonnie Chatmon of the Mississippi Sheiks, did play violin, and of course later, the great Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.

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).

Clifton Chenier - Live at Montreux 1975 (1995)

→ Order the album at the usual place...

The pivotal King of Zydeco

This excellent live recording of the “King of Zydeco” in Montreux almost 50 years ago doesn't sound its age one bit. But something needs to be rectified first : this performance was not recorded in 1977 as mentioned on its different releases and on almost all so-called “specialized” webzines, but in 1975, on the 12th of July to be exact. Bravo to Blue Dragon follower, our friend Johntagle who first spotted the error! He also pointed out the messy transcription of some of the songs titles on the releases by different labels, on LP and later on CD.