The stylistic gap between blues and soul-real soul, the kind that Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis croon-is nebulous.
Ask Cicero Blake. He’s been singing both styles for decades around Chicago, mixing genres so skillfully that no one notices the difference.
Blake’s new album for Valley Vue, “Just One of Those Things,” smoothly blends tender soul balladry with crackling contemporary blues. Two of the set’s tastiest R&B numbers, “Girl I’m in Love With You” and the title track, were written by prolific Southern tunesmiths Raymond Moore and George Jackson.
“Those two songs I got from George Jackson, believe it or not, in 1973,” says Blake. “I’ve had those songs just that long. When I got ready to cut the album, I remembered those songs, and I went back and I got ’em.”
Alongside the intimate “Don’t Wanna Blow My Chance With You” on the album are Blake’s renditions of two Albert King blues standards, “Laundromat Blues” and “As the Years Go Passing By,” and Guitar Slim’s immortal “Things That I Used To Do.”
“The company requested that I do the Guitar Slim song,” says Blake. “It was my suggestion that we do two of Albert King’s tunes, and dedicate those songs and the CD to his memory.”
Strangely, the very definition of blues varies from one side of Chicago to the other. Up north, blazing guitar pyrotechnics and familiar 12-bar fare galvanize the yuppies.
On the South Side, however, the singer reigns, his repertoire likely dominated by vintage soul numbers instead of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Blake was one of the first soul-slanted vocalists to finally blaze a North Side club trail, in 1986.
“If you didn’t play guitar or some type of instrument, then you weren’t really accepted too well,” says Blake. “But we happened to be able to get in there and make the difference, and I think now you’ll see more what they consider standup singers playing the North Side clubs. I think Otis Clay kind of set the pace, and then I was next.”
Despite his youthful appearance, Blake’s musical resume stretches back four decades. He formed a doo-wop group called the Goldentones in 1953 while attending Marshall High School. Deejay Herb Kent took over the group’s management, changing their name to the Kool Gents.
Upon leaving the service in 1959, Blake fronted pianist Sonny Thompson’s touring band-a group that for a time included guitarist Lefty Dizz.
“The first record that I recorded, which was in 1961, was a song called ‘Should I Go,”‘ says Blake. “Dizz and his band played the session.”
Ironically, his signature song, the salacious slow grinder “Dip My Dipper,” happened almost by accident at a 1978 session in Atlanta.
“We needed one song,” says Blake. (Producer Bob Riley) asked me if I’d ever recorded any blues, and I told him no. I said, `I’ve always wanted to, but never had the opportunity to do it.’ He hummed the song in the studio, and we recorded it right there on the spot.”
Classify Cicero Blake’s soulful blues sound at your own risk. “I think I’m versatile enough to be able to do any type of song I want to do,” he says.
“I just like to describe myself as a song stylist.”
Blues notes
Fantasy Records has reissued three memorable 1960 albums that first emerged on Prestige’s Bluesville subsidiary.
Venerated Chicago pianist Sunnyland Slim cut his exceptional “Slim’s Shout” in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., only one day after boogie piano master Roosevelt Sykes waxed “The Honeydripper” with the same rock-solid band (with wailing tenor saxman, King Curtis).
Harpist James “Shakey Jake” Harris was another Windy City stalwart who recorded for Bluesville. “Mouth Harp Blues” is a relaxed showcase for both Jake and guitarist Jimmie Lee Robinson, who’s making a comeback disc for Delmark.
