Here’s a roundup of recent releases from the worlds of blues, rhythm and blues and soul:
Joe Louis Walker
Blues Survivor (Verve) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Having fashioned a deserved reputation as one of the few true young innovators on the contemporary blues circuit through his five exceptional albums for Hightone Records, guitarist Joe Louis Walker jumped to a major label and has subsequently emerged with the first mild disappointment of his recorded career (but it’s still far better than most modern blues product). The slickly produced disc opens with a bang: “Help Yourself” is an up-tempo cooker full of crisp, steaming guitar and gospel-drenched vocal harmonies by Walker’s longtime Bay Area cohorts, the Spiritual Corinthians. The dramatic ballad “Part of Me” showcases Walker’s soulful pipes, while a dynamic “Workin’ Blues” and the slide-soaked “Rainy Nights” are irresistible upbeat outings. But the jazzy “My Dignity” bogs down during Richard Howell’s indulgent six-chorus sax solo, and try as he might, the guitarist brings little new to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Shake for Me.”
Big Daddy Kinsey
I Am the Blues (Verve) (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
After dedicating his major label debut to Muddy Waters with a maudlin recitation that ends by addressing the late Chicago great up in “blues heaven,” Gary’s Big Daddy Kinsey tries in vain to fill Waters’ shoes for much of this disc. Even after recruiting many of Waters’ legendary sidemen (harpist James Cotton, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and guitarist Jimmy Rogers head the list), Kinsey can’t match Waters’ lusty roar on sound-alike revivals of “Mannish Boy” and “Got My Mojo Working.” Kinsey’s done quality work before-his 1985 Rooster Blues album, “Bad Situation,” was laudably contemporary-but this time, he’s too often imitating instead of creating. And the tributes to departed bluesmen keep on coming: “The Queen Without a King” commemorates Albert King, while Jimmy Reed is recalled with “Baby, Don’t Say That No More.” Somehow, with a presumptuous album title like “I Am the Blues,” you expect more than this.
Johnny Nocturne Band
Wailin’ Daddy (Bullseye Blues) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Re-creating the brass-fueled jump blues sound-a musical genre that faded from prominence 35 years ago with the rise of rock and roll-is a tough undertaking. Armed with a satchel full of ultra-obscure vintage material, however, the nine-piece Johnny Nocturne Band meets the challenge on “Wailin’,” thanks in no small part to the sassy vocals of Brenda Boykin. The newcomer possesses a playful, intuitive feel for the swinging idiom, judging from the jumping “Wailin”‘ and “No, I Ain’t Gonna Let You Go” (written by comedian Moms Mabley, no less). Tenor saxist/bandleader John (Nocturne) Firmin conjures up visions of honkers supreme Sam “The Man” Taylor and Red Prysock on the torrid instrumentals “Let’s Ball” and “Howling at Midnight,” his energetic blowing answered by a snappy three-piece horn ensemble. This set might only be an imitation, but it’s an irresistibly accurate one.
Lightnin’ Hopkins
Houston Bound (Relic) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Lightnin’!
(Arhoolie) (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
Here are two more additions to the late Texas bluesman’s massive CD library, one more worthwhile than the other. With a subtle rhythm section behind him, the guitarist cut 13 songs for producer Bobby Robinson’s Fire label in 1960 that included his classic “Mojo Hand.” Relic’s “Houston Bound” contains the entire cache, notably the eerie “Awful Dreams,” the violence-laden “Shotgun,” and a playful “Sometimes She Will.” Hopkins’ intricate guitar style is spotlighted on “Black Mare Trot,” and he switches to piano for the engagingly loose “Have You Ever Loved a Woman.”
The 1969 remake of “Mojo Hand” on Arhoolie’s “Lightnin’!” is disheveled by comparison, wrecked by drummer Francis Clay’s total inability to follow Hopkins’ erratic timing. Hopkins even sounds lethargic on some of the preferable solo material from these late ’60s sessions, although the ribald “Ain’t It Crazy” elicits a bemused chuckle or two from the wizened guitarist.
Craig Erickson
Roadhouse Stomp! (Blues Bureau International) (STAR)(STAR)
Craig Erickson perfectly typifies the current crop of young blues-influenced rock guitarists that seem to be popping up everywhere-he has technique to spare, and all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Seldom pausing in mid-solo for even a millisecond, Erickson’s playing is undeniably impressive on a technical level but largely emotionless throughout “Roadhouse Stomp!,” and his vocals seem equally anonymous. That’s not to suggest that there’s anything particularly incompetent about the high-decibel assault that Erickson and his rhythm section blast forth: “Heartbreak Train” contains a series of musical modulations that briefly grab attention, the thundering “Catch That Plane” contains some nasty slide work, and a riff-loaded “Tearin’ It Up” is taken at a torrid pace. On the other hand, there’s little about Erickson’s album that sets it apart from the rest of the speed-crazed pack.
Johnny Otis Show
Live at Monterey! (Epic/Legacy) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
The founding fathers of rhythm and blues had been all but forgotten by the mainstream music establishment by 1970. It must have come as quite a revelation, for many in attendance at that year’s Monterey Jazz Festival when veteran bandleader Johnny Otis assembled a veritable who’s who of the jump blues genre and paraded them on stage in front of his roaring horn-powered band. The resulting concert disc still packs a wallop-shouters Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown and Roy Milton reprise the classics that made them stars during the late 1940s and early ’50s, urged on by Otis (who crisply sings his “Willie and the Hand Jive”). Esther Phillips is particularly fine, swinging madly on “Cry Me a River Blues” and moaning a blues medley, and guitarist Pee Wee Crayton tears up “The Things I Used to Do.” As a live “oldies” show, this one’s tough to beat.
Various artists
The Sullivan Years: Rock ‘n’ Roll Pioneers 1955-59 (TVT) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Rhythm & Blues Revue (TVT) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Until the current owners of TV’s “The Ed Sullivan Show” market their priceless rock footage as home videos, we’ll have to make do with these live audio compilations from the program’s massive archives. The time frame cited on “Rock ‘n’ Roll Pioneers” makes no sense-Chubby Checker demonstrated the twist in 1961, while Jerry Lee Lewis pumped old Stone Face’s piano in ’69-but even without visuals, the disc boasts magic moments. Bill Haley and the Comets introduced America to a new sound with this rendition of “Rock Around the Clock,” and Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent and Joe Bennett and the Sparkletones indulged in raw rockabilly. Sullivan seldom championed legit R & B on his show, but “Rhythm & Blues Revue” contains some notable exceptions: Bo Diddley and LaVern Baker starred in a pioneering 1955 segment, and Jackie Wilson was a house favorite.
