Three years ago, they were a no-name bar band hoping to hang on to a weekly gig at the Green Mill Jazz Club.
Today, they’re living out some storybook fantasy, having attained considerable national acclaim without benefit of publicity campaigns, radio play or a record label.
Instead, the Mighty Blue Kings established their reign through the fervor of their performances and the word-of-mouth buzz their shows typically generate.
Moreover, the fans who put the Mighty Blue Kings on the map have remained loyal, packing venues such as Metro, where the nouveau-swing band performed a dynamic midnight show on Saturday. Considering that the Kings won’t be releasing their first major-label recording until next year (for a division of Sony), they’re clearly poised for bigger things.
Nevertheless, lead vocalist Ross Bon and his band are taking nothing for granted, judging by the attention to detail, exertion of energy and affection for jump-jazz-jive idioms they showed at Metro.
This was one of the most persuasive performances the Kings have given their hometown, the musicians clearly inspired not only by the standing-room-only turnout but also by the hopes of releasing their first live-concert recording later this year.
Bon told the crowd that the Kings plan to offer this Metro show as a CD, which would be their third, self-produced release (the repertoire overlapping some of the material on the first two, “Meet Me in Uptown” and “Come One, Come All”).
The Kings have had their share of personnel changes, but they may have made their shrewdest move yet by using Chicago organist Chris Foreman for the Metro show. Though Foreman hasn’t been officially anointed a King, his bluesy chords, punctuating riffs and jazz-tinged solos have given this band a depth of sound it has lacked without a keyboardist.
Most of the evening’s repertoire was intimately familiar to the crowd, which sang along with Bon whenever he asked (and sometimes when he didn’t). Yet the exuberance of “Jumpin’ at the Green Mill” (the Kings’ signature tune), Bon’s seductive vocal lines on “Grinnin’ Like a Chessy Cat” and the amusing call-and-response passages of “Buzz, Buzz, Buzz” continue to work their charms. The Louis Jordan novelty tune “Green Grass Grows All Around” never fails to amuse.
No doubt some listeners consider the Mighty Blue Kings’ act a mere revisitation of earlier American pop, but it’s something more. Because Bon’s baritone voice shows more nuance with every season and because of the man’s distinctive view of the blues-shout vocal tradition, the Kings distinguish themselves from comparable bands past and present. So long as they continue to take the music more seriously than they take themselves, there will be no stopping this band.
