It is just the Blues. It is often said among musicians that playing the “Blues” is “emotive” and requires less technical skill than playing “Jazz.” That is a gross over generalization. I don’t know of a guitarist who would argue that it takes more skill to play, say, “Baby, Please Don’t Go” by Big Joe Williams than it takes to play “Nuages” by Django Reinhardt. It doesn’t. However, there is, in fact, a whole sub-genre of “Blues,” as exacting as “Jazz,” that requires the skills of the technical “Jazz” musician in a “Blues” player - the “Jump or Swing Blues.”
Jump or Swing Blues is a delicious synthesis of emotion and technical prowess. It mixes conventions. Blues harp players play alongside Jazz horn players. Blues guitar styles mix with jazz guitar styles. Pioneered by the likes of big band leaders Cab Calloway and Louis Prima, it is now practiced by modern day troubadours such as Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. Yet, I have never heard better jump jazz and blues than Lynwood Slim and The Igor Prado Band on their new Delta Groove release Brazilian Kicks.
Igor Prado is a self-taught left-handed guitar player who merely flips a right-handed guitar over to play. He doesn’t restring it. The high E is on top (Coco Montoya does the same thing and I have never been able to understand how he does it.) For years Prado has been in Brazil playing jump blues and western swing. He has three Prado Blues Band releases under his belt and and a well-received 2007 solo Blues album blues entitled “UpsideDown.” The Igor Prado Band adds Yuri Prado on drums, bassist Rodrigo Mantovani and saxophonist Denilson Martin and, on Brazilian Kicks, special guest pianist Donny Nichilo.
Combining the talents of these artists was pure genius. Prado’s guitar playing is special. The clear, crisp and clean jazz guitar tone and Django Reinhardt-like artistry are dirtied just enough by the harp, horn, bottom and the blues tone of other guitarists . When you add Slim’s silky vocals you are taken to a place somewhere between the 1940’s and tomorrow.
“Shake It Baby” is James Brown-infused, Tom Jones singing “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” type performance with a short, but stellar, guitar solo and, of all things, a brazilian flute,“Is It True?” is a 1950’s jump blues with an amazing mixture of guitar styles - a down and dirty modern blues guitar with a jazz guitar back beat that gives way to a piano lead punctuated by horns.
“Bloodshot Eyes” is a track of wonder. I was raised on black and white “I Love Lucy” TV reruns and the tune is a return to childhood. The song sounds like it comes right out of the Ricky Ricardo songbook. The saxophone and guitar on those old shows were never this good. Igor Prado’s Band’s Brazilian influence is perfectly suited for the song. A jump blues vamp “My Hat’s On The Side Of My Head” follows with such smoothness that it will have you simultaneously reaching for your tap shoes and fedora. Then, “Blue Bop” will have you boppin’ fast and hard. The orchestration, arrangement, guitar lead, and horn solo are as good as it gets. I put this track up there with Joe Pass’, Herb Ellis’, Jake Hanna’, Plas Johnson’s and Harry “Sweets” Edison’s rendition of Oscar Peterson’s “Seven Come Eleven”on their 1973 release as one of the greatest, fast, jump jazz blues that I have ever heard.
By now the pace of the album is frantic so Slim slows it down with a slow Chicago-style Blues song, “Little Girl.” However, the pace does not slow for long. Next, the band cranks it up with another bopper, “I Sat And Cried." It has a wonderful background piano and accenting horns, but is mainly Lynwood Slim’s voice and upbeat drums.
Then, like in an old movie - the brass section slowly comes in and a slow handed precise jazz guitar plays a song suited for Frank Sinatra, “Maybe Someday.” You can envision the audience swooning to Slim’s sultry voice and the big band, Duke Ellington-esque blues arrangement. Yet, just as you are lulled into that soft, silky 1940’s sound Lynwood Slim busts out his harp and gets dirty with “Show Me The Way.” On this one there is an edge to Slim’s voice and to his harp as he performs this gritty Chicago “lost my baby” blues song. Transportation is provided back to the big band swing era with “Bill’s Change,” a instrumental that showcases Prado’s guitar and Martin’s saxophone.
On comes “The Comeback,” which adds piano and Slim’s blues to big band music. It creates a heavenly marriage of blues and jazz styles that uses multi-layers of sound and rhythm. When “The Way You Do” makes you realize that “Black Magic Woman” was really just an awesome jazz tune. The track is just as good as Santana’s but has a cleaner guitar sound - as if Bob Bogle of the Ventures was playing lead instead of Carlos. The disk concludes with Slim on the instrumental “Going To Mona Lisa’s” - a straight ahead harmonica blues jam.
These tracks are beautiful, emotive, inspiring and technical. This stuff takes significant musical skill and, yes, - it is just the Blues.
- Old School
Buy here mp3: Brazilian Kicks
Buy here: Brazilian Kicks
