GARY CLARK,JR.

Travel with Mitch Woods as he and his
band carry Woods’ unique brand of
jump blues and the piano/sax magic of
New Orleans to Turkey for five weeks.
MITCH WOODS
Blues Beyond Borders
Club 88
In 2010, boogie-woogie pianist
Mitch Woods took his troupe
to Turkey for a series of concerts.
The result, a CD/DVD of
live shows from the five-week
long, 20-city tour, shows the
band having so much fun on
and off the stage that it makes
you want to apply for a slot in
the band.
But measuring up to the
level of talent assembled in this
group would be a daunting task. Drummer Larry Vann, a vet of the
Whispers and the Elvin Bishop Band, adds a funky soul backbeat to the
proceedings as well as a quirky sense of humor, claiming on camera
that he thought Woods was taking him just down the road to Truckee,
near his hometown in the Bay Area, not Turkey.
With a resume boasting stints with Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint,
and Fats Domino, Amadee Castenell on sax carries on the tradition of
great New Orleans sax players like Red Allen and Harold Battiste.
Bassist Cornell Williams, a former member of Jon Cleary’s Absolute
Monster Gentlemen, brings gospel-tinged soul vocals as well as funky
underpinnings to the mix. Guitarist Adam Gabriel, who was Hank
Ballard and the Midnighters’ bandleader for 17 years, provides a gritty,
old school rock and roll feel. The Brooklyn-born Woods is an avuncular
ambassador, a fun loving boogie man proficient in jump blues,
jazz, and New Orleans second line rhythms as well.
Wood gets the crowd going early on with his rollicking left hand
on the jump blues “Solid Gold Cadillac.” Although “Mojo Mambo” is
his own composition, the style owes a big debt to Professor Longhair’s
“Big Chief,” down to the whistled intro, with Woods perfectly
capturing Fess’s calypso/funk/second line mix. He brings up Fess
again on Longhair’s “In The Night,” segueing into a popular ‘70s-era
Turkish song from Turkish rocker Boris Manco before slipping back
into Fess’s slippers to finish out the “Night.” But this is not a one-man
show. Castenell is given plenty of room to splatter New Orleans joy
juice all over the place. Bassist Williams delivers a soulful vocal for
“Third Degree,” as Castenell’s sax moans and wails in sympathy and
Gabriel’s guitar slashes and tears at the melody. With his engaging,
easygoing style and infectious boogie-woogie, Woods proves that no
matter where on earth you take it, music truly is a universal language.
– Grant Britt
BLUES REVUE 53