Ralph Peterson 35th Annual Student Music Awards - Downbeat

Blues | BY fRANK-JohN hADLEY
International
Relations
Luca giordano: My Kind Of Blues (Audacia
8034; 76:13 ★★★★) There’s something enthralling
in the way Italian guitarist Luca Giordano
has internalized the playing of Otis Rush,
Ronnie Earl and other masters to summon up
his own personal distillation of those sources.
An occasional visitor to Chicago clubs, he’s
become a talisman of tone, discipline, phrasing
and swinging spirit. A listener can almost
reach out and touch the intimate feeling the
30-year-old injects into his mentor Carlos
Johnson’s ballad “Hello There,” Marvin Gaye’s
“What’s Going On?” and a dozen more sturdy
tunes. Tradition goes hand-in-hand with inspiration.
Comporting themselves well in the front
line are Pippo Guarnera (piano, organ) and
American guests Chris Cain (vocals, guitar),
Bob Stroger (vocals, bass) and Gordon Beadle
(saxophone, horn arrangements).
ordering info: lucagiordanoband.com
Lisa Mills: Tempered In Fire (Really ’n’
truly; 49:31 ★★★1/2) A native of Mississippi
long now located in England, Lisa Mills is a
solid belter who offers up genuine excitement
by being confident about her understanding of
lyrics. This bluesy album, her second with wide
distribution, hooks her ample spirit to flattering
songs she wrote herself or borrowed from
Welshman George Borowski and several Alabama
good ol’ boys, the band Wet Willie and
ex-Gatemouth Brown guitarist Robbie Fleming.
She even succeeds in locating the pain
and longing of the Otis Redding opus “These
Arms Of Mine.” The supporting musicians, including
her regular sidekick Ian Jennings on
basses and guest Andy Fairweather-Low on
guitar, creditably mix grit and suavity.
ordering info: lisamills.com
Layla Zoe: Sleep Little Girl (Cable Car
0311-36; 47:33 ★★★1/2) In a German studio,
Layla Zoe lets loose her unsparing lust for life
on tunes with apt titles like “Let’s Get Crazy,”
“Give It To Me” and “Singing My Blues.” In the
latter, the Canadian emotes, “But I always listen
to my heart and the voice down deep in
my soul.” Don’t doubt this contemporary blues
Amazon for an instant. Despite hollowly ardent
blues-rock guitar by Henrik Freischlader, Zoe’s
album gets to places others can’t reach.
ordering info: layla.ca
Ramon goose: Uptown Blues (Blues
Boulevard 250300; 56:17 ★★★) Ramon
Goose’s best creative outlets are his unconventional
NuBlues band (new album out
soon) and his collaboration with West African
griot Diabel Cissokho. Still, the Brit’s solo album
merits listening for his solid guitar work
in respective straightahead blues, blues-rock
and swinging jazz grooves. He’s a serviceable
songwriter, and for outside material he goes to
Lisa Mills
Hound Dog Taylor (“Give Me Back My Wig”),
Jimi Hendrix (“Little Wing”) and the Isley Brothers
(“Testify”). Vocally, Goose has occasional
problems with intonation.
ordering info: music-avenue.net
the Blues Band: Few Short Lines (Repertoire
1149; 57:48 ★★★) Performing mostly
mediocre material like the moldy zydeco novelty
“My Toot Toot,” these long-in-the-tooth
British bluesmen amplify the generic blandness
of their name with unexceptional singing
on their latest record. But there’s an upside:
Dave Kelly’s slide guitar flares with vitality, and
the group hits its stride reconditioning Kim Wilson’s
“I Believe I’m In Love With You.”
ordering info: thebluesband.com
Various Artists: African Blues (Putumayo
317; 41:51 ★★★★) The label’s head
man Dan Stroper gets the artist selection and
the song flow right in this showcase of modern
storytellers whose singing of tribal life combines
with irresistible grooves to conjure the
benign specter of John Lee Hooker…wearing
a Tuareg traditional desert robe. Adama Yalomba
and Issa Bagayogo are among the Malians
represented. From the sands of the Sahara
come Tinariwen and Koudede. The soulmates
from outside the continent are Taj Mahal and
Ramon Goose. Cause for complaint—just 10
tracks. DB
ordering info: putumayo.com
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