They Called It Rhythm and Blues

In an interview promoting 2020s fine Blues Bash, guitarist Duke Robillard stated, "I want to make a straight vintage-style blues album ... danceable blues ... like the blues records I bought as a kid." This notion may have guided him in recording They Called It Rhythm and Blues, too. The majority of these 18 songs are beautifully crafted covers of vintage R&B, blues, and jazz tunes. Robillards band -- vocalist Chris Cote, pianist/organist Bruce Bears, bassist Marty Ballou, drummer Mark Teixeira, and saxophonist Doug James -- are drenched in swinging earthiness playing these R&B, jump, and rowdy blues jams. Robillard appended them with fine guest singers and instrumentalists; everybody approaches the material with sophistication and spontaneity. Cote sings six songs, including the opener, Chuck Higgins spunky fingerpopper, "Here Im Is," atop Robillards stinging fills and James moaning tenor framing a piano and snare shuffle. He also delivers a riveting vocal on Joe "The Honeydripper" Liggins piano-pumping, horn-drenched party anthem "In the Wee Wee Hours" and Freddie Kings Big Joe Turner instrument "Someday After Awhile." Mickey & Sylvias "No Good Lover" features a vocal-and-guitar duet between singer/axe slinger Sue Foley, as well as a choogling organ break by Texas bluesman Mike "The Drifter" Flanigin. Kim Wilson joins his former Fabulous Thunderbirds bandmate on vocals and wailing harmonica in a raw, spirited, spiky revisit of "Tell Me Why," with pumping piano by Matt McCabe. Further, Wilson reprises his NOLA-inspired R&B stroller "The Things I Forgot to Do." Speaking of harmonica, Chicagos Sugar Ray Norcia lends his voice and snaky harp to a roiling tribute to Big Walter Horton on Tampa Reds "Ramblers Blues," and puts the party into overdrive with a version of a Louis Jordan-inspired read of Jimmy Nelsons "Shes My Baby." The W.C. Handy Award-winning Michelle Willson lends her resonant voice to Effie Smiths jump groover "Champagne Mind" and Richard M. Jones immortal "Trouble in Mind." Robillards gently swinging solo on the latter underscores her smoky performance, framing it with a muted trumpet -- sounding like the ghost of Bix Biederbecke -- and throaty baritone sax. John Hammond offers a scorching vocal on Melvin "Lil Son" Jacksons Bessie Smith vehicle "Homeless Blues, and Howlin Wolfs lonely, sinister "No Place to Go." Robillard and Anita Suhanin duet on the guitarists "Outta Here" amid greasy guitars, Stax-styled horns, and Bears bumping B-3 grooves. Robillard sings on what may be the first recorded cover of Texas bluesman Zuzu Bollins R&B groover "Why Dont You Eat Where You Slept Last Night?" His instrumental set-closer "Swingin for Four Bills" is a soulful exercise in bluesy soul-jazz with Flanigins B-3 and Foleys guitar. Its Robillards tribute to organists Bill Doggett and Wild Bill Davis, and guitarists Bill Jennings and Billy Butler. They Called It Rhythm and Blues showcases Robillard at a peak: We already appreciate him as a guitar giant and blues, jazz, and R&B scholar, but here he reveals himself as a generous accompanist, accommodating bandleader, and sympathetic producer to boot. ~ Thom Jurek