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At Delmark - Chicago Style Solo Piano
Johnny Iguana
Label: Delmark Records
Released: 2025
Views: 290
Tracks
Bass Key Boogie; Heart of Gold; For Dancers Only; Stormy Night at a Moroccan Blues Bar; Messin' With The Kid; Tripping in a French Ambulance; One More, for the Cleaning Crew; You Never Can Tell; You Belong to Me; Welcome Distractions; Riff Raff; Roll ‘Em
Personnel
Johnny Iguana
pianoAlbum Description
This new album of Johnny Iguana, tracked on a Sony MCI 2-inch tape machine from the 80’s, is a part of Delmark’s long-standing tradition of historical solo piano releases. Johnny Iguana, with his love for this music and his long experience keeping alive the different streams of Chicago piano styles since he was chosen (blessed, one is tempted to say) by Junior Wells himself, was the perfect choice for this new piano adventure. Chicago is where many of the piano styles of the early 20th century merged and coalesced: ragtime, jazz, blues, boogie-woogie, stomps, stride piano and what it was generically called barrelhouse music. In the big music cauldron that Chicago was in the 20’s, all of the above blossomed and were melted and infused into the musical veins of the US and the world. Without going into the jazz side, let’s start by saying that one of the first albums released by Delmark was Speckled Red’s “The Dirty Dozens”. That album hit the record stores in 1962. Since then, a big part of the blues, boogie-woogie, stomp, barrel-house and even ragtime style that made the history of Chicago piano, has been released on Delmark. There are several of Roosevelt Sykes’ albums available on Delmark, as well as titles by Memphis Slim, Sunnyland Slim, Aaron Moore, Jelly Roll Morton’s brother-in-law Dink Johnson, Piano Red, The Big DooWopper (who on top of his doo-**** inclinations was also a fantastic source of blues and barrel-house piano), Detroit Junior, Barrelhouse Buck McFarland and Marvin Ash, among others. Otis Spann, the mythological pianists for Muddy Water, is heard on several Delmark albums. Ragtime is present on recordings by Wally Rose, Brun Campbell and Reginald Robinson. A highly successful piano album on Delmark was “Blues Piano Orgy”, from 1996, featuring recordings by Roosevelt Sykes, Memphis Slim, Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery, Clarence Lofton, Curtis Jones and the aforementioned Speckled Red. Biddle Street Barrelhousin', is a classic Delmark album that lives ups to its title. This is another formidable anthology featuring Henry Brown, James Crutchfield, “Stump” Johnson and Lawrence Henry as well as Speckled Red. The album “Boogie Woogie Stomp” brings together three top names of boogie-woogie: Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson. Delmark even dove into the piano rolls of the 20’s to bring to life the music of pianists Jimmy Blythe and Clarence Johnson, on three albums. The label celebrated its 50th anniversary with an album entitled Masters of the Boogie Piano, featuring some of the top names of the genre, such as Meade “Lux” Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson together with Speckled Red, Little Brother Montgomery, but also a very young, new Delmark artist: Ken Saydak. During many enthusiastic exchanges about the Chicago piano traditions as reflected in Delmark’s catalogue, it was clear that Johnny Iguana plays, lives and even breaths this music, as a practical musician playing the blues with the best of the best, but also as a passionate and dedicated lover of this music. After the kaleidoscopic experience of “Johnny Iguana: Chicago Spectacular”, the label wanted to follow up with an album that brings to the forefront Johnny’s knowledge, musical experience, brilliancy and formidable chops. Placing him in front of Delmark’s 1917 seven-foot Steinway B and firing up our venerable 24 channel 2-inch Sony tape machine, was just a natural consequence of all of this. Enjoy! Elbio Barilari – Artistic Director, Delmark Records
Album uploaded by Kevin Johnson
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