Jazz Articles about JJ Grey

JJ Grey & Mofro, G. Love & Special Sauce and Big Head Todd & The Monsters at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury

by Mike Perciaccante
August 23, 2015

JJ Grey & Mofro, G. Love & Special Sauce and Big Head Todd & The Monsters NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY August 13, 2015 On a pleasant August evening, when the high temperatures between two separate, yet equally oppressive heat waves, had dropped and a pleasant breeze blew across Long Island, JJ Grey & Mofro, G. Love & Special Sauce and Big Head Todd teamed up for a triple headlining performance ...

J.J. Grey & Mofro: This River

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 12, 2013

Swamp-rock doesn't come much more swampy or rocky than This River. JJ Grey's sixth studio album with Mofro is named for the St. John's River near Grey's childhood home (Jacksonville, Florida) and stewed in a pressure cooker stocked by Tony Joe White, Stax Records, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chess Records and other classic country blues and funk.Grey is a multi-faceted musician --a singer and songwriter who also plays (electric and acoustic) guitar, bass and harmonica--and so This River flows ...

J.J. Grey & Mofro: This River

by Doug Collette
April 22, 2013

Over the last five years, under the tutelage of JJ Grey, Mofro has evolved from a compact little swamp-funk blues band into a full-fledged r&b unit legitimately paying homage to the legacy of its native South. This River continues the evolution in that direction, redolent with all the confidence and authority of its predecessors.The authenticity of “Somebody Else," for instance, is striking as its horns, supplied by saxophonist Art Edmiston and trumpeter Dennis Marion, alternately punch and sway ...

JJ Grey and Mofro: Brighter Days

by Doug Collette
October 2, 2011

Anyone who's seen JJ Grey and Mofro since 2008 knows how the sparks that fly from their studio recordings catch fire when the band plays live. The audio component of Brighter Days, a combination CD and DVD set, proceeds almost breathlessly as the successive cuts appear at an ardent pace. Recorded in a single night early in 2011, the performance contains three extra numbers on video, but the sequencing of the audio, like the band's last release, Georgia ...

JJ Grey & Mofro: Georgia Warhorse

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 15, 2011

JJ Grey's eleven new tunes for Georgia Warhorse, named for the notoriously resilient Southern lubber grasshopper, reflect and broadcast his love for the rustic Florida backwoods where Grey and his family have lived for generations. Grey not only wrote all the tunes but played just about every instrument, except for the slide guitar that Derek Trucks (like Grey, a Jacksonville native) slices and dices into the closing “Lullaby," and sang all the vocals except for one duet. ...

JJ Grey & Mofro: Orange Blossoms

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 16, 2008

JJ Grey and Mofro's follow-up to their critically and popularly acclaimed 2007 Alligator debut, Country Ghetto, sounds a little less shocking but no less rocking. It feels as if that first release, in retrospect, was a shout designed by songwriter, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Grey to get your attention. Orange Blossoms stretches out into real conversation now that he's got it.

Grey and his ensemble, Mofro, offer one of contemporary music's most authentic blues sounds. Their songs, and ...