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Grant Geissman: Blooz
by Richard J Salvucci
There are several ways of judging the success of a recording. Perhaps a hearing makes the listener, if a musician, want to sit in and jam. That is a good sign. Then there is the “sit still test." For many, the direct, emotional and physical connection between music and brain leaves them simply hanging out, absence of motion impossible, sitting still not an option. Grant Geissman's Blooz happily passes both tests. Turn the volume up and a blues party comes ...
Continue ReadingRobben Ford: Pure
by Doug Collette
It's only fitting guitarist Robben Ford assigns a closeup of his chosen instrument to the cover of Pure. His devotion to the axe is at least equal to, if not greater than, the ardor he elicits from fretboard fanatics. But then that's a deserved devotion as the man demonstrates in less than two minutes at the very outset of his first instrumental studio album since Tiger Walk ( Blue Thumb,1997): the one-time member of Tom Scott's L.A. Express and Miles ...
Continue ReadingRobben Ford: Bringing It Back Home
by Something Else! Reviews
Robben Ford's most focused, unembellished album in like, forever, may have also been the easiest album the virtuosic blues/jazz/rock/you-name-it guitarist has made in a long spell, too. In talking about Bringing It Back Home, the guitarist/vocalist says, “The results are really pure, and the most fun I've had making an album in years." In “bringing it back home" with a collection of older folk, blues and R&B tunes, some of which he didn't even know about prior to the recording ...
Continue ReadingChristian Howes: Out of the Blue
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il violinista Christian Howes è uno degli interpreti emergenti dello strumento tradizionalmente associato alla musica classica di stampo europeo e portato in ambito jazz e blues da grandi interpreti come Joe Venuti, Stuff Smith, Stephane Grapelli, Don Sugarcane Harris e Jean Luc Ponty. Howes ha avuto una formazione classica ma in questo album dimostra di sapere facilmente liberarsi di tutte le reminiscenze accademiche grazie ad una prorompente vitalità che gli fa affrontare nel modo giusto l'incontro col mondo del jazz ...
Continue ReadingChristian Howes: Out of the Blue
by Ian Patterson
The violin is widely considered as the most expressive of instruments, closely approximating the human voice. It depends, however, to a large degree, on whose hands the instrument is in. Christian Howes is that rare breed of musician who makes the violin talk; using the idiom of the blues on Out of the Blue, Howes gives a virtuoso performance, as full of emotion as it is technically dazzling. Joined by guitarist Robben Ford , who lends his jazz-inflected accent to ...
Continue ReadingRobben Ford: From the Soul
by Matthew Warnock
Few guitarists on the scene today can boast a longer, more diverse and accomplished career than that of perennial blues-jazz great Robben Ford. Having toured and recorded as a sideman with such legendary performers as Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Bonnie Raitt and Miles Davis, Ford has also made a name for himself as a bandleader, instrumental composer and songwriter. With the release of his 2009 album Soul on Ten, his fourth for the Concord label, the five-time Grammy nominee is ...
Continue ReadingRobben Ford: Soul on Ten
by John Kelman
While he's largely lived in the blues world for much of his career, guitarist Robben Ford has always been defined by a jazz sensibility. Sure, there's the grease and grit of overdriven, wah-wah'd electric guitar and a strong, rock-hard backbeat; but Ford's language since Robben Ford and the Blue Line (Stretch, 1992) has been a compelling combination of visceral blues bends and more evolved harmony. It's no surprise that he's been the go-to guitarist for everyone from Miles Davis and ...
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