Righteous Rooster: Fowl Play

Time was when organ trios were thick on the ground. They were just bluesy enough, soul-inflected and grooving enough to capture a younger audience raised on something other than swing or even bop, although there were a few hard-bop outfits too. Many fondly remember Charles Earland who covered pop hits like "Aquarius" or "More Today than Yesterday," with the redoubtable Jimmy Ponder thumbing his way on guitar.

Righteous Rooster does not look quite that far back, with models in Soulive or Medeski, Martin & Wood, but small matter. The music is cool and passes the "can't sit still" test which is all that is required. The players are Chicago-based and well established. Henry Dickhoff on organ is a particularly arresting lead and accompanist, although Kenny Reichert has an excellent outing here as well. Drummer Luke Sagadin keeps things moving and once locked in, he does not flag. Reichert is on it right from the opening track, "Groovin on Claremont," which is long enough for just about everyone to stretch out. It is an impressive performance.

"The End of the World" is a curiously relaxed apocalypse in three, and a pleasant break from the hard-driving opening. One expects "James Beam," with a throbbing backbeat, may be a painful recollection, and a great chorus that sounds an awful like "oh, oh." Reichert fuzzes out and one hopes the band learned its lesson. "The Fridge" may be an elegy to NFL Chicago Bears 1980s defensive lineman, William "The Fridge" Perry whose career rose and fell with his weight. His teammate, Walter Payton, has been similarly honored with a tune, "That Was Sweetness," so why not Perry, although admittedly not the marquis attraction (or athlete) that Payton was. "Aravid" has echoes of "Everything Happens to Me," and shows a different face of the band at work. Things close out, fittingly enough, with an up tempo "Late Night Reprise." If television still had the kind of Quinn Martin series that featured a couple of street-smart dudes getting in an out of trouble, this could well serve as a theme.

The recording clocks out at 34 minutes, which is the only reason for a slightly lower rating. The music hardly disappoints. It would be nice if there were more of it.

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