A while back I wrote about a Rhode Island band called Roomful of Blues that started back in the Sixties and are still going strong. Zero original members of course but this current iteration is out there and is,...
A while back I wrote about a Rhode Island band called Roomful of Blues that started back in the Sixties and are still going strong. Zero original members of course but this current iteration is out there and is, in fact, playing at one of my favorite clubs on New Year’s Eve. (We’re not going. New Year’s Eve is amateur night and you never know what kind of shit you’ll get into).
But we’ve seen Roomful about 12 million times and now its founder, guitarist Duke Robillard, has released a fine new album that no one but you Dear Reader will ever hear. Still, I’m glad the 75-year-old is out there putting out records.
This newest opus is called A Smooth One and features Duke’s trio including (from Italy) Alberto Marsico on organ and American Mark Texeira on drums. Marsico has worked with jazzmen Jimmy Cobb and Joey de Francesco and Texeira with everyone from Al Kooper to Rick Danko to Jimmy Vivino.
This is a straight-up swingin’ jazz/blues instrumental album. No singin’ necessary.
Here’s the Count Basie tune, “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” a tribute to at Harlem hotspot and a home base for Basie’s band.
Is that sweet or what? Gotta love the sound of that organissimo. Someone told Marsico he had Hammond blood and in fact, his first album is named that.
‘Deed I Do’ was recorded by Benny Goodman back before any of us was born. Ella Fitzgerald and the ubiquitous Count Basie did it much later. And now Duke and the boys serve it up. Duke’s playing is sweet and pure as the driven snow. A one-a and a two-a:
Last but not least is “Red Top” originally recored by vibraphonist/pianist Lionel Hampton.
There is is. If you don’t like at least some of this, well, you got a hole in your soul. Duke’s tour dates below. Looks like at his age he’s mostly doing New England and relatively few gigs. At least at the moment.
