Jay Geils, the namesake of the renowned J. Geils Band, makes a lackluster showing on his debut solo release, Jay Geils Plays Jazz! (Stony Plain). Rooted in the style of Charlie Christian, Geils seems out of his depth, rhythmically and melodically, on this assortment of big-band, organ blues and Western-swing tunes. The most novel tracks feature Jerry Miller on electric mandolin and Frankie Blandino on steel guitar. Both lend a Bob Wills flavor to Cindy Walker’s “I Hear You Talkin’ to Me,” Mel Powell’s “Mission to Moscow” and even Clifford Brown’s “Blues Walk.” Al Wilson’s Hammond organ and Scott Hamilton’s tenor sax make for some bright spots, but acoustic guitarist Gerry Beaudoin should have been given more solo room. The song choices (ranging from Benny Goodman’s “Wholly Cats” to Roland Kirk’s “Funk Underneath”) cover a broad historical range, but the session is sluggish-at times painfully so.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro