Two regal voices command center stage in this edition of Bluetones-King Ernest Baker and New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas. Both represent exquisite examples of real-deal, emotion-drenched singing in the old school tradition.
On his powerful King Of Hearts (Evidence 26084-2; 46:17), Mississippi-born King Ernest alternates between raucous juke joint jumpers like Lester Butler’s “Black Bag Blues” and soul-stirring offerings like the Otis Redding-styled ballad “Better Days,” penned by Mick Jagger and Jimmy Rip. His reading of Charlie Musselwhite’s “Long As I Have You” recalls vintage Bobby Blue Bland while the infectious shuffle “Tell Me What’s The Reason” bounces along with T-Bone Walker vitality. And he delivers Hound Dog Taylor’s “Sadie” with bone-chilling intensity. Baker scored his first success in the music business in the mid ’60s, during which time he shared bills with the likes of James Brown and Wilson Pickett. By 1980 he retired from the business and took a straight job as a supervisor with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He kept his vocal chops in shape singing gospel in a church choir and was recently re-discovered by L.A. blues promoter Randy Chortkoff, who lured King Ernest back into the spotlight. Long live the King.
Related 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