Veteran blues rocker Tinsley Ellis continues to tip his hat to Albert King on his sixth solo effort, Kingpin (Capricorn 2021; 46:23). A ferocious note-squeezer from Atlanta, Ellis had already turned out a handful of solid CDs for Alligator before signing on with Capricorn. This Capricorn debut carries the stylish and modern production values of David Z (producer of Prince, Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd). Consequently, Kingpin is the guitarist’s most dynamic, groove-oriented album to date. High points include an earthy reading of Albert King’s “Heartfixin’ Business” and a surprisingly fresh updating of the Gladys Knight & The Pips soul classic “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination.” Crunching originals like “I Gotta Moan,” “I’ll Be Lovin’ You” and “Dying to Do Wrong” will play to the rock crowd, while blues fans will prefer his faithful rendition of B.B. King’s jump blues “Days of Old” and the stark, Chicago-styled slow blues number “Can’t Play That Way.” But on both sides of the fence, Tinsley’s playing is passionate and fiery.
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