They Called It Rhythm and Blues

by Duke Robillard Band, Duke Robillard

Overview

In an interview promoting 2020's fine Blues Bash, guitarist Duke Robillard stated, "I want to make a straight vintage-style blues album ... danceable blues ... like the blues records I bought as a kid." This notion may have guided him in recording They Called It Rhythm and Blues, too. The majority of these 18 songs are beautifully crafted covers of vintage R&B, blues, and jazz tunes. Robillard's band -- vocalist Chris Cote, pianist/organist Bruce Bears, bassist Marty Ballou, drummer Mark Teixeira, and saxophonist Doug James -- are drenched in swinging earthiness playing these R&B, jump, and rowdy blues jams. Robillard appended them with fine guest singers and instrumentalists; everybody approaches the material with sophistication and spontaneity. Cote sings six songs, including the opener, Chuck Higgins' spunky fingerpopper, "Here I'm Is," atop Robillard's stinging fills and James' moaning tenor framing a piano and snare shuffle. He also delivers a riveting vocal on Joe "The Honeydripper" Liggins' piano-pumping, horn-drenched party anthem "In the Wee Wee Hours" and Freddie King's Big Joe Turner instrument "Someday After Awhile." Mickey & Sylvia's "No Good Lover" features a vocal-and-guitar duet between singer/axe slinger Sue Foley, as well as a choogling organ break by Texas bluesman Mike "The Drifter" Flanigin. Kim Wilson joins his former Fabulous Thunderbirds bandmate on vocals and wailing harmonica in a raw, spirited, spiky revisit of "Tell Me Why," with pumping piano by Matt McCabe. Further, Wilson reprises his NOLA-inspired R&B stroller "The Things I Forgot to Do." Speaking of harmonica, Chicago's Sugar Ray Norcia lends his voice and snaky harp to a roiling tribute to Big Walter Horton on Tampa Red's "Rambler's Blues," and puts the party into overdrive with a version of a Louis Jordan-inspired read of Jimmy Nelson's "She's My Baby." The W.C. Handy Award-winning Michelle Willson lends her resonant voice to Effie Smith's jump groover "Champagne Mind" and Richard M. Jones' immortal "Trouble in Mind." Robillard's gently swinging solo on the latter underscores her smoky performance, framing it with a muted trumpet -- sounding like the ghost of Bix Biederbecke -- and throaty baritone sax. John Hammond offers a scorching vocal on Melvin "Lil' Son" Jackson's Bessie Smith vehicle "Homeless Blues, and Howlin' Wolf's lonely, sinister "No Place to Go." Robillard and Anita Suhanin duet on the guitarist's "Outta Here" amid greasy guitars, Stax-styled horns, and Bears' bumping B-3 grooves. Robillard sings on what may be the first recorded cover of Texas bluesman Zuzu Bollin's R&B groover "Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept Last Night?" His instrumental set-closer "Swingin' for Four Bills" is a soulful exercise in bluesy soul-jazz with Flanigin's B-3 and Foley's guitar. It's Robillard's tribute to organists Bill Doggett and Wild Bill Davis, and guitarists Bill Jennings and Billy Butler. They Called It Rhythm and Blues showcases Robillard at a peak: We already appreciate him as a guitar giant and blues, jazz, and R&B scholar, but here he reveals himself as a generous accompanist, accommodating bandleader, and sympathetic producer to boot. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2022
Label:	Stony Plain
UPC:	0772532144414
Rank:	59573

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Duke Robillard Band   Primary Artist
Duke Robillard   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Soloist
Marty Ballou   Bass (Acoustic),Bass (Electric)
Doug James   Sax (Tenor),Sax (Baritone)
Matt McCabe   Piano
Michelle Wilson   Vocals
Sugar Ray Norcia   Vocals,Harmonica
Anita Suhanin   Vocals (Background)
Mark Earley   Sax (Alto),Sax (Tenor)
Kim Wilson   Vocals,Harmonica
Chris Cote   Vocals
Mark Teixeira   Drums
Sue Foley   Guitar,Vocals,Soloist
Bruce Bears   Organ,Piano
John Hammond, Jr.   Guitar,Vocals,Harmonica
Mike Flanigin   Organ,Organ (Hammond)
Doug Woolverton   Trumpet

Technical Credits

Traditional   Composer
Jimmy Nolen   Composer
Chester Burnett   Composer
Chuck Higgins   Composer
Joe Liggins   Composer
Marty Ballou   Group Member
Duke Robillard   Composer,Producer,Group Member
Doug James   Group Member
Effie Smith   Composer
Freddie King   Composer
John Mailloux   Mastering
Zuzu Bollin   Composer
Hudson Whittaker   Composer
Jimmy Nelson   Composer
Richard M. Jones   Composer
Roy Milton   Composer
Mickey Baker   Composer
Willie Egan   Composer
Holger Petersen   Liner Notes,Executive Producer
Sonny Thompson   Composer
Kim Wilson   Composer
Chris Cote   Group Member
Mark Teixeira   Group Member
Bruce Bears   Group Member
Melvin "Lil' Son" Jackson   Composer
Sylvia Vanderpool   Composer
Ed McConnell   Design
Edward Pierce   Composer
Graham Mellor   Mixing,Engineer
Pat Quinn   Band Photo