Roy Gaines and his Orchestra | Tuxedo Blues (Coming Nov. 2010)
Roy Gaines and his Orchestra – Tuxedo Blues
Black Gold Records
Street Date November 1, 2010
Jazz, blues, R&B and soul – legendary guitarist/vocalist/composer Roy Gaines,
who has made a name for himself as a versatile master craftsmen playing
music beyond category in a career spanning over seven decades, brings
his vast wealth of experience all together on Tuxedo Blues.
Fronting a full size jazz orchestra, the likes of which is seldom heard
these days, Gaines recalls the glory days of the big bands of Count
Basie, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines and Billie Eckstine, with a sound that
is both contemporary and classic. Stepping out front in the first rate
aggregation along with Gaines are his two Texas contemporaries pianist
Joe Sample and tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder (both of [Jazz] Crusaders
fame), as well as the group’s other fine soloists, reed man Jackie
Kelso, trumpeter George Pandis and vibraphonist Onaje Murray.
Born
Waskom, Texas, Roy Gaines started out playing piano in the style of Nat
King Cole at an early age and then switched to the guitar when he was
only 14. An unabashed admirer of fellow Texan, T-Bone Walker, Gaines
met his idol as a youth and modeled his own playing after Walker ’s
groundbreaking style, later performing and recording with the pioneering
electric bluesman. In the fifties, while moving between in L.A.,
Houston and New York, he was a first call jazz and blues session man
featured on various releases by Big Mama Thorton, Junior Parker Bobby
“Blue” Bland, Coleman Hawkins and Jimmy Rushing, the latter whose
singing style is clearly a major influence on Gaines own virile, full
bodied vocals. In 1958 he appeared with Billie Holiday on Jazz Party,
the singer’s last public appearance with pianist Mal Waldron and bassist
Vinnie Burke. Later work found the guitarist backing everybody from Ray
Charles and Chuck Willis to Harry Belafonte, Aretha Franklin, Stevie
Wonder, Dina Ross and The Supremes.
Gaines
work as a leader, beginning with two albums for RCA Victor’s Groove
subsidiary label 1956, on to the ‘80’s critically acclaimed Gainelining and more recently Lucille Work for Me, Bluesman for Life and New Frontier Lover,
has made him a highly regarded figure on the international blues scene,
earning him a W.C. Handy Award (and two other nominations) and a Living
Blues Award. But Gaines is just as much a jazz man, going back to the
music’s early days when he was featured on a John Hammond promoted tour
that also featured Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing. Gaines’ experience
also includes much work with, producer Quincy Jones, playing regularly
in the renaissance music man’s studio orchestra on numerous television
and film scores, including The Color Purple, appearing on screen
playing the composer’s “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister),” which is reprised
here with the Gaines as the vocalist.
As KKJZ’s Helen Borger’s declares in her liner notes to the date, Tuxedo Blues
dresses up the idiom with songs “neatly arranged for a swinging big
band that could be performing in the elegant ballrooms of the most
prestigious hotels.” Opening up with Ollie Jones’ classic “Send For Me”
(a song once popularized by Gaines’ early hero Nat King Cole), we hear
immediately the classic sound of a tightly knit orchestra in the style
popularized by Count Basie during jazz’s Golden Era, with a sound so
pristine that the band could be playing in the listener’s own living
room. Roy ’s powerful vocal here, virile and smooth, recalls the great
Jimmy Rushing, contrasting nicely with his earthy guitar obbligato and
solo, all wrapped up in the sizzling sound of the roaring orchestra
arranged by John Stevens.
Gaines’
own “Blues From Hell” – cowritten with his brother, Little Richard
tenor man Grady Gaines and trumpet/arranger, Joe Scott – is a topical
civil rights anthem that opens with Roy’s sophisticated blues drenched
guitar sound backed by riffing horns on a swinging George Pandis
arrangement. Roy’s passionate vocal begins with the proclamation “Four
hundred years of blood sweat and tears” and goes on to plea “How much
longer must I wait to be free from trouble his hate?” while muted
trumpets blend beautifully behind his down home Texas styled guitar
solo.
Leslie
Drayton’s arrangement of Gaines’ “Good Old Days” recalls the urbane
modern sound of the Billy Eckstine Orchestra that was an incubator for
bebop legends Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, with Roy’s legato
phrasing of his lyric (backed by a Freddie Green styled guitar rhythm)
evocative of the sensuality of the great Mr. B himself. Joe Sample’s
piano and Gaines’ guitar share the solo spotlight here, with George
Pandis stepping out front for trumpet break before the Roy and the band
closes things out.
Roy’s
“Rats In My Kitchen” (not to be confused with the Sleepy John Estes
song of the same name) is a classic styled blues – lyrics rife with
sexual innuendo – played over a easy flowing dance rhythm on a Benjamin
Wright arrangement that is sure to get toes tapping with Sample’s
elegant piano once again showcased with Gaines’ guitar and vocals.
“Thang
Shaker” is another Gaines original, previously recorded by the composer
as “I’m Your Thing Shaker” with Japanese guitarist Mitsuyoshi Azuma on
the pair’s Blues Guitar Battle. As made clear in its title, the
sexuality of the lyric is fully unclothed here, unabashedly braggadocios
in proclaiming the boudoir prowess of the song’s protagonist and his
admonition to “let your belly button roll.” Roy ’s chorded guitar work
on this John Stevens band orchestration reveals a bona fide appreciation
of the work of the modern jazz icon Wes Montgomery.
The
classic “Inflation Blues,” arranged by Leslie Drayton, addresses a
subject perhaps even more topical today than it was when Louis Jordan
first popularized the song in the 1940’s. Roy’s authoritative reading
of the lyric “ Now listen Mister President and all you congressmen, too/
you got me all frustrated and I don’t know what to do/ Try to make a
dollar, can’t even save a cent/ it takes all my money just to eat and
pay the rent,” is a voice of the people plea to an unresponsive system
to rectify one of the major causes of giving us the blues.
The
aforementioned “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)” finds Roy and company
reaching way back to the days of Louis Armstrong and the Original
Dixieland Jazz Band for some vintage New Orleans sounds, with guitarist
Barry Zweig switching to banjo, altoist Jackie Kelso soloing on clarinet
and Mike Daigeau playing a gutbucket trombone for a truly authentic
feel.
The Gaines-Edward Frank collaboration, “Come Home,” previously recorded by Roy on his Lucille Work For Me
album, gets a lush treatment here with a Leslie Drayton arrangement
reminiscent of the sensual soul of Gamble and Huff TSOP (The Sound Of
Philadelphia) productions of the sixties and seventies. Roy ’s amorous
vocal is complemented attractively by Sample’s romantic piano stylings,
Onaje Murray’s velvety vibes and his own George Benson inflected guitar.
“Reggae
Woman,” originally recorded by Nat King Cole as “Calypso Blues,” is
given a novel treatment in a rhythmically charged “jumpin’ jive” type
arrangement by John Stevens that features Sample’s hard swinging piano
and a countrified Gaines’ solo that moves from Texas blues to Jamaican
ska and Hawaiian slack guitar stylings, with Roy’s hard hitting vocal
wanting to take him back to Trinidad.
The
orchestra shines on a smooth Leslie Drayton arrangement of the Michael
Jackson hit “Rock With You” – the date’s one instrumental track. With
solos by Sample and Gaines, along with the impassioned Texas tenor of
Wilton Felder, the song sings with a soulful sound that brings back
memories of their days together with the Jazz Crusaders. As Roy says in
his notes, this one is “sure to be a hit.”
The
band pulls out all the stops on George Pandis’s wildly swinging
arrangement of Bobby Troup’s R&B classic “Route 66.” Sample and
Gaines take their turns on piano and guitar, with Felder and Jackie
Kelso trading licks on tenor and alto, respectively, on this joyous two
thousand mile excursion from Chicago to L.A. with a mandatory stop back
home in Texas.
The
date concludes with Gaines’s “Outside Lookin’ In,” arranged by Drayton.
The melancholy lament features a moving vocal by the composer and
stirring instrumental solos by the three men from Texas – Felder, Sample
and Gaines- along with vibist Murray, on a touching tome that fades
away to bring this great album to a very smooth finish.
Tuxedo Blues
is indeed a special date for these times, hearkening back to the great
days of big band jazz and blues via the personal vision of Roy Gaines
for the future of the music. Classic and contemporary, with a crystal
clear sound that brings out every nuance of the twelve extraordinary
arrangements featuring some of the world’s finest instrumentalists – who
play every note with precision and passion – led by the remarkable man
who seems on his way to Grammy glory (eligible in ten categories) for
what is undoubtedly one of the best records to come around in a very
long while.