Bob Corritore - All-Star Blues Sessions (CD)

All Music Guide

Recorded, helmed and mostly produced by Phoenix, Arizona blues renaissance man Bob Corritore (club owner, record label exec, writer, manager, radio DJ and harp player), this hour long disc is a potent example of loose straight ahead blues played with guts and lowboil intensity. Spanning 1986'98, these 16 tracks recorded in Phoenix and Tempe studios, feature a variety of classic bluesmen such as Lil' Ed Williams, Henry Gray, R.L. Burnside, Bob Margolin, Jimmy Rogers, Pinetop Perkins and Bo Diddley (who is prominently pictured with Corritore in the CD's tray). It's well recordedclean but never slickand the performances find a genuine and spontaneous rugged midtempo groove. Which is exactly what the blues should be. So even if you've never heard of such vocalists as Dino Spells, Jimmy Dotson, Clarence Edwards or Chico Chism, they prove nearly as gifted and freewheeling as some of the more recognizable names. Corritore, who plays prominent harp on every track, is an exceptionally talented ...musician, even if his instrument seems a little higher in the mix than you might expect. The songs, all of which are covers, are especially well selected. Instead of jaunts through traditional, often stale standards, most are relatively obscure choices that allow the band to stretch out in a variety of established blues tempos. Even when Nappy Brown digs into Charles Brown's oftcovered “Driftin' Blues," (altered here to “Nappy's Driftin' Blues"), the vocalist tears through it with the passion and intensity of someone who wrote the song. A take on Eddie Boyd's popular “Five Long Years" is similarly inspired. This is a real find for deep blues fans and an enjoyable if not essential listen for everyone else. Bob Corritore has assembled a classy collection that finds all of his playersboth popular and obscurein top form. - Hal Horowitz, All Music Guide Read more Less