Mitch Woods – A Night in New Orleans
MoMojo Records MMJ 413
12 songs with 6 spoken interludes – 50 minutes
One of the foremost blues and boogie-woogie piano players in the world, San Francisco-based Mitch Woods lights a fire every time he takes a seat at the 88s. And he was at the top of his game for this set, which was recorded in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro last April while the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was cooking across town.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., who came into the world in 1951, by the time Mitch was eight, he was already a keyboard prodigy to be reckoned with, absorbing the music of Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Fats Domino and other Crescent City giants. And he spent his teens, he working on his craft and as a bandleader, too, by assembling groups that played in the many jazz and blues clubs that dotted Greenwich Village.
A Bay Area resident since the early ’70s, he was opening for Charlie Musselwhite in Oakland one night when his theatrics and energetic playing style caught the eye of guitarist Hi Tide Harris and opened the door for wider acclaim. When not working with his longtime band, the Rocket 88s, which he founded in 1980, he works regularly with a who’s who of blues talent, earning five Blues Music Awards nominations and a nod for Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year.
Woods is a frequent featured performer and hi-jinks instigator on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruises, but he returned to the font for this intimate set at Snug Harbor, a club he’s played frequently with his full band. He keeps up a regular conversation with the audience while delivering seven covers that pay to the masters and throwing in five of his own to the mix.
The original “Rock That Boogie” sets the tone for the night. It’s an uptempo call-and-response pleaser that features Mitch pounding out the rhythm with his left hand and flying across the keys to deliver the medley with his right. With more than 50 years in the business, his sweet baritone still packs a pleasing punch. The self-penned “Mojo Mambo” plays tribute to Professor Longhair by including respectful sampling of Fess’ musical and lyrical phrases to create a number all its own.
A faithful rendering of “Choo Choo Ch’boogie,” a 1946 hit for Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, pulls out the station at a medium-fast tempo, and the audience provides hand clapping rhythm for several measures before Woods lists the stops along the way and finally delivers the good. One of Fats Domino’s biggest hits, Dave Bartholomew’s “Blue Monday,” slows the action but keeps the Big Easy beat and gives way to the uptempo “Jambalaya (on the Bayou),” a hit for Hank Williams in 1952 that remains as timeless as ever.
“Amber Lee” – which bares the name of Mitch’s daughter and which appeared on his first album – is actually a song of longing about a waitress Woods met at a truck stop. It precedes a reading of Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” which is often credited as the first-ever rock-’n’-roll song. It’s followed by the original torch song, “Cryin’ for My Baby,” a languorous ballad that bemoans the demise of a ten-year love affair, before Woods urges the audience to join in for a fiery version of Champion Jack Dupree’s “Nasty Boogie.”
Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” follows before the self-penned “Broke” states that isn’t a crime to be living without a dime…but you’d better stay home if you do. The action closes with Big Joe Turner’s “Shake Rattle & Roll.”
Burning for a trip to New Orleans? Give this one a spin. It’s as close as you’ll get without getting in a car, train or plane. Highly recommended.
