Big Joe Kennedy – Amalgamation
Self Released
11 tracks
The lights dim slightly. The small stage in the Beale Street lounge sits brightly lit with a spotlight tight on the piano player and one more loosely illuminating the other musicians. The band starts and the singer lays into a few well-known blues and New Orleans standards and a pop blues cut before switching gears into a great New Orleans jazz instrumental followed by another slick jazz instrumental. The crowd is now completely warmed up and the singer and band then take a voyage through jazz standards that the crowd all know and love. The piano player finishes the set solo, letting the crowd wind down and gets personal with the adoring crowd of listeners.
That’s pretty much how this album goes. Big Joe Kennedy is a great entertainer from the Midwest who spent many years in New Orleans absorbing the vibes of great jazz and blues and honing his skills as a musician. Weaned in the music scenes of Milwaukee and Chicago, Big Joe spent time getting a graduate degree in musical performance and headed for NOLA where he perfected his craft there since 2009.
He’s surrounded himself with a skilled set of players who also seem to enjoy being part of the entertainment. Joe handles vocals and piano, Mark Brooks is on bass and Doug Belote is on drums. The horns are Zach Lange on trumpet, Stephen Walker on trombone, Marty Peters on sax, and, on one cut, Joe Dexter Woodis on the licorice stick.
Big Joe and company open with blues and NOLA standards “Messin’ With The Kid,” “Working In The Coal Mine” and “Call My Job.” He then ventures over to “Brickyard Blues,” a more mainstream hit. He and the band give these cuts their all as they work to make them their own.
Then Kennedy switches over to a pair of jumping instrumentals, “Fidgety Feet” and “Mahogany Hall Stomp.” The prior cut drips New Orleans charm and the latter is a more straight jazzy number that Big Joe and the band romp through nicely.
Louis Armstrong introduced the entire world to “What A Wonderful World” and Big Joe puts his stamp on the song. Then he croons through “Exactly Like You” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.” I grew up listening to my Mom’s radio station that played songs like these all day and still today am enamored with the standards sung by many of the great musical figures from the 1930s and beyond.
Then Big Joe goes solo on the old hit “The Very Thought Of You” and finishes with the instrumental “Dorothy,” a nice conclusion to this set of tunes.
The intent here was not to reinvent the wheel. Amalgamation is a live set of soulful and popular tunes that Big Joe Kennedy and his band deliver with gusto. There is not a lot of new ground covered here, but one can feel the joy and pride these guys are performing with. Kennedy sings with smoothness and plays with great feeling. The band is great, and the horns are up to the task of representing NOLA.
If you need a CD with happy and joyful standards that you throw in your CD player and just relax and listen to then look no further.
