Bob Corritore & Friends – Phoenix Blues Rumble
VizzTone Label Group/SWMAF Records
12 songs – 48 minutes
Phoenix, Ariz., has become a hotbed of rock-solid, award-winning traditional blues albums in the past 20 years thanks to harp player/producer Bob Corritore and the vast number of recordings he’s made at his nightclub, The Rhythm Room, and studios around town. He finally turns the spotlight on local talent with this sensational compilation, and it’s among the best he’s put out.
Maxwell Street-trained reed blower has earned dozens of honors through the years, but – as usual – he allows the spotlight to shine on others and takes a back seat throughout the 12 tracks here. They were recorded during nine sessions between 1987 and 2017 and feature a handful of national acts and six others that truly deserve your ear. All of them are members of the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame.
Produced by Corritore, Clarke Rigsby and John Wroble, the set includes the late Chico Chism, who served as Howlin’ Wolf’s drummer for years before moving to the Southwest, Phoenix-based Grammy nominee Sugaray Rayford and Mississippi-born, Windy City-trained Dave Riley, all of whom made Phoenix their home. They’re joined by Big Pete Pearson, King Karl, Dino Spells, George Bowman and Tommy Dukes, all of whom started life in Louisiana or Mississippi, and Chief Schabuttie Gilliame, an Egyptian transplant. They’re backed by a revolving lineup that includes several of the biggest names in the business.
The guitar chair includes Johnny Rapp, Rusty Zinn, Kirk Fletcher, Big Jon Atkinson, Danny Michel, Johnny Burgin, Junior Watson and Chris James while Henry Gray, Matt Bishop, S.E. Willis and Fred Kaplan make appearances on keys. Doug James handles sax with Paul Thomas, Mario Moreno, Troy Sandow, Yahni Riley, Kedar Roy and Patrick Rynn taking turns on bass and Richard Innes, Brian Fahey and Rena Beavers drums.
Chism kicks things off in style, handling the mic and powering the rapid-fire shuffle that drives “Big Fat Woman 489 Lbs.” It’s a joyous expression of love for the plus-sized beauty. One of the most popular and distinctive vocalists on the local scene, Chief Schabuttie Gilliame follows with “Come to Me Baby.” It lopes steadily, driven by Corritore’s fluid harp runs and skintight rhythm. He yields to King Karl, a guitarist and singer who served as the featured vocalist for R&B giant Lloyd Price.
His uptempo take of “Walking in the Park” delivers the same feel as when it was first recorded in the ‘60s. And he follows it up with the Cajun classic, “Mathilda,” capturing the essence of the Gulf Coast in every note, giving way to Dino Spells who describes his search for his lady in the hard-driving “Jennie Bea.” George Bowman, whose family moved from the cotton fields in ‘60s, slows things down with his original, bittersweet ballad, “I Was a Fool,” yielding to Tommy Dukes, whose family followed the same path, for the rock-steady shuffle, “Real Bad Day.”
Bowman takes the mic again for “Nine Times Out of Ten,” a rapid-fire, stop-time pleaser, before the Chief’s gravel-inflected voice returns for “Leopard Speckled Baby,” the description of his freckle-covered lady. Dave Riley’s lyrics play call-and-response with Corritore’s harp in the delightfully playful “Laughing Blues” before Sugaray Rayford describes his three-legged racehorse, “The Glide.” The disc closes with Big Pete Pearson’s slow-and-steady ballad of longing for a lost love, “I’m Evil.”
Phoenix Blues Rumble is blues at its best. Some of the artists here might be foreign to your ears, but their all deserving and at the top of their game. Strongly recommended.
