Bruce Katz Band – Back In Boston Live
Dancing Rooster Records
11 Tracks – 68 minutes
Bruce began playing piano at age five. He became interested in playing the blues after hearing a Bessie Smith album when he was ten. He taught himself blues and early jazz and attended Berklee College of Music where he studied Composition and Performance with attention to jazz and American roots music. He performed with many different regional groups before getting the opportunity to play with Big Mama Thornton on her East Coast tours in the 1980’s. This refocused him on playing the blues. In the 1980’s he had a long stint with Barrence Whitfield and The Savages. He then returned to school, earning a master’s degree in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He started writing his own music during this period.
In 1992, Ronnie Earl invited him to become a member of his band, The Broadcasters. He stayed with the band for five years. He also released his first album, Crescent Crawl, in 1992. In 1997, he left Ronnie’s Band following the release of his third album, Mississippi Moan, to concentrate on his solo career. Over the years while maintaining pace with his own solo work, he also played with Duke Robillard, Gregg Allman for six years, Delbert McClinton for three years and many more high-profile performers and has a continuing professional relationship with John Hammond.
Bruce has been nominated seven times for the Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Award for “Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of The Year”. A collaboration with Joe Louis Walker and Giles Robson, Journeys to the Heart of The Blues, won the BMA for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in 2019. His solo album, Solo Ride, was nominated for that same award in 2020.
For this album, he returned to his original hometown of Boston where he recorded this live album over two nights performing at The Fallout Shelter in Norwood, Massachusetts. Bruce plays the Hammond B3, Hammond Bass, and piano. He is joined by regular bandmates Aaron Lieberman on guitar and vocals, Liviu Pop on drums. Jesse Williams adds bass on five tracks.
“The Czar” a jazzy instrumental opens the album. The first of two cover’s, Leroy’s Carr “Blues Before Sunrise” follows with Aaron providing some tasty vocals and guitar with Bruce’s piano resonating behind him. That is followed by a second cover, a nine- minute version of Dickey Bett’s “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”, a song that was originally released on The Allman Brothers Band’s Idlewild South album.
Aaron sings I “Don’t Feel So Good Today” but gets things rocking, as he declares it is because “you went away”. He may feel bad, but you will feel very good after bouncing along with this song. Another instrumental, “Get Your Groove”, lets Bruce take a stand-out for a nine-minute jazzy piano roll. Bruce then shifts to the B3 for the mostly instrumental “Gary’s Jam” with Aaron adding some excellent guitar work and adds some vocals at the end singing “turn on your lovelight, let It shine”.
Bruce shifts back to the piano and Aaron pulls out his slide guitar on another instrumental, a moody “Dreams of Yesterday”. Bruce then switches back to his B3 for the instrumental, “Take the Green Line”, and a subsequent instrumental, “BK’s Broiler”, with Jesse Williams’ bass kicking and Aaron adding some skat singing blending with the jazz melody. “Just An Expression” lets Liviu’s drums stand out with Bruce’s B3. Bruce finishes the album with a tribute to Ray Charles, “For Brother Ray” with Bruce back on the piano.
Bruce and his band are certainly at the top of their field. Liviu keeps a solid beat on every song with Bruce and Aaron delivering excellent keyboards and guitar. The instrumentals would certainly classify as jazz but frequently slide into a blues influence. Piano and B3 lovers will certainly love this album.
